Hate Worcester All You Want At Hometown Roast — It's For A Good Cause

WORCESTER, MA — All are welcome at this year's Roast of Worcester — whether you're a gullible transplant paying $3,000 per month to live near a minor league baseball stadium that's closed half the year, the grifter who convinced the city to borrow $160 million to build a stadium that looks like a shipping container, or the type of person who complains about parking while driving a spotless $100,000 Ford Super Duty to eat two-star children's food along Shrewsbury Street.

The performers at the annual event — now in its fourth year — don't pull punches, but it's all done with love for New England's second-largest city.

And it's for a good cause. This year, all proceeds from the roast will go to Falmouth-based Compassionate Care ALS, a nonprofit that offers a variety of services for people and their families dealing with Lou Gehrig's disease. The charity was chosen to honor Tim Connolly, a longtime Telegram and Gazette columnist and father of comedian Shaun Connolly — one of the founders of the roast — who died last year after developing ALS.

Connolly and Bryan O'Donnell are the founders of WOOtenanny, a comedy series that has grown over the years to include podcasts, an advice column, open mic nights and a live stream of city council meetings in the vein of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," where the hosts, including Worcester Sucks journalist Bill Shaner, poke fun at local politics.

This year's roast will feature performances by Connolly, O'Donnell, Shaner — hopefully no other Irish-Americans — and, goddammit it, Molly O'Connor, the cohost of the "Pop It" podcast. To expand the gene pool a little, the roast will also include comedians Doug Guertin, Eric Yankus-Franco and Paul Henry, and local activist Nelly Medina.

So come out (unless you have plans in a better city, like Southbridge) to taunt and be taunted, even if you're a dimwit local news reporter with zero credibility who's not even 1/10th as funny as that Turtle Boy statue.

The fourth annual Roast of Worcester will start ripping at 7:30 p.m. Friday at The White Room, 138 Green St. Get tickets here.