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PO…and that’s why nobody showed up.
This was a devastating night for Chevy. Not so much because they said mean things, but because of who was saying the mean things.
Or, more importantly, who wasn’t.
“We only roast the ones we love” is the motto of the Friars Club, and the first time Chevy went there, in 1990, “Christmas Vacation” had come out the year before, and he was on top of the world.
It was a star-studded event, with Lorne Michaels, Dan Akroyd, Dana Carvey, Gilbert Gottfried, Paul Newman, Robert Deniro, Clint Eastwood, Neil Simon, Phil Hartman, Larry King, Richard Pryor, Robin Leach, Richard Lewis, Rita Rudner, Jon Lovitz, and Dennis Miller, among others.
Yeah, they probably also said mean things, but the fact that so many people came out makes a person feel loved and appreciated.
But in 2002, when none of his friends showed up but Al Franken, Beverly D’Angelo, Laraine Newman, and Paul Shaffer, a few journeymen comedians like Kevin Meaney, Gilbert Gottfried, and Richard Belzer, and a bunch of up-and-coming comedians looking to make a name off the wreckage of his career, the night took a slightly different tone.
“My first impression of Chevy was that he was really good-looking, but kind of mean,” Newman told Entertainment Weekly. ”He teased in the way that a big brother would, [aiming for] exactly what would hurt your feelings the most. I say this as someone who loves him. And loves him a lot.”
But for someone who doesn’t love him a lot, that just makes him a bully. And when his celebrity had dimmed, so had any incentive to hang out with him, work with him, or put up with him at all.
So, you end up with a murderer’s row of future comedy superstars - utter strangers to him like Todd Barry, Stephen Colbert, Greg Giraldo, Lisa Lampanelli, and Marc Maron - slicing and dicing him for an hour as he sits uncomfortably in a chair with his sunglasses still on.
(…continues in comments…)
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