My First Roast

This past weekend, a very good friend of mine was having a suprise birthday party - which was also announced as a roast.
Roasts are a time-honored tradition wherein the guest of honor (and indeed it is a point of honor) is celebrated by being completely insulted by his/her peers. The idea is to tear the person a new asshole in the most loving way possible. There's a lotta respect involved, amidst all the bashing - and thus it's usually quite a good time.
Dean Martin brought the roast into popularity - and Comedy Central's recent hilarious roasts of William Shatner, Flava Flav, etc. - have brought them into the mainstream.
The idea was certainly tantalizing to do one here. There are certainly enough subjects, but when the idea was briefly bandied about - it just seemed that it would likely turn into people lamely insulting each other. There has to be an art to the whole thing - and the key I think is to have a genuine affection for the subject.
So - I thought long and hard about what I would write - I love the guy, and didn't want feelings hurt. So I churned out what I thought was something honest, and filled with some light witty jabs.
I went up to the mic that evening and went through the whole thing - the crowd laughed, he laughed - and at the end I could see he was genuinely touched.
Could I have been harder on the guy? Sure. But it was my first time - and it was a pretty special event. And no really my cup of tea - insulting people makes me slightly ill.
I think I'll just stick to denigrating myself - that I can do.