40th and 50th Birthday Roasts

A roast is a speech that pokes fun at the guest of honor. So, your birthday guy or gal better have a good sense of humor as the jabs are meant to be both hilarious and a tad harsh. Plan on a good 30 minutes for your roast with time at the end for the guest of honor to stand up and say or throw a little something at the crowd. Read on for tips on organizing a show-stopping roast!

Tips for Roasts:

• Hire a comedian or enlist a funny friend to emcee the roast and then decide who else will get up and share clever comments.

• Get together with all who will be speaking at the roast and brainstorm about ideas or topics. Schedule a rehearsal if you feel it's necessary.

• Think of a title to help give the program a direction. Tie the birthday year into the title, such as "40 Unknown Facts About Jill's 40 Years of Life" or "50 Ways That Jack Survived 50 Years."

• Keep the roast around 30 minutes. Let the speakers know how much time they have beforehand and let them know (jokingly) that they'll get the hook if they go over it!

• See our Birthday Jokes and Quotes for ideas.

• Consider the usual roast set up of a long table at the front of the room with a podium and microphone where guests sit at dining tables around the room.

• Make sure that you perform a microphone check before the formal program begins and leave plenty of time to fix any technical issues.