Daily Crosshatch Dispatch: More Old Jewish Comedians Book Release

 I’m just covering the wrong subject matter, but rarely, if ever—in fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say never—has a post ever lent itself so perfectly to a dedication for my grandfather, Seymour Eisner. This is not reflection on him, of course, but rather a direct result of the fact that the things about which I tend to write—comic books, computers, and rock and roll music—never quite fall within the realm of his interests, namely contract bridge, Jim Lehrer, and the music of Nat “King” Cole. Recently he’s also become rather enraptured by DVDs of Everybody Loves Raymond, so perhaps I might be able to meet him halfway—but, as ever, I digress.

Earlier tonight, jam-packed into the Milton Berle room of midtown Manhattan’s legendary Friars’ Club (incidentally the largest room in the club, which gave way to bevy of [in]appropriate jokes about the former member’s former member), with 80-year-old Jewish men sporting 90-year-old penis jokes, the inevitability of such a dedication was difficult to escape.

Celebrity-watching at the book release party for the sequel to Drew Friedman’s collection of old Jewish Comedian illustrations (Fantagraphics’ brilliantly titled [More Old Jewish Comedians]) was a bit like reading the New York Post’s "Page Six," back when Alex Hamilton was a frequent contributor. The proceedings were MCed by one-time Borscht-Belter and current Friars’ Club dean, Freddie Roman, who, thanks to co-MC and former Phil Silvers Show costar (that’s Sgt. Bilko, to you kids), Mickey Freeman, finally got to use the “I’m an old Roman,” joke he’d been waiting to cash in on, his whole life...

Read full "[Old Jewish Comedians" here.]