Trump Roasts Don King at Friars Club
http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/articles/2005/10/28/ap/entertainment/d8dh9s3o2.txt
NEW YORK - Ridiculous hair. A talent
for overstatement. There was more than
enough of both to go around Friday as
Donald Trump led a roast of Don King at
the Friars Club.
The boxing promoter merrily withstood a
barrage of jabs, hooks and uppercuts.
While King's electrified 'do seemed the
obvious avenue of attack for Trump and
the 12 roasting friends and comics, they
instead began with a smoking gun.
"I have a catch phrase: `You're fired,'"
Trump said. "Don King has a catch phrase:
`Not Guilty.'"
In 1954, King shot a man who was trying
to rob one of his gambling houses and it
was ruled a justifiable homicide. In 1966,
he was convicted of killing an employee
who owed him money, but his sentence
was reduced to non-negligent manslaughter.
Comedian Colin Quinn said that having
grown up in Cleveland, Ohio, King's
subsequent prison term was "upward
mobility." He added that the hair of King,
Trump and Rev. Al Sharpton, who was
also there, "look like the three stages of a
forest fire."
But few could resist the comparison of the
two Dons.
"We have two slicksters up here today,"
said Sharpton. "One they call a mogul, the
other they call a mugger. That's race in
America."
There were several boxers in attendance
for King, who has a reputation for
swindling the fighters he promotes.
"Smokin'" Joe Frazier, who fought
Muhammad Ali in the King-promoted
"Thrilla in Manila," was there _ but no
Mike Tyson.
"I know Mike Tyson is a little annoyed
with Don King _ he told me while parking
my car last night," said Jackie Martling.
"Don King is a big ... thief, and everyone in
this room knows it," said Trump. The
"Apprentice" star couldn't help comparing
his roast last year to King's. He boasted
that his drew an audience 600 people
larger, though comedian Pat Cooper later
insisted Trump's guests had been "comped."
As is custom, the affair was filled with bad
language, vulgarity and most known racial slurs.
After one especially lewd joke,
Martlins said, "I'm glad you laughed at that joke.
Pat O'Brien left in on my answering machine."
O'Brien was one of the many guests of honor _
a lineup that Lisa Lampanelli
called "the cast of `The Surreal Life.'" They
included former New York mayor David Dinkins,
Gilbert Gottfried, actor Abe Vigoda
and even Federico Castelluccio,
who played the ponytailed Furio on
"The Sopranos."
All the while, the 72-year-old King
chuckled along. When it came time for him
to take the podium, King lapsed into his
trademark flurry of adjectives, including
claims that he was "the father of hip-hop"
and that "George Walker Bush is a revolutionary."
He did, though, seem to express his
overriding philosophy in one emphatic
statement: "Performing is what it's all
about, but GET THE MONEY."
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