Is Alex Edelman the next Jackie Mason?
Billy Crystal and Jerry Seinfeld are already fans of the American standup now performing in London
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
You might not have heard of the American comedian Alex Edelman, but if you want a recommendation ask Jerry Seinfeld or Billy Crystal. The illustrious comics made a point of seeing Edelman’s show Just For Us at New York’s Soho Playhouse, so you’d be a fool to miss him now he’s at the Menier Chocolate Factory in SE1. And Alex is in for the long haul as the show runs until Feb 26, which would be daunting for most US jokers on the cusp of stardom, but not one who honed his act in the UK.
“The UK is the reason I am a stand-up,” explains the diminutive 33-year-old who has been coming here for big chunks of time since 2012. “I came here to work on shows, and I actually dated a lovely British woman for a while, but I workshopped this show in the UK and took it to Edinburgh in 2018 where it was nominated for the main prize. It was then developed at the Soho Theatre in London and it’s directed by a Brit, Adam Brace, so London is its spiritual home. For me it’s a very British show.”
Without wishing to contradict the smart and prudent Alex, Just For Us is actually a very Jewish show for multiple reasons though the fact that David Yosef Shimon Ben Illouz Haleivi Alexander Edelman is his birth name is a big clue.
Announcing this impressive moniker within his show would be a step too far for funny men of the faith in Blighty, but this is just the tip of the heimische iceberg for Alex as Just For Us is loaded with references about his inescapable Jewish identity – “I look Jewish” – which he wears with pride, but ridicules, much like a millennial incarnation of the late Jackie Mason (olev ha-sholom). As he says on stage: “When I meet someone who tells me they used to be a Christian, but gave it up – it blows my mind – because Judaism does not work that way. It is the Hotel California of religions.”
Snappy with schtick, Alex also takes risks with his comedy by stepping outside of his comfort zone to experience things that will eventually fuel his material.
“All the good stuff that’s happened to me generally is because I wound up somewhere I didn’t belong,” says the comedian raised in an Orthodox home, ahead of attending an evening of Christian worship in Virginia. That what happens at the clappy sing-along winds up in a future show is inevitable, just as it is that the meeting of white supremacists he went to in New York features in Just For Us.
“I went there after receiving antisemitic comments on social media. People asked me ‘why did you go?’ and I told them I went because I wanted to know what people who don’t like Jews say when they’re hanging out with each other. Finding people whose viewpoints are that Jews run the world or that white people should be replaced is not that difficult. Sadly they have become very mainstream,” he says.
“I worry sometimes that we’re all just stuck in these environments, that are so familiar and we’re locked in. We fear that leaving them will change us in negative ways. But if I’m at a meeting of folks who don’t like Jews, am I the most Jewish person in the room? Or am I the least Jewish I could possibly be in that moment, if I’m at if I’m sitting there listening? It’s like a Schrödinger paradox in which you can be very Jewish and very unJewish at the same time.There are unusual dividends to this, so it’s a worthwhile endeavor to wind up in those places. Frankly, I wish more people ventured outside of their natural habitats.”
Alex’s natural habitat is clearly the stage and his hanging with the supremacists has created so much interest he has become a regular on the chat show circuit. Not revealing the outcome of his risky outing during our chat certainly whets the appetite sufficiently to boost ticket sales and for Jewish audiences it’s a no brainer. Who else is doing a one-man show in London that has a brother who can claim credit as the first Orthodox Jewish man to be four-time Israeli National Champion in the skeleton event in sliding sports and part of the Israeli at the 2018 Winter Olympics? Adam or AJ Edelman aka the Hebrew Hammer as he is known Holyside is Alex’s brother, and he gets more than a mention in the show. His other brother, Austin, not so much.
“I’m very proud of him,” says Alex, who is in a relationship with Jewish comedian Hannah Einbinder who starts in the series Hacks. “He lives in Israel and we have different views about it and argue all the time, but yeah, he’s wonderful and a good brother.He’s seen the shows a bunch of times and . has opinions on it and doesn’t back down from telling me what he thinks. So we fight like brothers, but it’s just verbal jousting.”
As for their parents Cheryl and Elazer, a renowned engineer, scientist and cardiologist, when it comes to bragging rights, raising an Olympian and a comedian takes top trumps at any dinner party.
“My parents are wonderful and have urged me to do something I might enjoy. People do ask ‘are your Jewish parents are okay with this?’ and I say of course they are. I think there’s this idea that Jewish parents only want their kids to be doctors or lawyers, but in my experience, that’s so not true. They want so much more for their children. Maybe the cycle of immigration is that you work hard in a tough manual labour job so that your kid can become a nice, professional, so their kid can become a DJ and squander all of the hard work that everyone has put in.” If Alex is squandering it, he is doing it very well.
Tickets www.menierchocolatefactory.com
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