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Roast & Toast

For a birthday, engagement, promotion, or send-off. Each guest delivers one roast and one sincere toast about the guest of honor — the structure keeps it warm and stops it tipping into pure heckling. The two-part format is the whole trick.

Close friends Medium group Any season Low effort
Celebrate someoneDeepen friendships
PurposeHonor someone properly — with the full weight of both what makes them ridiculous and what makes them worth knowing.
VoteBest roast and best toast — two awards, voted by the table, with the guest of honor recused.
RevealThe guest of honor responds last, to the whole table, unscripted.
Run of show

What it's for

Honor someone properly — with the full weight of both what makes them ridiculous and what makes them worth knowing.

The guest's job

Prepare one roast line and one sincere toast for the guest of honor; both must be specific, both must land.

The vote

Best roast and best toast — two awards, voted by the table, with the guest of honor recused.

The reveal

The guest of honor responds last, to the whole table, unscripted.

Food & drink spine

Something celebratory and unhurried — the food should match the occasion, not just the appetite.

Conversation fuel

"What’s the story about this person you’ve never told them you still think about?"

How it flops — steer around it

All roast, no toast — it tips into heckling. Or all toast, no roast — it becomes a eulogy. Both halves are required.

A bespoke dinner-party concierge. Vote with conviction; bring something defensible. Themes · Playbook