Mike Birbiglia and Alex Edelman

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2022

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Heilemann talks with comedians Mike Birbiglia, best known for his acclaimed one-man shows Sleepwalk With Me, Thank God for Jokes, and The New One, and Alex Edelman, whose buzzy new monologue Just For Us, produced by Birbiglia, is one of New York's hottest tickets. Heilemann and the two performers discuss why Birbiglia took Edelman under his wing and how their mentor-pupil relationship works; what Just for Us — in which Edelman unfurls an extended, acutely observed, often hilarious yarn about the night he crashed a meeting of white nationalists in Queens — says about broader questions of identity in American culture; and what drove Edelman’s decision to focus the show on his Judaism, which has long been central to his sense of self but not his comedy. They also assess the arc of Birbiglia’s career from stand-up to storytelling; his biggest influences, from Mitch Hedberg to Steven Wright; the personal experiences that have inspired him to be vulnerable on stage and take emotional risks; and why, for both Birbiglia and Edelman, a pair of comics who readily and repeatedly land killer jokes, there’s a lot more to comedy than making people laugh.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, it's Triggy from T with Triggy, the podcast where I reconnect with friends over a cup
0:06.8	of tea and a chat. This week, my show is sponsored by Garla Bingo. Listen, I know it's fun to
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0:38.5	12 tickets per game. Teas and seas apply. Hey everyone, John Howman here and welcome to Hell
1:05.8	and High Water. My podcast for the recount about politics and culture on the edge of Armageddon
1:10.2	with big ups to my pal Rizza, the presiding genius behind the sound of Hutan Klan and the
1:14.3	producer of our dope theme music. So back in February, I went out one night to the tiny
1:19.3	legendary Cherry Lane Theatre in the West Village here in New York to see a one-man
1:22.9	show called Just For Us by a young comedian named Alex Edelman. Edelman showed it open in
1:28.7	the fall, got a nice blurb in the New Yorker, and then shut down for a month or so due to
1:32.8	December Omicron surge and it just reopened to a very nice critics pick review in the New
1:39.1	York Times. And in Instagram post from Sarah Jessica Parker to her 8 million followers,
1:46.7	calling Just For Us, quote, special, special, special, a surprise, a revelation, and a gift
1:54.2	to everyone in the audience. The SJP Tweet had ginned up a lot of buzz and goose ticket sales
2:02.7	and kicked off what would soon turn into a veritable conga line of comedy royalty showing
2:07.9	up to check out Just For Us that night, Hassan Menage was in the house while it seemed
2:11.9	thereafter by the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal, and Steve Martin. Just For Us
2:17.7	is a combination of stand-up and storytelling in which Edelman uncorks an extended, riffy,
2:22.2	acutely observed yarn about the night he decided to crash a meeting of white nationalists
	...

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