Park Slope Bar Makes Coronavirus Jokes To Cope

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Sorry Park Slope, "Lick Your Neighbor's Palm Sunday" has been canceled, and don't even think about naked Jell-O wrestling.

Ray Gish markets Commonwealth as a “pretty decent bar” that, despite the best efforts of Gish’s staff, famously doesn’t go in the type of karaoke or trivia night events that typically fill the calendars of other pubs.

But like every other New York City pub, the watering hole on Fifth Avenue and 12th Street has been forced to change its approach since the coronavirus pandemic.

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Gish had to furlough his nine staff members and now finds himself scrambling to apply for various loans and grants to deal with an uncertain future at a time when his normal bustling bar business is non-existent.

So as a way of providing levity to an otherwise grim situation, Gish has taken to creating and posting hand-written notices to his customers that announce the cancellation of the very events that wouldn’t be taking place – even if the pub known for its indie-rock-centric jukebox was open to the public.

Among the events that have been cancelled since the bar’s closure last month: a blue food potluck, a bagpipe recital, an amateur tattooing contest and a festive Lick Your Neighbor’s Palm Sunday event - all of which Gish created as a way of poking fun at his nondescript approach to bar ownership.

“They’re things that make no sense and that no one would attend,” Gish told Patch in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Despite everything going around him, Gish considers himself lucky that he has found ways to keep his sanity. Gish’s husband works from home, most of his friends have remained healthy and while he faces the same hardships as many of his fellow business-owners, Gish understands he has it better off than others who are struggling to cope.

The sign-writing has factored into that process, Gish says. Although he sometimes fights writer’s block in coming up with new fictional activities that Commonwealth Bar could host, his creative side has helped to break up Gish’s new routine of dealing with unemployment claims and the pile of paperwork that is part of the emergency relief owner he continues to seek from the federal government.

He does so while maintaining normal bartender hours, which keeps him up until 5 a.m., which he says is his normal state of being. Gish says will continue to post the signs as long has he can – as long as the inspiration for new events come.

"It's kind of depressing sitting in an empty bar," Gish said. "The signs are kind of a coping mechanism for me."

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