Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride – 15 August 2025

With a title lovingly embraced from the grandfather who always wanted Jeff Ross to have a snack for the road, Jeff Ross deftly navigates the space where comedy and wisdom intertwine in his Broadway show Take a Banana for the Ride. I hesitate to call it a solo show because Ross did such a wonderful job integrating the audience, his onstage musicians, and his videographers into the performance that it felt more like a dialogue than a stand up routine. Some of this feeling came from the way Ross flirted with the relationship between hard truths and dark comedy. This production celebrates resilience and survival, as well as the healing power of laughter and the sincere debt we owe to those who came before us and shaped us into who we are. 

Ross invites us in with a laugh, then holds us through a guided journey into memories that are universal and memories that are quite specific. He begins the story with his family’s catering business, proudly celebrating his great grandmother’s business venture, the love of his parents, and his Uncle Murray, who bullied him incessantly. As this transitions into the details of his parents’ deaths, Ross talks about having a thick skin, even when bruised and lonely, much like the bananas his grandfather Pop Jack used to tell him to bring along whenever he left New Jersey for New York City to pursue his calling to be a stand up comedian. The story is wild and exciting, and even the deeper moments end with a punch line that leaves the audience smiling.

Ross’s comedic style is unique in that the dark moments pull on heart strings, sometimes to the point of tears. The writing is brilliant, as he adeptly balances on a tightrope with a safety net, allowing the perfect amount of pathos before rescuing the audience before we ever fall into a dark place ourselves. All of the silly jokes from the beginning reappear in darker moments where they are cleverly interwoven to pull the audience back to the high energy cheaper jokes of the show’s exposition. It’s an incredible feat to have an audience smiling at cancer, laughing at Nazis, and thoroughly enjoying a comedy show despite crying through the whole thing. 

Ross’s storytelling abilities were captivating, and the show was truly both funny and meaningful, highlighting the healing power of laughter and pushing the boundaries of comedy well beyond the “safe zone” of jokes about sex, money, and politics. He showed that a comedy show can be both universal and deeply personal. It was relatable, funny, and touching, and it certainly took the audience on an unforgettable ride. We left with a smile— and a literal banana for the ride.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Vivacity Media Group.