Tonya Mosley
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
His new memoir is called Arsenio.
Terry has our next interview.
If you're a fan of celebrity roasts, you probably know my guest Jeff Ross as the Roastmaster General.
He loves to make people laugh by insulting the guest of honor as well as the roasters.
But his new Netflix comedy special is very personal and autobiographical.
It hits lots of emotional notes and reveals a more vulnerable side of him beneath the tough skin that's gotten him through tough times.
He talks about his family.
His great-grandmother founded the popular New Jersey catering hall Clinton Manor, which Ross's father eventually took over.
It was known for its weddings and bar mitzvahs and for the food.
One of the people who aspired to have a wedding there was the main character in Judy Blume's 1978 novel Wifey.
While Jeff Ross's friends were out having fun, he was cutting brisket for the next catered affair.
It was a tight-knit family, but that kind of ended when Jeff was young.
His mother was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 12 and died when he was 15.
Five years later, his father died of an aneurysm, leaving Jeff and his younger sister orphaned.
In his early 20s, he lived with his grandfather and became his caregiver until he died.
If you know what Jeff looks like, you know he's bald.
It's not a fashion statement.
It's a result of alopecia, a condition in which you lose your hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes.
Shortly before he started preparing his one-man Broadway show, in which he talks about all of these things, he was given a far worse diagnosis that he added to the show, and that was stage 3 colon cancer.