Alex Edelman’s third solo comedy special, Alex Edelman: Just for Us, has had many lives: after debuting the 90-minute show in downtown NYC in 2018, the funnyman took it on the road, performing more than 500 installments over the course of six years, including a run on Broadway. Now it’ll premiere on television as an HBO special tonight, April 6th at 10pm Eastern, reaching its biggest audience yet.
Directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers and taped in front of a live audience in August 2023 at New York’s Hudson Theatre, the new special tells the real-life story of when Edelman, who was raised Orthodox Jewish, covertly attended a meeting of white nationalists in Queens in a guise to understand people who were posting antisemitic content online. “What happens next forms the backbone of the shockingly relevant, utterly hilarious, timely, and only moderately perspirant stories that comprise JUST FOR US,” reads an HBO press release.
To watch Alex Edelman: Just for Us, you’ll need access to HBO—thankfully, the channel is available with most cable TV subscriptions. However, if you've cut the cord, you have watch live simulcasts of HBO channels via several live TV streaming service options, including Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. You also have access to HBO programming, including the Edelman’s latest special, through the network's streaming platform, Max.
Edelman has routinely used his heritage to inform his comedic insights and cultural commentary, and he similarly recounts the startlingly true story to meditate on topics like racial and religious identity and the scope of human empathy.
When discussing the show with Deadline, Edelman said: “I learned as an artist that I prefer ambiguity. I like to ask questions rather than pose answers, for some reason. I really like discussion with smart people, so I think conversations with smart people were the most pleasurable parts of the show and also kind of informed the show.”
“I’ve always liked the ambiguity of the title…within the context of a conversation about assimilation or whiteness,” the comic added. “My director Adam Brace used to [say] that a good solo show can oftentimes ask the question, what is our place in the world? And I think the questions about what Just for Us might mean is an extension of that.”
