My friend Phil Schwarzmann has lived in Finland for nine years. He took a job in the Silicon Valley and is leaving Finland for San Francisco in a couple of weeks. We are roasting him before he leaves.

We are following the format of Comedy Central Roasts closely. Comedy Central tends to roast famous and talented people. So that’s where we differ. The show will be in English, because nine years in Finland wasn’t enough for Phil to learn proper Finnish.

I think this is a nice opportunity. I have mostly stripped all mean stuff from my set, because meanness is really easy to misunderstand. Often you just appear bitchy, not funny. This time I need to be kind of cruel. The roasters will also be roasted, so I will be taking some flak, too.

The roasters are Henry Lehto (duh!), Tomi Walamies, Henric Chezek, Aretta Vähälä, Nickolay Antonov, Aki Oksanen, Eric Seufert, Isak Rautio and Shaz Rahman. Ali Jahangiri will be the roastmaster (that is roastspeak for MC).

The roast will take place in Molly Malone’s (Helsinki) on Tuesday 1st November, at 8 pm. It is a special episode in our Beer & Jokes series, and as always – it is free. Welcome! Bring your friends and RSVP on Facebook!