Aloha and Namaste, everyone. Welcome to InPolitic with John Heilman, my podcast on politics and culture for odysseyandpuck. Coming at you every Wednesday and Friday with fresh topical, candid, fun conversations with the people who shift and shape our culture, from the quarters of political power to those in tech, business, sports, and entertainment. Entertainment. I'm brings us to our guest today, a rising star of comedy, who started developing a one-man show called Just For Us, back in 2018, and slowly but surely refined it into a totally hilarious, deeply serious, seriously wise, profoundly empathic, truly transcendent piece of comedic performance art, delivered in a style that was equal parts Gary Shandling, Jerry Seinfeld, Woody Allen, Spalden gray, and Mike Berbiglia, Just For Us, renders the unlikely, mostly A true story of how Alex, born and raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family, came to spend one evening at a meeting of white nationalists in Queens, workshoped abroad, launched in the US, way off Broadway. Just For Us gradually gathered steam, mostly by word of mouth, ultimately landing on Broadway for a sold-out run last summer where it earned Alex both an OBE and a Tony Award, and then being adapted into an HBO Comedy Special.

You can see that on Max, for which Alex is currently holding an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. Just For Us was one of those cultural phenomena I like to think of as a low-key high-brow juggernaud. Not a mega blockbuster in the traditional sense, like Barbenheimer or Deadpool versus Wolverine, or in the Broadway context, Hamilton or a spanalot, but a show where eventually it starts to seem that everyone you know has seen it and been so wowed proud by it that they find themselves going back to see it again, and sometimes again, and again, and again for the sheer pleasure of turning on their friends and family to it. I say this with some degree of authority because I, in fact, am one of those people. I first saw Alex's show in January of 2022 at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, and by the time that Alex uncorked its final performance at the Taper in Los Angeles last spring, I was there, too, I believe I'd seen the show 11 Eleven times. Yes, eleven times. That is how much I think of Just For Us and how much I think of Alex, who across that span of shows has become a dear, dear friend.

I mean, I don't want to sound mockish, but I love this kid. So you can imagine just how pleased I was when Alex turned up unexpectedly in Chicago last week for the first two days of the Democratic Convention, which led me to text him, said, Hey, come on over. Let's do some podcasting. Happily, Alex, as he says in the podcast, is a lonely guy. He didn't have anything else going on. He had a spare hour to give me out of his busy, I say that with air quotes, his busy schedule. Actually, Alex is a really busy guy. But anyway, he had a little spare time in his schedule, and voila, you have the episode that you're listening to right now. After the nonstop tumultuousness in the political world for the past five weeks, it was awesome to be able to take my foot off the gas for an hour or so and kick it with young Alex. So you do the same thing. Take your foot off the gas, crack a cold one, and settle in for a fun, funny, and totally delightful chat with a budding comic genius. Here on InPolitic with John Heilman, coming at you in 3, 2, 1.

Yes, I saw him. I saw him holding the Bible and endorsing a Bible as if it needed his endorsement. He should try reading it. It says, Do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with your God. He should try reading it. It says, Love your neighbor as yourself. It says, In as much as you've done it unto the least of these, you have done it also unto me.

That was Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia administering a blast of Old Testament fury and humor at Donald Trump on the first night of the Democratic Convention in Chicago. I'm playing it for one reason and one reason only, which is that I know from your Instagram, Alex Edelman, that you were in the hall for that speech and seemed to really enjoy it. And that's a topic that we'll get to shortly. But first, hi.

Hey, John.

It's so good to see you.

It's good to see you, too, man.

It's been like too long.

Yeah, it's been like more than a month and a half.

And who would have thought that the place we see each other is in Chicago? You don't live in Chicago.

No, no.

I don't live in Chicago.

No, you don't.

Neither one of us live in Chicago.

No, I've noticed this about us.

And yet, here we are.

At the Republic, a Democrat National Convention.

In a hotel suite, no less, which it seems like somehow mildly inappropriate.

