By Darlene Donloe
Alex Edelman Just For Us, the latest show at the Mark Taper, is a hilarious ongoing conversation and one-man show about Jewish identity.
Created five years ago by Edelman, who is considered to have one of comedy’s most distinctive voices, Just For Us, which did very well on Broadway, is an exploration of identity and mankind’s collective capacity for empathy.
It lands somewhere between stand-up at a comedy club and a play. It actually doesn’t matter which one – at the end, you feel like you’ve learned something.
Given the tension in the world today, this is either just the right time – or the worst time ever to be starring in a one-man show about anti-Semitism.
The metal detector everyone had to walk through to get into the theater may have something to do with that.
From the moment the 34-year-old Edelman, the king of the one-liners, took the stage with only a single chair as a prop, he had the audience in the palm of his hand as he briskly walked back and forth sizing up the audience while the audience simultaneously did the same with him.
He opened with some bad jokes about a bear and about a horse. Having warmed up the audience, from there he took off on a 90-minute set that left the audience in stitches!
Edelman, an Ashkenazi Jew, describes himself as neurodivergent and admits he has been tested 11 times to find out why he is the way he is.
After that eleventh test, Edelman said he overheard his mother say, “What do you mean, he’s fine?”
Now that’s comedy!
But wait, there’s more.
Edelman goes on to do hilarious bits about his hometown of Boston, Jewish names, wedding practices, family relationships, Robin Williams, and even how his family, at the behest of his mother trying to help out a friend – celebrated Christmas one year.
Every story bests the previous one.
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| Alex Edelman |
Just for Us is inspired by Edelman’s experiences as an Orthodox Jewish man attending a meeting of White Nationalists in Queens, NY (and, somehow, trying to have a meet-cute). The story of how he comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards is brilliant. All of the stories in Just For Us are hilarious.
‘Just for Us’ is just what Los Angeles needs right now. It’s super funny!
Edelman is no stranger to the comedy scene in the city of Angels, having workshopped his show in various spots across L.A.
Originally from Boston, Edelman has had a broad writing career—from writing for television to producing documentaries for the U.S. State Department to writing speeches for both the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers—alongside a career as an award-winning stand-up comedian and performer.
Edelman, known for his extremely personal storytelling and humor, is no stranger to unpacking his Jewish identity and heritage in his work. In his solo shows, Millennial in 2015 and its sequel Everything Handed To You in 2015 and 2016, Edelman also wrote about his experiences growing up and celebrating holidays with his family.
Just For Us opened Off¬-Broadway in 2021 and was extended six times before a successful run in London. The show finally opened on Broadway in 2023, playing its last performance in August.
‘Just for Us’ is a brilliant, entertaining, and thought-provoking night of theater.
It’s a great way to understand a culture that, for centuries, has provoked brisk dialogue.
‘Just for Us’ is written and performed by Alex Edelman, and directed by Adam Brace
On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah), and E (excellent), “Alex Edelman Just For Us” gets an E (excellent).
“Alex Edelman Just For Us,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA, through November 26.
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