Comedians took aim at Mayor Gregor Robertson's bike lanes, environmental zeal, Happy Planet juice and good looks at a comedy roast Thursday evening.
As host Ryan Beil pointed out, a roast is about insults, taking potshots and ridiculing a person, all under the guise of honouring them.
When it came to the insults and ridicule, Robertson got off pretty easy.
"Sorry, but my meetings regarding the systemic elimination of the private automobile ran a little late," Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer deadpanned, after an 11-hour council meeting delayed the show's start.
With CUPE 15 head Mike Jackson, she was one of two "real" people taking part in the roast. Other roles were played by comedians.
While the content was friendly - there was no mention of backyard chickens or front-yard wheat fields - Reimer's dry delivery was a hit with the crowd.
On her first meetings with Robertson, years ago. "Like all young women, I needed something only Gregor could provide . . . free juice."
On his green policies: "Gregor is so green that Marc Emery tried to mail him to the United States."
And Beil, on Robertson's good looks: "It's like looking at the sun: You can't look too long or the image will be burned into your eyes."
The show was part of the annual Olio Festival, four days of independent art, music, film and comedy events held throughout Vancouver.
Many of the performers were members of the The Party, a collective of comedians who gained notoriety for the website shi*harperdid.com.
The roasters also poked fun at Robertson by playing fake voice mails purportedly hacked from his phone, including messages from the Sedin twins, Jimmy Pattison, Chad Kroeger and an irate librarian naming off dozens of overdue Hardy Boys books.
Inside jokes about Robertson's use of profanity and microphones being shut off at council were lost on most of the 200, who presumably weren't caught up on their city hall gossip, in attendance at Club Five Sixty.
? ssullivan@theprovince.com
