So You Think You Can Roast? Amadeo Fusca wins 2013 Friars Club contest following roasts of Dennis Rodman, Padma Lakshmi, Ricky Schroder

The Friars Club wrapped up its annual “So You Think You Can Roast?” contest over the weekend with a celebrity-and-amateur roast of Dennis Rodman, and yesterday announced that actor/comedian Amadeo Fusca had the won the privilege of joining the full Friars Club Roast of Jack Black next month.

amadeo-fuscaAmadeo Fusca (left) said upon winning: “It is an honor to announce that I, alongside my team of collaborators have officially been selected as the winner of the 2013 Friars Club So You Think You Can Roast competition! Thanks and Congrats to Mike Smith, whom I share this honor with, but also to Damiano Fusca and Vincent Fusca for their ideas, input and confidence as well. Hey Jack Black, we’ll see ya April 5th!!!”

Amadeo Fusca, originally from Pittsburgh, is an improviser and actor who has appeared on the CBS soap As the World Turns and featured in a few independent movies. He works as a tour guide with On Location Tours, and studies and performs improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC.

Other finalists in the 2013 edition of SYTYCR for the Friars Club were Geno Bisconte, Mike Morse, Yamaneika Saunders, Adam and Todd Stone, and Nick “Fitzy” Stevens.

IMG_9137 Brande Roderick, John Salley, Dennis Rodman  Friars Club Roast - photos davidalankogut.com

Morse, Alex Forstenhausler and Stevens posed with Dennis Rodman at the Friars Club before the contest’s final roast on Friday night. They were joined by celebrity roasters Matthew Iseman, Brande Roderick, Claudia Jordan, and roastmaster John Salley for the exclusive affair inside the Friars Club in NYC.

It was a timely event, as Rodman had only just recently returned from a trip to North Korea to visit that nation’s dictator Kim Jong-Un.

rickyschroder-jessdelfino

Over the past few weeks, the “So You Think You Can Roast?” finalists competed alongside other comedians and special celebrity friends of Padma Lakshmi and Ricky Schroder. Here is Schroder taking his jokes in stride alongside Jessica Delfino.

The Friars Club Roast of Jack Black will take place April 5, 2013. A final guest list is still being confirmed.

UPDATED: No sooner did I post the above sentence, than within hours this press release arrived in my mailbox…announcing Bob Saget as Roastmaster for the Friars Club Roast of Jack Black at the New York Hilton.

“I am honored to be serving as Roastmaster for the Jack Black Roast,” said Saget. “Jack is incredibly talented, funny, brilliant, kind, loyal, and generous. None of those qualities will be dwelled upon when his friends roast him on April 5.”

Joining the Roastmaster on the dais to grill Jack Black will be Friars Club Abbot Jerry Lewis, along withJohn CusackJeffrey Katzenberg, Oliver PlattJeff RossSarah Silverman, and Ben Stiller. Other VIPs scheduled to sit on the dais include Jake T. AustinElvis Costello, The Beach Boys’ Mike Loveand Bruce JohnstonDebbie HarryRichard KindPadma LakshmiMichael LangCyndi Lauper, Aimee Mann, Richard Marx, Michael McKean, Al RokerSt. VincentGene SimmonsChad Smith,Dee SniderThe Spin Doctors, and Boyd Tinsley.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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