Alex Edelman; Photo by Will Bremridge Alex Edelman has a passion for creating content for Jews. Since 2014, The 31-year-old Modern Orthodox comedian and writer has been busy professionally creating a plethora of content — virtual and live.
“I can’t stand comedy about Jews,” he told the Journal from his Los Angeles apartment, where he is quarantining. “I like comedy about what it means to be Jewish. I like comedy about the Jewish experience.”
Originally from Boston, Edelman honed his comedic chops while studying abroad at a yeshiva in Jerusalem. One of 10 English-language comedians in the country at the time, he became a regular at one of the only English comedy clubs and knew then that stand-up would play a serious role in his life.
To date, he has performed stand-up in England, Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States; has appeared on “Conan” and Comedy Central; was the recipient of the 2018 Herald Angel Award for his third Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, “Just for Us”; has written for television and created a documentary on anti-Semitism for the BBC; and has recently released his first comedy album, “Until Now,” named after all his favorite jokes written and performed up to this point.
The 22-track album is filled with jokes Edelman is proud of, including bits on his Orthodox family, working for former President Barack Obama, meeting Neil Armstrong, and how millennials will never be rich enough to buy a house. He also jokes about Israel, anti-Semitism and “progressive racism.”
“Anti-Semitism has touched my life in various ways and I experience it regularly from people who are Black and white, to people on the far left and far right,” Edelman said. “It’s a big part of the conversation of my comedy, which is why I prefer comedy about the Jewish experience,” he added, noting that his award-winning “Just for Us” special was all about attending a Nazi meeting in New York and being outed as a Jew in the middle of it.
While his jokes are usually well received by Jews and non-Jews, he said Jews can be critical of his work and of his observance. After going on “Conan” without wearing a kippah, many questioned whether he was still Orthodox. “I think there are a lot of Jews with strict ideas of what Judaism means to them,” he said. “People are really concerned with policing, which I’ve never understood.”
As he continues to proudly define his Jewish identity on his own terms, and its prominence in his work, it has resonated with his fans. After several requests from fans deprived of attending live comedy shows due to COVID-19, Edelman realized July was the best time to drop the album.
“I’m so happy to have done this thing and have something people can listen to now that there’s no live comedy happening,” he said. “It makes me a little bit wistful looking back on it. …That’s what I missed. When you can’t do stand-up, you can’t offer much to people.”
Edelman also was the head writer on “Saturday Night Seder,” the April virtual Passover experience featuring more than a dozen Jewish and non-Jewish celebrities. The seder, which was a major success and raised nearly $3 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is one of the projects he is most proud of. A major reason it was so well received by Jews across denominations, he said, is because it was taken seriously and didn’t have easy jokes about “bubbes and brisket” but actual elements of the seder experience.
“We made sure to make it super Jewish,” he said. “I was missing the big Pesach seders that are a huge part of my life. … No totems about lox. The jokes were all about the experience of Pesach, the people at the Pesach table. It was situational. We also let people do what they thought was funny. We wrote to that.”
Edelman said he, Benj Pasek and Adam Kantor, together with the rest of the creative team, were thrilled so many celebrities were willing to perform for free.
“Bette Midler [called] us two days before, asking, ‘What do you need?’ and I was like, ‘I want you to be Eliyahu Hanavi,’ and she’s like, ‘Great, send it over,’ ” he said. “Everyone we asked said yes. Idina Menzel was the one who said she should do ‘Ma Nishtana’ (The Four Questions). She said it as a joke and we said, ‘OK.’ You got to see why big stars are big stars.”
One of the sentimental and personal moments in “Seder” is toward the end when physicians and first responders shared their words for “Next year in Jerusalem.” One of the physicians was Edelman’s father. “It was so personal to me and such great experience,” he said. “I hope I get a chance to do more stuff like that.”
“Seder,” which was put together in weeks, continues to raise money, and music singles purchased go to Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). Edelman also has taken part in other livestream and Zoom comedy shows for a good cause, including a Just for Laughs livestream with comedians and friends Chloe Fineman, Robby Hoffman and Hannah Einbinder, where the proceeds also went to JFREJ.
A fan of Mel Brooks, Gary Gulman and Steve Martin, as well as Jewish writers like Nathan Englander, Etgar Keret and Jenji Kohan, Edelman strives to learn more about the craft of comedy every day from great creatives so he can build on his own work.
Earlier this month, he was asked to contribute to the Guardian in honor of Martin’s 75th birthday. “It’s easy to write about the folks you love,” he said. “He’s so silly and wise in equal measure. I love everything he does and if I ever met him, I think I’d die.”
Edelman also had the opportunity to work with Kohan on Netflix’s newest teen series, “Teenage Bounty Hunters.”
“The best parts were the occasions when Jenji Kohan was in the writers’ room,” he said. “She’s, like, magical. One of the funniest and most interesting, sensitive people I’ve ever met. Once, Jenji brought her daughter, Eliza, into the room to say hello and we picked her brain. The show’s about teenage girls, and I was like, ‘I wish at 17 I was half as confident and cool and funny as this teenager is right now.’ The show’s a lot of fun. I’m proud to have worked on it.”
“Until Now” is available here. Watch “Saturday Night Seder.” You can follow Alex Edelman on his website, on Twitter and on Instagram.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.