LOS ANGELES — Figuratively, plenty of tiger blood was
spilled this weekend during Comedy Central’s Charlie Sheen roast, which
mercilessly skewered the outspoken sitcom star whose high-flying career
was derailed thanks to an unprecedented multi-platform public meltdown
this year.
But literally, it was “Jackass” blood
that flowed during the Saturday night taping as Steve-O broke his nose
after deliberately ramming his face into the fist of fellow roaster and
ex-heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson.
That a
modern-era roast turned into bloodsport only served to highlight the
bizarre nature of the evening, something that one roaster termed a
“comic intervention.” The event drew an enthusiastic and packed house of
fans and industry insiders at Sony Studios in Culver City — and perhaps
most bizarrely included Sheen’s estranged wife, Brooke Mueller.
While
escaping bodily harm, Sheen was nevertheless subjected to a comic
fusillade of taunts, jeers and personal attacks from a strange mix of
roasters that included roast master Seth MacFarlane, William Shatner,
Kate Walsh (“Private Practice”) and comedians of varying stature (Jon
Lovitz, Patrice O’Neal, Anthony Jeselnik).
An
edited version of the roast will air Sept. 19, the same night as the
season premiere of CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” — the top-rated comedy from
which Sheen was bounced after substance-abuse problems, legal run-ins
and a highly publicized fight with his boss, executive producer Chuck
Lorre. Ashton Kutcher has stepped in for the troubled star, whose
character reportedly will be killed off this season.
Introduced
to ear-splitting riffs by rock guitarist Slash, Sheen was seated on an
elaborate stage equipped with large missiles — an obvious nod to his
“violent torpedo of truth” stage tour this past spring. Members of the
dais wasted no time ripping into Sheen.
“How much blow can Charlie Sheen do? Enough to kill two and a half men,” fired off Lovitz.
“Don’t
you want to live to see your kids take their first 12 steps?” asked
Jeffrey Ross, who was dressed as deposed Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.
“How do you roast a meltdown?”
Comedian Amy
Schumer compared Sheen to Bruce Willis: “You were big in the ‘80s, and
now your old slot is being filled by Ashton Kutcher.”
Even
Walsh, who has a comedy improv background and said she was there to
hone her comic skills, quipped: “Charlie is an amazing medical specimen.
I guess that’s what comes from waking up at the crack of crack.”
And
those were some of the more delicate comments in an evening that
wallowed in raunchy, brutal humor. Even Mueller, who has battled her own
addictions and engaged in high-profile court battles with Sheen over
the custody of their young twins, was subjected to withering barbs about
her drug use and having sex with Sheen. (She laughed.)
Others
who were trashed included Sheen’s former costar Jon Cryer, Sheen’s
brother Emilio Estevez; his father, Martin Sheen; and Charlie’s first
wife, actress Denise Richards. None attended.
This
latest roast resembled in spirit its predecessors, which featured such
soft comic targets as Joan Rivers, David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson.
The cable channel’s roasts are a far cry from the Dean Martin-hosted
televised roasts of the ‘70s, where a kinder, gentler humor prevailed.
In
the Sheen roast, considerations of race, sex and politics were left in
the parking lot — and there were even a few pokes at deceased singer Amy
Winehouse as well as Casey Anthony, who was recently acquitted of
murdering her 2-year-old daughter. The roasts, which Comedy Central
began producing in 2003, have become one of the cable network’s most
popular offerings. While vicious in nature, the “roasts” are billed as
tributes to the roastee.
After being called a drug
addict, an abuser of women, a connoisseur of porn stars and
prostitutes, a horrible actor and a reckless loser who threw away one of
the most lucrative gigs in prime-time TV, Sheen finally took the stage.
When he did, the star revealed a moderate version of the defiant star
who continually beat his chest that he was “winning.”
“Once
again I have come out unscathed,” declared Sheen, who seemed notably
healthier than the gaunt, wild-eyed persona on display during this
year’s media blitz in which he talked of being “a warlock” and
surrounded himself with “goddesses.”
Said Sheen: “You can’t hurt me. Hell, even I can’t hurt me.”
He
called himself “a guy who thrives on chaos” and said that drugs, wild
sexual escapades and being fired from “Two and a Half Men” “could not
kill” him.
He never mentioned Lorre or his former
costars by name but scored a huge response when he said, “I did what
everyone in America wants to do. I told my boss to … off.”
Touching his chest, he said, “Here beats an eternal flame. I just need to keep it away from a crack pipe.”
Sheen’s
post-roast feelings remained a mystery: Late in the evening, he
reversed his decision to allow backstage interviews. Puffing on a
cigarette following the proceedings, he smiled and said, “It was fun,
very good,” before rushing off to the lavish after-party: “I need to get
some air.”
But Ross said Sheen had agreed to the roast as a way of putting his notorious past behind him.
“He
told us beforehand that there was no line we couldn’t cross,” Ross said
backstage. “He wanted it hard — anything goes. This was about putting
what’s happened in a drawer and saying ‘what’s next?’”
———
©2011 the Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