It's really hard for me because I'm the lone surviving Dean Phillips candidate, a surrogate. So for me, this is really a bummer.

So you show up in Chicago for your first ever Democratic Convention? Yes. And you are here because you are a politics junkie, because you love to experience junkie. I'm an experienced junkie. Because what? Your reason for being here is what? You're looking for material?

I'm here to see, just in case, spam burger speaks. No, sir. Look, in all seriousness, it's like I have a few days off. I'm involved with some like, Democrats stuff. I do think this election, I hate to be earnest here. It's fairly crucial. And doing the amount that I can with the small audience that I have and some of the behind the scenes stuff that I have done in the past and continue to try to do, like writing and things like that. Yeah. And so interested in seeing what's going on. So I'm here for two days just to... And also, by the way, it's a really incredible experience. You know this about me. I love to have different types of unique life experiences. The one issue here is that everybody seems to share my politics pretty broadly. So that's really unusual for me.

Do I need to round up a group of white supremacists here that we could take you to?

Yeah, sure. I'll just go outside the building and find a couple. But truly, it's interesting because in that convention center, I'm actually... I wish I was here longer so I can go to some of the plenary sessions for people with more diffuse interests within the party so I could see some people that I disagree with because that's what I'm used to going to see. But it's been really interesting.

What about this experience so far? Having been here for basically 24 hours, right? Mm-hmm.ish? Tell me about what happened in your day at the convention yesterday that you found interesting.

I cannot tell you the sheer amount of like-minded people here. I had a thought, which I've never had before, which is like, Oh, I might meet my spouse here. I know it's a ridiculous thing, I think.

Well, first of all, it's also just very revealing of where your head's at.

Well, it's just I don't spend a lot of time with like, leg-minded people. Also, it would suggest maybe you're a little... Lonely? Yeah. I mean, sure. But that's going to be constant for the rest of my life, I imagine. Oh, don't say that. That's not interesting to your listeners.

It's interesting to me and your other friends. The idea of Alex Zettelman is perpetually lonely for the rest of his life is not something that you wish for. I think that's okay.

I think that might be my lot in life, which I'm okay with.

I'm not okay with that. All right. Well, look- I'm going to spend night two at the Democratic Convention. I'm going to spend this night. This is Yenta night for me. Oh, please don't do that. I'm going to be trying to fix you up, set you up with somebody.

Just put something up on the screen at the United Center being like, Hey, this guy's looking. No.

Emmy nominated, Broadway star, Alex Edelman needs a date. We could share the whole Democratic Convention to a giant Tinder thing.

This is a different thing. I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but I'll say that it is really fascinating how many people are gathered under the umbrella of this thing that I generally agree with, which is that Kamala Harris and Tim Walls are the people that should be running the country next, which seems like an obvious thing, or it seems like a thing that you wouldn't find hard to find in a city like New York or Los Angeles. But the idea that people specifically traveled to witness this one thing is distinctive and distinguishing. This is the most basic answer I could possibly give you, but it is really It's an obvious one, but as a physical experience, it's actually pretty incredible.

But you've been to a concert before, right? Sure. Like a rock concert. Sure.

But don't you feel at home at concerts for me? I do.

But I mean, whether it's a sporting event, 50,000 fans of the New York Yankees, the Yankee Stadium, or a show at Madison Square Garden, where there's 20,000 fans of Billy Joel or whatever, that's not an unusual experience. Those are all like-minded people. I understand, but in some sense, and all these people aren't like minded in every sense. They're like minded politically.

But these are fundamental. If I said to you, what do you share, everyone in that room, what do you share in common? They give you an answer that be like, well, I have a I have ideas about fundamental issues centering on how human beings should be treated and how the country should be run. And if you went to a Billy Joel concert, what unites them is like, I like Allentown as a song and think it's pretty good. There are different... Those These are different levels of affinity groups, surely.

Well, surely, although I would say in some sense that people who love... 20,000 people who all love Billy Joel, that may be a more meaningful, a more specific, meaningful shared interest than people who say, I prefer the Democratic Party over the Republican Party in a binary choice.

