Jeffrey Ross's greatest claim to fame might be making fun of celebrities.
As Roastmaster General of the Friar's Club and creator of the animated MTV2 program "Where My Dogs At?" Ross has laid enough Hollywood impersonations on television audiences to make other late-night comedy shows look like "20/20" with Barbara Walters.
However, Ross showed that he had not lost his standup touch last Thursday night, as he kept a packed crowd roaring in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theater.
He even went so far as to give UB students some life advice.
"In the words of John Kerry: 'stay in school, or else you'll end up stuck in Iraq,'" he joked.
Ross avoided his trademark celebrity mocking for most of the night, but came prepared with insults for everyone else.
He entered stage at the end of a string of event staff, which he then lined up for abuse.
"You're a big guy," he told one staff member. "You're into S&M - Spaghetti and meatballs. Actually, you know what? You're big and you're beautiful, and I want to titty-f*** you after the show."
Ross often dampened the blow of his insults by soliciting the insulted for sex, and other times through self-deprecation.
"I'm hung like a tic-tac... I've got an innie," he told the audience.
Ross said that if given the chance to roast anyone, he would pick Donald Rumsfeld.
"Donald Rumsfeld, give him a round of applause," he said. "That guy's going to die like three days from now... Seriously, what is he going to do now?"
Ross said that he couldn't imagine the U.S. Secretary of Defense "standing in a Starbucks or something" after the announcement of his resignation.
"Oh, and by the way, that Starbucks that you guys have on campus? Slowest Starbucks in the history of Starbucks," he said.
In a similar style to Saturday's Distinguished Speaker Anderson Cooper, Ross touched on issues at home and abroad. He said that performing in support of Hurricane Katrina victims allowed him to see the destruction firsthand.
"I witnessed the devastation with my own eyes, and I've got to tell you - those people are exaggerating. It's not that bad."
Ross did not hesitate to make fun of UB's campus as well as the Buffalo area.
"You know that statue you've got here?" he said, referring to Baird Point. "It looks like the statue just landed in the water upside-down... It looks like it's a piece of another statue."
The comedian went as far as to simulate an airport cavity search, before mentioning the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
"It's not even an airport, it's just a guy with a kite going 'Over here! Over here!'"
Ross also told the crowd about his aunt, who had passed away at the age of 104.
"We called her Aunt-Tique. Her phone number was 3," he said.
Ross expressed his annoyance with a relative who had asked him how she had died.
"She was 104 years-old. What do you think?" he asked. "Her chute didn't open... She was trampled at a rap concert?"
In an interview after the show, Ross said that he often found things true to life to be the funniest.
"Everything I say has a hint of truth in it. Some hints are bigger than others," he said.
The comedian also fielded questions about his own sexuality.
"There are lots of rumors about this - are you gay?" asked Student Association President Viqar Hussain, to which Ross answered "no."
He discussed his recently released documentary filmed while he performed for troops in Iraq, titled "Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie," calling it the "funniest movie ever to come out of Iraq."
Ross said that he was proud of the film, which won the best feature film award at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
"It was to show people what's going on in Iraq, without being pretentious or political," he said, explaining that as a comedian, he saw things in a military setting that most Americans, politicians or journalists would be unable to see.
The comedian, actor, writer and director, said that the ability to "jump around" in his professional life was something that he enjoyed.
"I don't get bored," he said.
Matt Bergman, Ross' opening act, is a Niagara Falls local who tours nationally, but enjoyed the college crowd in Buffalo.
Bergman wondered whether UB, with its various amenities, had a strip club on campus, perhaps with card swipe access.
"What is it, next to the Dairy Queen?"
