Fresh Air · 2026-04-11 · 49 min · 7,958 words

Best Of: Arsenio Hall / Jeff Ross

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

This election season you can streamline your news intake with up first. Our team of reporters and editors works overnight so you can start every morning with three stories you need to know in short episodes, 12-14 minutes long, to save you time and your sanity. Follow up first on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley.

Today, Arsenio Hall. He grew up in Cleveland dreaming of being the next Johnny Carson. Kind of. I wanted to do this show that didn't exist when I was a kid, and I knew the talent was out there. You know, I found Bruno Mars and put him on the show when he was two feet tall.

I wanted those things that Johnny didn't do. And we hear from Jeff Ross. comedian, producer, and the man behind some of the most savage celebrity roasts on television. But before all of that, he was a kid growing up in his family's kosher catering hall in New Jersey, serving weddings and bar mitzvahs, one of which was his own. My bar mitzvah was like something between a Super Bowl halftime show and like something Saddam Hussein would throw

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