Review: What happens when a Jewish comic confronts his online haters?

An Ashkenazi Jew walks into a Neo Nazi meeting … . That may sound like a wind up for a kitschy Borscht Belt punchline but it’s what comedian Alex Edelman actually did one fateful night in Queens. Hilarity and terror ensued, in equal measure. A nerdy standup comic who can’t help wanting everyone to like him, Edelman regales us with a wonderfully wry and wisecracking tale of jigsaw puzzles, Jewish identity and, yes, jiving his way into a white nationalist club in his euphorically funny solo show “Just for Us,” now at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through Jan.

21 after a Broadway run. Amid the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, this one man play agilely mingles the humorous and the unsettling, silliness and white supremacy. Jogging around the stage in circles, the nimble witted Edelman has a gift for laser sharp descriptions of cultural and generational rifts in this hysterical 90 minute confessional.

For instance, he knows how to put things for the Gen Z audience. He describes BBC radio comedies, for instance, as “a podcast, for the dying.” Ouch. He wields that same insightful tartness to describe growing up Jewish in “this really racist part of Boston called Boston,” and the eternal pull of bigotry and hate to those who feel left behind by society.

His candid emotional vulnerability, framed by his intellectual dexterity, is pretty hard to resist. To be honest, so many of the punchlines are hysterically funny that I would have written more of them down but I struggled to take notes because I was laughing so hard I was crying. But the clowning around is deceptively deep.

There’s a method to all the amusement. Beneath the giggles, he digs up raw anthropological insights, like an “over medicated, ADHD generation” version cross between Bill Maher and Margaret Mead. Edelman admits that he loves to connect, chasing that electric vibe of empathy and belonging. The urge drives him to reach out to people who will never respond in kind.

He describes the arrangement of chairs at the meeting as an “antisemicircle.” The far right wingers he met that night in Queens fit some conservative tropes but not others. There is much kvetching about the “slow moving genocide” of Whites but there is also an older lady doing an epic jigsaw puzzle and a hottie named Chelsea whose comeliness distracts Edelman from his mission.

He longs for a Hallmark channel worthy star crossed meet cute. He finds himself yearning to belong. The White Nationalist group seems to welcome him. He fantasizes he has infiltrated the tribe so adeptly they might make him “youth outreach officer.” And yet the real magic here lies not in narrative but in the digressions.

His sidebars and asides sparkle with an impromptu charm that invites reflection. A shaggy dog story about the meaning of Christmas and the complicated dynamics of all families hits home. It’s hard not to see yourself in his riffs even when he’s mocking you. For instance, he repeatedly referred to a recent audience as “matinee,” as if that were an identity of its own.

Edelman definitely makes you think as hard as you laugh and that’s quite exhilarating, not to mention rare. He prompts you to ponder the boundaries of empathy, the nature of the tribal impulse and why we feel such a need to continually draw lines between “us” and “them.” Although most of his generation has never heard of Neil Simon, “funny is money” is still true.

That’s why Edelman is bound to strike it big eventually. Maher had better watch his back. Written and performed by Alex Edelman, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre Jan. 21 Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley 90 minutes $49 $99; www.berkeleyrep.org..