Searching for Allan Rothbart

“The truth will set you free… but first it’ll suck.” When comedian Barry Rothbart was growing up in Queens in the 90s, there were two things he knew for sure… his father, Allan, was his best friend and he was also Jon Bon Jovi’s manager. But then everything changed in 1997, when Barry’s dad got arrested and admitted that he actually worked for the Italian mafia, running the largest bookmaking operation in the United States. High school Barry jumped in to work alongside him–bringing envelopes from one place to another, disposing of evidence, meeting with strange men with huge hands in the back of pizzerias, and making more money than most teenagers had ever seen. It all seemed like a perfect buddy comedy…. until it wasn’t. Years after Allan’s death from cancer in 2007, Barry discovered cassette tapes that his dad had recorded on his deathbed. These tapes contained confessions that shattered everything Barry thought he knew about his father. Serious crimes, stolen identities, relationshi