Alex Edelman won the best newcomer gong at last year’s Comedy Awards with a show I found easier to admire than love. Its follow-up is an improvement: the Bostonian is trying less hard, and making fewer claims for himself. It has a theme – cultural identity, and trying to see the world from outside one’s own bubble – but it’s worn lightly. The upshot is an easygoing, intelligent standup set with one or two bulletproof set-pieces, which confirms this anglicised American as a talent to watch.
After an unforeseen early diversion, when someone nods off in the front row (handled with very good grace by our host), the narrative organises itself around a recent meeting in Dallas airport between Edelman, his twin and his teenage brother. A rare chance to meet now the trio are separated by continents, it’s spent fielding personal stories from strangers in exchange for bursts of phone-charging energy from Alex’s eight-way adaptor. (Dallas airport has a socket deficit.)
That event and other travels (performing to an antisemitic audience in Estonia; being told he’s autistic in Melbourne) set Edelman thinking about who he is, and why he identifies more strongly with his adopted than his native country. All very flattering to a UK audience, of course – but Edelman ranges far beyond anglophilia. There’s an enjoyable story about a one-off Christmas in his orthodox Jewish childhood home, and a deftly engineered skit re-enacting the creation of the Happy Birthday song.
That riff, and another about Greggs the bakers, are both examples of a familiar “imagine having the original idea for” comedy trope. Edelman is no innovator. But his new set rings true. It is thoughtful and unshowy, while confirming a talent for well constructed anecdotes with satisfying payoffs. I wouldn’t recommend nodding off, but it’d be excusable: this is laid-back, well-sprung comedy.
- At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 30 Aug. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
