In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, David is joined by comedian Alex Edelman for a special Purim discussion exploring the place of humor and levity in a world that often demands our solemnity.

A Modern Orthodox Jew from Brookline, Massachusetts, who’s “tried cocaine,” but has “never tried bacon,” Alex stars in the one-man Off Broadway show Just For Us, which has to be one of the only top-tier comedy specials to mention Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

In this episode, we discuss:

—How does a Modern Orthodox kid become a mainstream professional comic?
—What makes particularly Jewish stories resonate so much with wider audiences?
—Why hasn’t he left traditional Judaism amid his secular fame?

Tune in to hear how a bona fide star holds onto both his humor and his values to bare to the world his authentic self.

Interview begins at 26:56.

Alex Edelman is a product of Massachusetts’s Maimonides School and has been featured on Conan and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In 2020, he was the head writer and executive producer of the “Saturday Night Seder” YouTube extravaganza, which raised over $3.5 million for the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. His show Just For Us is running at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City. While nights tend to sell out quickly, tickets are available here: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35583/production/1107251.

References:

The World as Will and Idea by Arthur Schopenhauer

Is It Funny for the Jews? by Jason Zinoman

Here All Along by Sarah Hurwitz

My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges by Nathan Englander

Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander

Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander

Baseball as a Road to God by John Sexton