Tuesday August 3, 2010 6:20 pm

Before They Were Stars: Paul Rudd’s Bat Mitzvah Gig

This has been quite the day for priceless video gems.

In addition to the bank commercial Tina Fey made back in 1995, this clip featuring a different actor has been making its way across the Internet.

In the early ‘90s, years before he was winning Alicia Silverstone over in Clueless, was entertaining people as a party DJ. The clip above was shot at a Bat Mitzvah he was hired for in 1992. You can read Gabrielle Birkner’s recollection of that day after the jump.

Read More | The Jewish Daily Forward via New York Post

The soft-spoken aspiring actor whom my mom and I met on the hunt for bat mitzvah DJs — I took an immediate liking to Rudd — turned out to be the perfect choice for the event. Rudd, donning a yellow tuxedo jacket, a ruffled shirt, shorts and Doc Martens, ably and energetically led us through all of the bat mitzvah staples: Candle-lighting, Coke & Pepsi, Toasts, limbo, “Hands Up,” Challah-cutting and “YMCA.” And as the “Today”  show-themed bat mitzvah party came to a close, he invited my friends onto the dance floor to sing a moving rendition of “That’s What Friends Are For.”

He’s come a long way, to be sure. The movie — in which Rudd stars alongside Steve Carrell — opened last weekend to a bevy of rave reviews. So I thought it would be a fitting time to share some footage of Rudd holding court at my bat mitzvah. That’s me, in the pink dress that I wrote about here, seeming to take the limbo way too seriously.

Is it wrong that I’d rather watch Rudd in the full version of this tape than in Schmucks?

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