Just For Us – Alex Edelman Review

Last night, my family and I went to Alex Edelman’s comedy show Just For Us. According to the show’s website, Just For Us aimed to take the audience through hilarious anecdotes of Edelman’s life, while simultaneously addressing the antisemitism he has faced. My experience was just that. The show started with Edelman sharing a painfully funny story about a gorilla who knew sign language and without us even realizing, he weaved in a story of one of his experiences with antisemitism. I was on the edge of my seat. 

One storyline was about Edelman’s experience attending a meeting of white nationalists, and then them finding out he was Jewish. This was intertwined with a childhood story of him celebrating Christmas in a Jewish household. Edelman’s show, a mixture of funny and serious, was the perfect way to address antisemitism. The New Yorker put it best, stating that Edelman’s show contained “a bunch of fakeouts: a barrage of self-described ‘dumb jokes’ that are actually pretty smart; a seemingly offhand, meandering yarn that turns out to be minutely constructed; a goofy spiel that doubles as an unusually penetrating and insightful interrogation of what it means to be a Jew.”

Edelman’s show highlighted one particular difficulty of Jewish people today: one’s religion is not something that is obvious from looking at a person. Edelman was safe in a room full of antisemites for hours before he finally exposed his identity. In a world where antisemitism is prevalent, it can be tough to figure out how you want to express your Judaism, and how to address antisemitism when faced with it. Humor is Edelman’s weapon of choice, and it’s effective in engaging both Jewish and non-Jewish audience members in the issue. Ironically, therefore, the only part of the show I didn’t like was the title. Edelman’s show, and talking about antisemitism, isn’t “just for us” – it’s for everyone.