Alex Edelman: Just for Us

The best way to describe this is performance standup. This is a much loved Broadway "show" that everyone was trying to get their friends to go see and raving about everywhere. Alex also toured this show to a few cities but never reached me and I'm so glad I'm getting to see it here. It reminds me of the great Hannah Gadsby sets where a general theme is presented, expanded on, digressed from and told in a story manner. The callbacks are brilliant and I have never sat in my living room and howled, snorted and spilled my beverage to anyone before. This is smart performance, physical humor that eclipses all those high paid comedians who aren't really funny (they know who they are). I hope he comes up with another show and we get to journey again with him. I will introduce this to friends and watch is over and over.

I approached this show knowing nothing about Edelman and not expecting anything above the mediocre standup norm. I found myself laughing like I was listening to Robin Williams. I'm not saying that he's as funny as Williams, but he's funnier than anyone else I remember hearing in years.

Like Williams, whose name he drops more than once, Edelman presents as manic and on the spectrum. But in fact his act is extremely focused and disciplined. He conjures up a scene and a cast of characters, and his apparently manic movements around the stage are artfully choreographed to that end. He strikes me as a true original, not as anyone's clone. As a reviewer once wrote of S. J. Perelman, just before they made him they broke the mold.

Best of comedy...takes you on a journey, and leaves you pondering in the end. Edelman makes a strong effort at sizing up elements of American culture, and particularly his intersection with it in his own identity. It's worth watching and thinking about. He tells a story in his standup, thoroughly excising tidbits of our cultural complex that formulate the jigsaw of Americanism. He shows why it's so difficult to be yourself in a society where performative SELF is a constant necessity, hiding or downplaying your identity in ways that might be unexpected to audiences unfamiliar with the straddling of whiteness.

I've never even heard of this guy, & now it's safe to say I'm a huge fan. I'm so happy to have found this as I needed something really good & this certainly qualifies. He reminded me of mix between maybe Nick Kroll & M. Broderick? But then I got my friend to watch it (they also loved & appreciated it) & they mentioned him being similar to the energy, wit & stage presence of Paul Reuben's & Robin Williams (I agree!).

So clever & entertaining! He mixes a good balance of important issues with great, well timed comedy. Being Jewish, Nazis etc. Tough topics & still sprinkles fun stories within other stories. I loved all of it & would highly recommend.

The standup of alex edelman. Lots of jewish jokes. And anti-semite jokes! Conversations about koko the gorilla... and when they told him robin williams had died. He's very animated... he never stops moving around the stage. How to deal with the haters, and nazi's... at their own meetings. Because he went to one! What to say in awkward conversations; jared kushner, and why he's so loud in temple. Alex's boston roots. His brother, the olympian. Jokes about the royal family. How hanukah really works, and why it's not better than christmas! Families, babies. Really funny. Good stuff. From new york city, on max streaming. Funny stuff. Directed by alex timbers.