Ross is busy, but he still finds time to roast

As the preeminent master of the modern comic roast, Jeffrey Ross has been given a few prime gigs lately. He recently roasted Public Enemy's Flavor Flav, a man whose public image has become so nutty that he's had his own matchmaker show, "Flavor of Love," which VH1 spun off with " 'Flavor of Love' Girls Charm School."

"It could have been a three-part miniseries; there were so many jokes," Ross says of the roast, which will be broadcast Sunday on Comedy Central.

Ross, who plays the Comedy Connection tonight and tomorrow, had never met Flav, but he remembers listening to Public Enemy as a Boston University student 20 years ago. And he dropped some of his favorite Public Enemy lines into his jabs. "I think he really liked that," says Ross. "I think if you do that, if you come from a point of being a fan or a friend, some sort of point of reverence, if you will, it all comes together. No one's feelings get hurt."

The second gig was his spot as a judge on ABC's "The Next Best Thing," a reality show pitting celebrity impersonators against one another for a cash prize, given away to a '70s Elvis clone in last month's finale. Ross says he was attracted to the show because he could treat each act like a mini-roast. "It was a field day for me," says Ross. "I got to give a hundred grand away to a complete lunatic."

Ross helped revive the roast tradition in the '90s, producing events that targeted Drew Carey and Jerry Stiller. These days, it's just not a roast if Ross isn't on the dais. He enjoys the challenge of trading barbs with a stage full of headliners while the object of his jokes is present. But not every comic gets it. You'll sometimes see a roaster read from notes like a robot or try to mimic old-time comics like Don Rickles or Milton Berle.

Carrot Top was so worried about the Flavor Flav roast that he sought Ross's assistance. Ross says he told him to just be himself. "Make it like Carrot Top's take on a roast," he says. "And he did it, to his credit, [as] you'll see on Sunday. He killed."

When he first started comedy in his native New Jersey, a few years after BU, one of the first things that got Ross laughs was telling stories about growing up around his dad's kosher catering service. Most comics he heard as a kid came from the Borscht Belt, giving him an appreciation for old-school comedy that Ross later melded with his edgier rock instincts.

"I remember my parents listening to Buddy Hackett on Johnny Carson, and I was influenced by the way they would repeat the jokes to me the next morning," he says. "It's not something I can really escape even if I wanted to. I've learned to embrace it."

With his busy schedule, taping cameos for "The Sarah Silverman Program" and an upcoming Larry the Cable Guy Christmas special, Ross no longer produces televised roasts. He may return to the Friar's Club in New York later this year to roast veteran comic Pat Cooper, but he enjoyed just showing up and doing his thing. "I've got to tell you, it's a lot more fun than worrying about every little aspect of the show," he says. "Now it's gone back to just being a party for me. I can just get drunk and talk [expletive]. It's the greatest night of the year."

Lenny Clarke plays Giggles in Saugus tonight and tomorrow. . . . "Weird Al" Yankovic plays the North Shore Music Theatre tomorrow. . . . The Comedy Studio is closed this weekend through Thursday. . . . Shane Mauss hosts the open mike Sunday at Dick's Beantown Comedy Vault.