Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride Broadway Reviews

“Take a Banana” is, however, a willfully upbeat show; whenever it gets too dark, Ross detonates another joke. In his banana-yellow suit (by Toni-Leslie James), he takes us on a tour of his family and childhood, with the help of old photos and home videos projected inside the many large, ornate frames on Beowulf Boritt’s handsome, curve-walled set. (Projection design is by Stefania Bulbarella.)

That’s not a fair assessment of the show, though, which is directed by Stephen Kessler and actually is far more complex and better written than I think many will anticipate. Ross gets away with such a surfeit of sentiment precisely because of his naturally caustic inclinations; the jokes are sharp enough and the laughs are hard and plentiful enough that all of the schmaltz feels not just charming but well-earned.

For all of its appeal, the 90-minute attraction somehow seems a smidge overlong; perhaps Ross’ dog stories might be curtailed. Fans familiar with Ross’ skill at insult humor likely will prefer more audience interaction than he offers at present. A few expletives aside, the sincere, even sentimental at times Take a Banana for the Ride proves much more of a family meal than a mere roast.

Late in the show, Ross wanders out into the audience, cracking hilariously insulting jokes to good-natured audience members who eat it all up. It reminded us why he made it to Broadway in the first place. We came to see his inner Don Rickles, not to hear the sort of maudlin confessional of which far too many bestselling memoirs are made.

I couldn’t embrace everything about this show. But I couldn’t remain neutral either. For one thing, antisemites will hate it. He starts a lengthy routine by explaining that he earned a black belt in karate and developed comic retorts after being bullied in school, including by someone who called him a dirty Jew; this leads to his listing the many inventions by Jews (Prozac…Theory of Relativity…Pickles), and concludes by his inviting the audience to sing along with a jingle

Ross talks about his recent battle with colon cancer, his adoration for his late uncle, and his grief over losing three close friends: Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget, and Gilbert Gottfried. It becomes clear that, after all these years of material that verges on heinous, Ross is a softie, his brand of insult jokes derived from a love of people and the world around him — even if it’s hard to see — and a desire to see people surprised. Though Ross's roasting may not always work, Take a Banana for the Ride cuts to the heart of a roastmaster.

The self-proclaimed “Roastmaster General” made his Broadway debut Monday at the Nederland Theatre in a one-man show titled “Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride.” It may be the most sickness and death focused show ever put on a stage and that includes the Pulitzer Price-winning plays “Wit,” by Margaret Edson, and “Angels in America,” by Tony Kushner.

“Stuff in your life you think you’ll never get over, you will get over,” he says. “You might even laugh about it someday.” Here, though, laughs are not the final goal. Vicious comedy may be Ross’s superpower, but this show aims to reveal his secret identity as the nicest of guys: an über-mensch.

His show is hilarious and heartfelt, and perhaps that will be surprising to the fans who are expecting 90 minutes of pure laughs. The laughs are present and accounted for (and then some), but Ross smartly expands his repertoire to tell the story of his life and the loving family he had back home in Newark, New Jersey… Taken together, these laughs and more sullen moments make for a first-rate Broadway show that perfectly displays Ross’ many skills as a comedian and his powerful penchant for storytelling.

He typically punctuates his death-focused anecdotes with punchlines, but there’s an overriding melancholy here that dampens the overall mood. The writing is not as strong as Crystal’s, alas, and the jokes don’t land with the frequency you’d expect. (He scores some of his biggest laughs early on when poking fun at his own alopecia-induced baldness, comparing himself to a “Jeff Bezos blow-up doll” or “Pitbull if he was attacked by a pit bull.”)

The show’s title pays tribute to Ross’s late grandfather, Pop Jack, who said, “You never know what’s going to happen…” An apt saying, which comes to fruition when Ross works the audience during the evening’s final moments. But this banana is more of a snack than a feast, leaving audiences hungry for the full-course roasting they likely came for.

It’s not easy charging major prices for something audiences are used to paying less for in a comedy club or watching cozily on their sofa as a Netflix or HBO special. So, Ross has his work cut out for him. What he has smartly done is build a show around his personal story, taking a page from Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, a Broadway hit in 2004 and revived briefly in 2013. With the amount of anguish and trauma in Ross’s life, he could easily turn maudlin, but that’s not the way the guy is wired.

Toward the end, Mr. Ross proposes that people are like bananas: “The more bruised we get, the sweeter we are. And we’re mushy on the inside.” Happily, “Banana” offers enough sweetness, and spice, to make the mush forgivable.