The Fat Jewish’s bar mitzvah date was set for March 25: that elusive time when winter begins to thaw, and the calendar finally declares it spring. But no seasonal decree was going to stop him from throwing the autumn themed soiree of his dreams. “Normal themes in the mid 90s were like casino, Hollywood, Michael Jordan, NBA, whatever. But the theme of my bar mitzvah was autumn,” the comedian, whose real name is Josh Ostrovsky, tells me. “[At that age] I was basically a middle aged gay man who lived in a sun-splashed brownstone in Chelsea. My mom was my best friend. I was super judgmental. I hung out with adults. It was super fucking weird.” His father — a Russian immigrant who grew up in Brighton Beach — wasn’t mad about the prospect of an autumn-centric bar mitzvah, but he was certainly confused. “My dad was kind of just like, ‘What the fuck? What about basketball?’ And I was like, ‘Nah not really my vibe. We’ll do a fall melange with cornucopias on the table and the room will really light up,’” Ostrovsky explains.
Loved this. Great story.