cover image Roast of the Town

Roast of the Town

Joey Adams. Prentice Hall, $15.95 (212pp) ISBN 978-0-13-781436-7

The ""celebrity roasts'' of the Friars Club in New York have long been known even outside of show biz; Adams has been one of the scriptwriters for these shows for 20 years, additionally publishing almost 40 books on a wide variety of topics. Here he assembles a number of jokes used in the roasts of 25 celebrities ranging from Henry Kissinger and John Lindsay to Rodney Dangerfield and Phyllis Diller. These are the core of the book and are supplemented by hundreds of one-liner general quips. The collection, which is best read piecemeal, ought to be in the library of everyone who gives or aspires to give after-dinner speeches that will keep an audience laughing, although some of the entries are not for the reader's doddering cousin from Kalamazoo. Photos not seen by PW. (December 18)