‘Jeff Ross Live From The Border Fence’

Comedian Jeff Ross, also known as the Roastmaster General, will film his latest Comedy Central special “Jeff Ross Live From The Border Fence” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Alice Wilson Hope Park in Brownsville. The event is free and open to those 18 and older.

Ross, who has roasted celebrities such as Justin Bieber, James Franco and Donald Trump, will perform a comedy show for the local community, intended to bring unity through laughter by talking about issues such as immigration and Trump’s potential border wall. The performance will be right in front of the border fence at Hope Park.

“Even though there’s a fence behind me, comedy has no boundaries and it unites people, and sometimes you can even find common ground with people that disagree with you,” Ross said. “I found that just talking about this stuff out loud in a public place maybe will be somewhat inspiring, and maybe even healing for some people; not everyone, I understand it’s a touchy subject but I do my best to bring some understanding and thoughtfulness and some love to the jokes. I hope people come out Saturday night to have fun.”

The special will be shown on Comedy Central at a later date. Ross will spend a week living here leading up to his Saturday special, immersing himself in the culture of South Texas to learn about life on the border.

“I go into it with a very open mind,” he said. “I’m going to be there all week, living there as a resident, essentially trying to roast Brownsville from the inside out. I like to really understand my subject, so I’m going to really try to embed myself in the subject and in the people. I’m hoping college students who care, people who have a good immigration story, people who are directly connected to the immigration issue in America, I hope they come out to the show.

“Not everybody is going to go to the border, most people are just going to read about it; even the politicians just fly over, then they sign executive orders. So, I thought, why don’t I just go there and see for myself what’s happening, and give voice to voices that people don’t hear very often? I’ll probably do a lot of listening, not just talking, not just joking, but a lot of listening.”

This won’t be the first time Ross has taken on the role of bringing comedy to complicated issues.

In his 2015 special, “Ross Roasts Criminals: Live at Brazos County Jail,” he traveled to the Southeast Central Texas city of Bryan, where he spent time with inmates before performing a comedy show. The only way inmates were allowed to see Ross’ comedy special was if they were on good behavior and had no incidents for six months.

In his 2016 special, Ross brought laughs to the issues surrounding the divide between police and their communities with “Jeff Ross Roasts Cops.” He gave viewers a closer look at what cops go through by suiting up for ride-alongs with two sets of partners from the Boston Police Department.

Ross said his previous two roasts of cops and criminals has taught him that laughter and roasting can bring people together. The specials can be seen on Comedy Central’s website, CC.com.

“The strongest people aren’t afraid of taking a joke, the smartest people have a great sense of humor, and even though we should take this subject very seriously, we don’t necessarily have to take ourselves so seriously and I like to spread that,” Ross said. “Ultimately, we’re a nation of immigrants. This country’s built by immigrants; without immigrants, this country wouldn’t be as great as it is and I think people around America might be forgetting that right now. And I think the immigration experience, immigrants themselves need to be humanized, and laughter and roasting can do that.”

His Comedy Central show “Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle”—featuring comedians firing verbal shots at each other in competition for the title of champion, recently completed its second season.

For more information, visit the event’s official Facebook page Jeff Ross Live From The Border Fence.