Jeffrey Ross: No Offense (2007)
*** (out of 4)
Comedian Jeffrey Ross returns to his home state of New Jersey for the first time in his career in this 57-minute special. Ross goes through a wide range of topics including various dumps in NJ, internet love, his aunt who died at the age of 104 plus various poems that he wrote. I'll admit that this special starts off extremely hit and miss and I'd say that several people will probably turn the station, which would really be a mistake because the final twenty-five minutes of this thing are downright hilarious. I think the biggest problems early on are the jokes dealing with New Jersey. People from that state might get a laugh out of Ross joking on their state but it's really not all that funny for outsiders. Ross spends sometime picking on the crowd and this is where the majority of the laughs come early on. The special really picks up when Ross starts cracking jokes on his elderly aunt. These jokes are never mean-spirited but they're just downright funny as he discusses what happened after his cousin asked how she died. The answers or reasons Ross goes into will have tears running down your face. The highlight of the film happens when Ross lets a couple people from the audience come on stage to play piano while he reads his poems. The second person, Larry, is downright priceless and the chemistry between the two is so great that it really does feel as if they were doing the routine for years.
