Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Alex Edelman: Just For Us’ On Max, Have You Heard The One About The Jewish Comedian Who Walked Into A White Supremacist Meeting?

Alex Edelman debuted this special as a stage show in 2018, which just to give you a sense of six years worth of time, is not just pre-pandemic, but also in a time when America was shocked by an antisemitic white supremacist march in Charlottesville and the then-president’s reaction to it. In 2024, when Edelman’s show finally debuts on HBO, we’re all in a much different frame of mind when thinking about Jewishness. Of course, that might just make his story even more important to tell now.

ALEX EDELMAN: JUST FOR US: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Edelman, a millennial born and raised in and around Boston, took Just For Us to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018, where he received a nomination for best show (Rose Matafeo’s Horndog won that year). Following that run, he enjoyed an Off-Broadway run in 2021 that made the leap to Broadway in 2023, where it was filmed in August for HBO.

Directed for the stage by the late Adam Brace, and subsequently directed here by Alex Timbers (who previously worked with John Mulaney on Oh, Hello!, Kid Gorgeous, and Baby J), with Mike Birbiglia on board also as an executive producer, Edelman’s special focuses on how he decided to respond to antisemitic threats on social media not just through online means, but more significantly by responding to an open invite to a meeting of white nationalists in Queens.

“Nothing says white privilege more than a Jew walking into a meeting of racists, and thinking, this will probably be fine.” Of course, he can joke about it now. Spoiler alert?

Memorable Jokes: It’s not all about Edelman’s fateful decision to infiltrate a meeting of white supremacists.

He warms us up with a bittersweet observation about how Koko the gorilla, who had learned sign language and met Robin Williams, reacted upon learning Williams had died in 2014. Edelman also fills us in on his own Jewish upbringing, including the one time his parents inadvertently let them celebrate Christmas and the very different career path his younger brother has followed.

But the bulk of the show revolves around how Edelman found himself answering a call for people questioning their whiteness to convene in an apartment in Queens, with the comedian jokingly recalling the various people he met there, the small talk they made, the outside hobbies they had, and even the woman he found himself crushing on at the meeting.

It was only after the fact that a woman Edelman did date pointed out to him his own white privilege by having the chutzpah to attend the meeting in the first place.

And then he reckoned with why he went at all, knowing that everyone there would hate him for even existing. So why do it? “I wanted them to like me,” he confesses.

Our Take: So what’s with that story about Robin Williams and Koko, anyhow?

It’s all meant at once to put Edelman in context with Williams. “My comedy barely works if you’re not from the Upper West Side,” Edelman cracks. “Robin Williams crossed the species barrier.” He also says the story shows us his love for dumb jokes and the lengths he’ll go to, taking sign language classes over Zoom, just to get the bit right.

He meant to write a show full of dumb, silly jokes just like this.

But the harsh reality of life for Jews today, whether in America or anywhere else, has become fraught with danger as antisemitism continues to rise in his lifetime. And as much as he’d like to think of himself as a basic white guy (even with the baggage that comes with that), society won’t look at him that way. What’s a Jewish American to do? For Edelman, he could only fall back on his sense of humor and wish that might be enough to reach out and connect with the other side in real life. If a comedian could make a gorilla love and weep over him, why can’t humans of different political and religious philosophies do the same?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Ultimately, the show wants us to be as hopeful as Edelman, while also reminding us that sometimes we need safe spaces to simply exist. And we sure need a lot of hope right now.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.