“As Good Friends, We’re Obligated to Help Keep Dale’s Ego in Check”:
A Report from the Minami Roast

By Elaine Chow (from AABA Newsletter September 2003 )

After enduring insults and jokes lovingly delivered by his friends and family for almost two hours, the guest of honor was finally permitted to speak. “I can’t believe people would pay $75 to kick my -ss,” said Dale Minami with a smile, referring to the ticket price for the roast. “My middle brother’s been doing it for free for years.” He then proceeded to show that he could dish it out as well addressing his “roasters” one by one. The crowd roared in approval.

AABA Social Committee Co-Chairs Edwin Prather (r) and Malcolm Yeung with a blow-up of the Dale Minami photo from a 1991 Asian men's calendar.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with words of praise (or ridicule?) for Dale Minami.

Dale Minami laughs as he is roasted by Greg Watanabe of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, appearing as “The Ghost of Dale Past"

Dale continues to take the barbs and jokes of Greg Watanabe.

It was standing room only at chic Ozumo restaurant on Aug. 7, where attendees enjoyed cocktails and sushi while listening to 10 “roasters”— Federal Magistrate Judge Edward Chen, playwright and filmmaker Philip Kan Gotanda, KPIX reporter Sherry Hu, former Washington state representative Kip Tokuda (brother of celebrity emcee Wendy Tokuda), 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors performer Greg Watanabe, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Equal Justice Society Executive Director Eva Paterson, writer Ben Fong-Torres, brother Roland Minami and law partner Garrick Lew — pay special “tribute.” Jokes (including a poem and a song) tended to fall into one of the following categories: 1) Dale’s age, 2) the (significantly younger) women he dates, and 3) his celebrity as a People Magazine Top 50 Bachelor and as a loincloth-clad calendar pinup.

Attendees were greeted with a giant slide show of Dale: Dale with a mustache, Dale with long hair, Dale as a baby. After celebrity emcees Sydnie Kohara and Wendy Tokuda seated Dale on a throne onstage and plopped a paper crown (“from Burger King”) on his head, the roast kicked off with a hilarious video featuring, among others, actress Tamlyn Tomita and Miss Universe 1997 Brook Lee.

Videos and Quotes




Watch the Dale Minami Roast Video featuring 1997 Miss Universe Brook Lee, actress Tamlyn Tomita, Greg Watanabe and members of Cold Tofu. 

Click Windows Media Player or Quicktime. Courtesy of Cold Tofu.


Read the People Magazine Profile of Dale Minami, selected as one of America's Top 50 Bachelors in 2001, and the AABA Newsletter interview with Dale Minami, by Debbie Wong.


Below are just a few of the jokes from the Dale Minami Roast that can be repeated in a family publication:

“If you are hot/He will dig you/ And then he’ll ask/ About your cousin.” — sung to the tune of “My Way.” The song also rhymes “carousing” and “arousing.”


“He’s quite the chef...he has a new sushi to serve his dates. It’s called the Minami roll.”


“That’s not his real body, it’s been digitally altered. It’s actually Don Tamaki’s.” — referring to the famous calendar photo of Dale in a loincloth.


“Rogaine is contraindicated when used with Viagra…[Dale] had a choice … You can see what choice he made.” — referring to Dale’s hairline in his People Magazine photograph.


From David Letterman’s “Top 10 Reasons Why Dale Minami is Still Single:" No. 9: “After the success of People Magazine, Dale now aims to be on the AARP’s list of America’s Top 50 Bachelors.”
No. 4: “He drinks wine older than the women he dates.”


“[He’s a] groomed, well-oiled, glistening, Japanese-American studmuffin.”




Return to Dale Minami Receives ABA Thurgood Marshall award page.