“Oh god, you’re crying in front of Carol Burnett, fantastic,” Alex Edelman said at the top of his acceptance speech for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special at the 76th Emmy Awards. It was just the latest unexpected milestone in the life of his widely celebrated solo show ‘Just for Us,’ which premiered on HBO and also won a special Tony Award earlier this year. In this episode, the 35-year-old Jewish comic shares the unique challenges of bringing his story about attending a white supremacist meeting in Queens to the stage and screen, including the sudden death of his director just before opening on Broadway and how performing a show about antisemitism changed after October 7th. Edelman also discusses the surreal experience of getting notes from comedy heroes like Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal, tells a story about the time he baffled Mel Brooks by calling him “woke” to his face, and teases his next stand-up hour, which will take on the Israel-Gaza war.

This episode was originally published on April 10, 2024.

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Emmy-Winner Alex Edelman on ‘Just for Us’