NEPA Scene Staff

Comedians Jeff Ross and Dave Attell are back ‘Bumping Mics’ at Sands Bethlehem Event Center on May 24

Comedians Jeff Ross and Dave Attell are back ‘Bumping Mics’ at Sands Bethlehem Event Center on May 24
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From a press release:

Following performances there over the last two years, veteran stand-up comedians Jeff Ross and Dave Attell, best known for their work on Comedy Central and quick, caustic humor, will bring their Bumping Mics Tour back to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Friday, May 24 at 8 p.m.

“Every room has its own personality. We were [at the SBEC] last year, about a year ago together, and I remember it being one of the best shows we ever did together. We pop up in little clubs in New York when we’re both in town, but we got booked at the Sands and I got there for sound check and I was like, ‘Wow, this place is big! How are we going to fill it? How are we going to make people laugh from that far away?’ But then as the people came in and it filled up and the booze started flowing and the jokes started slinging, I remember it just being like fire, like a rock concert, and it got real intimate real quick, and the audience was just really great – really, really great,” Ross told NEPA Scene in an exclusive interview last year.

“Our show’s very punk rock. We don’t plan it. There’s always a chance it could collapse at any second, but there’s something special happening between Dave and I right now. I hope people come out and see it.”

“Bumping Mics” later became a three-part Netflix stand-up event on Nov. 27, 2018 featuring many special guests.

Tickets, which are $29.50, $39.50, and $49.50, plus applicable fees, go on sale this Friday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at sandseventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Sands Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000. A pre-sale for members of the venue’s Music Insiders Club will take place on Thursday, Feb. 7 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Jeffrey Ross, the Roastmaster General, one-man verbal assault unit, and pizza enthusiast, can most recently be seen on Comedy Central on the hit show “Roast Battle,” which aired at the end of July. His latest special, “Jeff Ross Roasts the Border: Live from Brownsville, Texas,” aired Nov. 16, 2017 on Comedy Central.

Ross is known to the world as the modern day Don Rickles, the king of roasting. If there’s a roast and he’s not there, it’s not a real roast. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, he took the greatest weapon he had to fight his way out of there – his mouth. Since then, he has roasted anyone who would accept the challenge, from celebrities to soldiers to politicians to pop icons.

He has no limits, even roasting criminals inside the walls of a maximum security county jail in Texas. Sure, some comedians perform in jails, but no other comedian would have it in their right mind to immerse themselves inside a jail for three days and then invite those same incarcerated people on stage with him to get roasted face-to-face. If he thought criminals were tough, Ross even roasted Justin Bieber as part of the record-breaking Comedy Central Roast, which he also produced.

Roasting is ingrained in Ross’ life, and he helped bring the Friar’s Club Roasts to Comedy Central in 1998 with “The Roast of Drew Carey.” Since then, they have roasted Donald Trump, Pamela Anderson, James Franco, Joan Rivers, Hugh Hefner, Charlie Sheen, and many more. It seems impossible to have one of these roasts without the Roastmaster himself on the dais.

Ross has seen his share of television and film credits. He guest starred on “Dr. Ken” on ABC, “Grandfathered” on Fox, and “Crashing” on HBO. He also had an arc in Direct TV’s “Kingdom.” On the silver screen, he co-starred in “The Wedding Ringer” with Kevin Hart and “Flock of Dudes” with Chris D’Elia.

Born in Queens and raised on Long Island, Dave Attell got into stand-up comedy in the late ’80s after graduating from New York University with a degree in film and television. He is the creator and host of “Dave’s Old Porn” on Showtime, which has featured such talent as Whitney Cummings, Chelsea Handler, Adam Carolla, and Daniel Tosh. His stand-up series “Dave Attell Comedy Underground” and his one-hour special “Road Work” were featured on Comedy Central, and “Road Work” is streaming on Netflix.

Attell was named one of the “25 Funniest People in America” by Entertainment Weekly. His caustic wit, rapid-fire delivery, and his choice of material that can best be described as “very adult” has earned him the reputation as a “comic’s comic.” But if you ask Attell, he’d say, “I’m just trying to get some laughs and sell some drinks.”

In 2001, he used this love of booze and laughter to create and host the hit series “Insomniac with Dave Attell” for Comedy Central. A travelogue show in which Attell goes from city to city looking for late-night fun, the New York Times called the show, “a doubly rare beast, a comedy without rancor and a travel show about the virtues of the American underdog.” To Attell, the “Insomniac” show is more of a cross between “Girls Gone Wild” and “Cops.”

After four seasons of “Insomniac,” Attell taped several hour-long “Insomniac” specials overseas in Japan, Germany, England, and Brazil. Once back in the states, he headed out on a 35-city theater tour ending in Vegas, where he hosted a two-hour special for Comedy Central featuring Sean Rouse, Greg Geraldo, and Dane Cook, some of the biggest comics in the country.

Attell has made numerous appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “The Howard Stern Show,” “Later with Carson Daly,” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He also appeared in Chris Rock’s cult film “Pootie Tang.” Attell’s other television credits include Fox’s “Arrested Development,” NBC’s “Ed,” HBO, Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” and his own half-hour stand-up special “Comedy Central Presents Dave Attell.”

When not on the road, he makes regular appearances at the Comedy Cellar in New York City.

Read NEPA Scene’s 2018 interview with Jeff Ross just before his previous Bethlehem show here.