Just-baptized comedy writer Tom Leopold gets roasted by his best Jewish friends

When Catholics think of roasting, hell is usually involved. Just-baptized comedy writerTom Leopoldwas roasted at Sammy's Roumanian restaurant on the lower East Side— by some of his closest Jewish friends.

Last week, Leopold, who was Jewish and has written for"Seinfeld,""Will& Grace"and"Cheers,"among other shows, wrote about his conversion to Catholicism in a blog post for theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishopswebsite. (To read it, type Leopold's name into usccbmedia.blogspot.com.)

"I am a Jewish comedy writer, although I always felt saying that was kind of redundant,"he explained."So much of my humor, practically all of it, I suppose, comes from who my people are, what they've been through and how they were able to turn it all on its head and find the funny side."

Leopold added, however, that"come Easter I'll still be a comedy writer, but a Catholic one."A footnote at the end of the very personal (and slightly trippy) post, on his reasons for converting, said he would be baptized during Easter Vigil.

But before he was cleansed of original sin at the baptismal font, Leopold and a group of about 30 friends gathered on Holy Thursday, the traditional day of Jesus' Last Supper, to commemorate the last Passover before his conversion. The celebration was on the second floor of Sammy's Roumanian restaurant on Chrystie St., and included aFriars Club-style roast.

We hear"Late Show With David Letterman"bandleaderPaul Shafferarranged for and emceed the laugh-apalooza, which included shtick by"Spinal Tap"comicHarry Shearer,  Broadway's onetime"Music Man"Craig Bierko, singer/songwriterLoudon Wainwright3rd,"Preppy Handbook"authorLisa Birnbach, artistDrew Friedmanand TV writerBill Persky.

Shearer, we're told, roasted in character, as a rabbi trying to get Leopold to stay with his original tribe.

Wainwright serenaded the gathering with his song"My Meds,"and at evening's end, a choir popped up to sing the gospel number"Oh Happy Day"with Leopold.

In addition to being funny, roasts are traditionally profane and lethal affairs, and given the religious context, we're not surprised virtually every participant we contacted for this story either did not respond by deadline or declined to divulge any of the punch lines, sacred or profane.

That said, although Leopold initially told us he didn't want to talk about the roast because"it's a personal thing,"he later noted he'd filmed the proceedings."We may do something with it,"he said.

Then, despite his refusal to help us, Leopold asked if we could plug an upcoming appearance at the Duplex on Christopher St. 

God, that's funny!

Contact Gatecrasher:
Frank DiGiacomo:fdigiacomo@nydailynews.com
Carson Griffith:cgriffith@nydailynews.com

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