Alex Edelman: Just for Us
You haven’t seen comedian Alex Edelman’s MAX special, Just for Us? You must.
I first read about Alex a few years ago, in a profile of the Brookline-born comedian, so when his special appeared in my MAX queue, I hit play. For ninety minutes, I howled. Next night, I watched it again, and I laughed tears. This weekend, I watched it a third time, and roared all over again. He is simply the funniest stand-up comedian I’ve ever seen.
Technically, Alex doesn’t do stand-up. It’s more run-around-in-circles. The guy is one nervous nebbish, who rates the Guinness Book of World Records for most miles of anxious pacing across a single stage. He’s disorienting at first, but once you get lulled into his motion, you’re entranced.
In this moment, with the Middle East more fraught than ever, it’s tough to imagine how a comedy skit whose overarching scenario is a Jew crashing a meeting of white supremacists could land well. Yet somehow it does. Part of the charm, for me, is the exquisite structure of the piece. Something that becomes clearer on second and third viewings. Yes, Alex Edelman does go to a meeting of white supremacists in Queens. Yes, he infiltrates them with naïve bravado. Yes, he gets outed as a Jew. And yes, his rom-com fantasy with an alluring neo-Nazi woman goes down in flames. But in between these bizarre plot points, he touches on gorillas who use sign language, Prince Harry’s cocaine habit, the ridiculous Olympic sport ‘skeleton,’ and Donny Osmond’s star turn on Broadway. There are so many detours, so deliciously woven, that we simply waft over the improbability of the main event. Alex triumphs in creating something completely Jewish that transcends the ugly politics of our moment. And also manages to tie all the inane elements into a satisfying, still humorous, ending.
Just for Us includes plenty of silly trivia; the man tells us straight out his affection for bad jokes and then revels in how much he gets us to laugh at them. Still, like all good comedians these days, Alex manages to infuse his jokes with social commentary. But unlike Hannah Gadsby or Mark Moran, or the uber-relevant Trevor Noah, Alex Edelman never lets his politics overshadow his primary objective: to land the joke.
Underlying the structure of the show is the fundamental question: is a Jewish person white? My first reaction is, of course. And yet, Alex clarifies that Jews are certainly not as white as, say, Boston Brahmins (who get their call-out during the monologue). Certainly, white supremacists don’t consider Jews to be white. The Nazi’s despised Brown and Black people; they killed homosexuals and gypsies simply for existing; but the genocide they leveled against Jews has earned its own name in history: The Holocaust.
Ouch! That last sentence is much too heavy for a puff piece on Alex Edelman. And yet, that truth exists beneath his buoyant hysterics.
Watch Just For Us. It is so much funnier than I am.
