Dirty Irish Secret
A 1983 episode of the game show Child’s Play featuring child actor Jeff Cohen resurfaced on GSN a couple weeks ago and has caused a few of us to turn heads.
The SoCal brat famous for his role as the bar mitzvah boy-in-training in The Goonies (but who now practices media law in Beverly Hills and writes the ocassional legal column for us) introduced himself on the air as "Jeff McMahon". In an effort to deter any more confusion around the office, I went straight to Cohen for the skinny on this one.
Why the goy name?
"My father’s name is McMahon, but he split when I was seven or eight," he said. "About six months after I took my mom’s name, partly because I would be getting credited on stuff that, in turn, would credit my old man who wasn’t around. So that’s my dirty little Irish secret."
comments
submit a comment05.14.08 at 12:05 pm
At first I thouhgt you said Jim McMahon. Which would have been better.
05.14.08 at 7:05 pm
Er…so why is he calling himself McMahon again now?
05.15.08 at 1:05 am
Maybe he started drinking and required a proper bar name.
05.15.08 at 2:05 pm
humph, whooda known. he’ll always be “Chunk” to me. btw, hi hesed…
05.15.08 at 4:05 pm
as a fellow half-jew with an Irish last name, I will maintain that I enjoy not being automatically typecasted as a Jew by name, as it is fun to disclose that at my discretion — there is a little Shock n’ Awe value to it! Of course, one look at me and I think the gig is up :D
And so the definitive question here is, was the Truffle Shuffle performed at Chunk’s Bar Mitzvah? Talk about youtube gold.
05.15.08 at 4:05 pm
Jewbacca, howya been darlin?
05.16.08 at 11:05 am
Do you even have to ask if the Truffle Shuffle was performed? Of course it was, but not at a bar mitzvah. Prolly as a try-out dance for Chippendale’s.
Hesed, I’m awesome, just been busy livin the life. I have a beautiful baby boy, and his hebrew name is Nachshon Hesed.
05.16.08 at 1:05 pm
Congrats! That’s fantastic. I hope he has better luck living up to the name than I do. LOL
05.16.08 at 1:05 pm
omg have you seene what he looks like now? i would let chunk take a chunk of me! lol