The Dutko Christian Celebrity Roast was a Huge Hit

The Shalom Celebrity Roast has become a must attend event for me for me. A few years ago, Pastor Denson, jokester in his on right, had a novel idea – let’s have a roast like the old Dean Martin celebrity roasts, only with the caveat that the jokes are clean and the roastee is a Christian being roasted by other Christian’s. Making fun of people, chiding them, and deriding them seems to be characteristics that most Christians do not choose to emulate. However, being humble about our weaknesses and facing the reality of our existing imperfections are Christian qualities we admire. So, Pastor Denson, forged ahead with the concept, offering himself as the first sacrificial lamb, while many of us followed with apprehensive hope that the roast would be implemented and perceived with the heart that was intended.

The first Christian Roast pushed the enevelop a little, but we could see that Pastor Denson’s concept was a tremendous idea. Reviewing the roast and reminiscing about the fun of that evening, we knew that we were on to something special.

The next year, we roasted Rabbi Glenn, from Shema Yisrael. Now, the pieces to this puzzle were quickly coming into place. The tremendous success of year one was completely trumped by this outrageously funny evening. One of the highlights of this evening was when Bob Dutko literally roasted Rabbi Glenn. The quick witted apologist Bob Dutko apparently has a natural comedic ability for roasting people. He was such a hit that Pastor Denson had a brainstorm – let’s roast Bob Dutko. Thus the Bob Dutko Christian Celebrity Roast came into being for 2013.

This year did not disappoint, once again trumping all previous years and expectations.

The list of Roasters included:

• Pastor Rich La Belle – a friend of Bob Dutko
• Gary Wojtkowski- a friend of Bob Dutko
• Ron Edwards – The Conservative commentator of the Edwards Notebook
• The Jews Brothers – A paradody song about Bob, done in a Blue’s Brother’s fashion
• Frank Franciosi – WMUZ General Manager (Bob’s boss)
• Pastor Tim Tyler – Christ Community Church (Bob’s Pastor)
• The Two Rabbi’s – Rabbi Loren Jacobs and Glenn Harris of Shema Yisrael
• Jeanine Dutko – Bob’s wife
• Amos Klotfelter – Elvis tribute artist
• Mike Dutko – Bob’s brother

Darry Nagel	The Two Rabbis	Frank Franciosi

Darry Nagel did a tremendous job as the evening’s Master of Ceremonies. He opened the show with:

“This is our 3rd annual Celebrity roast. Yeah! Right! Celebrity! First we roasted John Denson, a three time felon turned Pastor. Last year we roasted Rabbi Glenn Harris, a Jewish Rabbi whose day job is Protestant Pastor, he dresses like a cowboy and rides in a motorcycle gang!

This year we are roasting Bob Dutko who has had more careers than any 10 people I know. He’s worked in restaurants, as a sales director, managed a sports wear company for a couple of FBI refugees, owned his own business and now has a Christian radio talk show just to name a few. He changes professions so often that he writes his resume’ on an Etch-A-Sketch!

Next year we are hoping to get Gordy from ABC Warehouse! I need a new gig!”

Likewise, his intro for the Two Rabbi’s were hilarious:

“Have you noticed that many of the world’s top comedians are Jewish? My heroes the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Jack Benny, Mel Brooks, George Burns, Jerry Lewis, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld…you get the idea. Well, with that in mind, what do you call a Jew who can’t make a living doing comedy because he’s not funny? Rabbi!”

Everyone of the guest speakers had the audience laughing throughout the evening. However, a memorable moment for me was Frank Franciosi’s interview audio, where he took various clips from Bob Dutko episodes throughout the year and pasted them into pretend interview.

Here are a few audio clips of Franciosi’s fake interview:

– Ever wonder what Bob Dutko’s biggest secret is?

– How far back does the Bob Dutko show go?
– Really, that far back?

In addition, everyone seems to remember Darry’s introduction of Bob’s wife, Jeanine Dutko, saying,

“Jeannine has dreamed of being married since she was a small girl. Little did she know that when she met Mr. Right, his first name would be ALWAYS!”

One of the funniest, non-scripted moments of the evening was when Jeanine Dutko came up to the mic and someone had turned it off by mistake when they were lowering the height of the stand. She had problems determining what was the problem, then Bob reached over and with a flip of the finger switched it on. Jeanine then said, “Sorry, but like the remote control, I never get to use the mic at home.” Jeanine was an audience favorite, speaking in a matter-of-fact voice and delivering her lines in a Bob Newhart type of fashion, made her quips even more hilarious.

Elvis Impersonator	The Jews Brothers	Bob Dutko’s Rebuttal

Other moments in the evening that were very memorable included the musical parody of the Jews Brothers and a visit from Elvis to serenade Bob and Jeanine on their anniversary.

Not to be outdone by the onslaught of his roasters, the roastee, Bob Dutko, took the mic with avengance. He had the audience in stitches. His response was so pointed, quick and effortless that it was like watching the comedic version of Chicago’s Valentine’s Day massacre with Bob delivering his machine-gun like retorts. However, when it came time to address his wife, Jeanine, Bob demonstrated true restraint and grace, choosing rather to by-pass her. (Or was this due to wisdom and fear – you be the judge). Either way, even that act was funny!

Well, I could go on and on about one of the funniest evenings I have ever enjoyed! Everyone one of the roasters were funny. The evening was filled with joy and laughter. This is certainly something the world can use, and, I think, it is certainly nice for the world to see Holy Spirit filed Christians laughing and enjoying our fellowship with eachother. Salvation is such a serious issue and we can be so serious about it that sometimes people do not have an opportunity to see the love and the joy of our fellowship. This is the brilliance of John’s Shalom Celebrity Roast.

If you think this year was good, wait until you see what we have for you next year!

You can view a slideshow of the evening here –> Dutko Celebrity Roast Slide Show