But it's not just I prefer the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It's that I'm flying to Chicago and staying in a hotel and going every day to a place where I have committed myself to being involved in a way that's slightly more active than just pulling a lever in a voting booth. I think that's like- But what is the...

When you think about the... I mean, I agree with you that there's a huge difference between Democrats and Republicans. So it's not like I'm saying that I don't think- Very brave of us both. Well, but I'm saying underneath the umbrella of a national political party, there are people who believe in all kinds of different things on a variety You have people who think that who are pro-Israel, people who are much more sympathetic to the Palestinians. You have people in the middle of those things, very much in between those polls. You have people who believe in low taxes, people who believe in much higher taxes. You have people who believe in a lot of government I've never mentioned in the economy, people who still don't believe in very much. You have people who believe in... On the policy preference front, all that really unites these people is that they are not Republicans.

But isn't that a beautiful thing? Isn't that the whole ball game? The fact that all these people with diffuse and diverse interests have come together under this banner to discuss it and support a candidate with the hope that- I'm only trying to make the point that this is not that unusual.

You find yourself in all kinds of places where people have a large gatherings of people who have a common interest. That's meaningful in the sense that they are all fans of the Boston Red Sox. I hated to say the Yankees knowing you. If you're at Fenway Park, are you telling me you're not in a group of like-minded people?

No, of course, you're in a group of like-minded people. But at the same time, Like, these are like...

I'm trying to get you to some more specific- But there's a participation aspect, too.

You're not going out there to rake the grass at Fenway. There is a thing where you're not just here because you're a fan. You're here because you're participating.

This is such a conversation that you and I would have.

We're having a semantic argument. Yes, it's ridiculous.

Yes. So here's my question. My question was just, Hey, man, you were here for a day. What are you doing here? I asked you what in your first day at a Democratic Convention, what was striking to you? So the first thing, let's move past the quote. You're striking to be here with a bunch of people who all agree with you politically. That's the first thing. Are there more specific? You were in the convention hall last night. You heard a bunch of speeches. Did things move you? I will say something that maybe this is not what you're looking for, but I went to an event today where there are a lot of lobbyists, and I talked to lobbyists, and I really broadly don't care for them.

It felt like a really sorry.

You had a bad experience today because you went around with a bunch of people who-I went to some event and there were a bunch of lobbyists.

And I'm talking to a woman who works for fast food chain, didn't enjoy the conversation.

Is there anything you've done the last day that you've enjoyed here?

Oh, So much. I mean, like watching Warnock speak, watching Ashley Biden introduce Joe Biden. I was very bummed they cut James Taylor, but I was really like, I'm watching people get choked up at the people who are talking about abortion.

You just mentioned, I'm curious about this. When you think about the highlights, you've written speeches and have been involved in speechwriting. When you think about the combination of the speeches as written and delivered, what is the totality of the experience? The things that stood out to you last night as being moving and affecting, you mentioned Warnock, you mentioned Ashley Biden, you mentioned the real people stories around reproductive rights. Were those things for you that you thought were particularly effective as political communication or moved you personally? Or what was the-It's more the response and it's more the energy.

Maybe I'm a little bit too craft-oriented, but you know what I liked was watching Biden deliver his speech and watching, maybe I shouldn't say this, but watching the prompter and seeing where Biden decided to rift and throw in personal things and what the combination of the speech that he had written in the stuff that he was what the sum total of all that was. Again, it's the energy of the convention center. I've seen most of these people speak in person before. Sure. But to to watch people feel... To feel a palpable hope and excitement from that many people in a basketball arena is astounding. What they say, great, but it's more I hate the word vibe. I think it's really imprecise, but this feels like an election that has almost entirely been defined... For things good and bad has been almost entirely defined by vibes thus far. It really does feel like a series of momentum swings and shifts. To be in a room where there is momentum, where there is good moments and bad moments felt like a little a key, felt like a little representation of the campaign writ large. And so really cool to watch people.

Hillary Clinton's speech is very good, but the response to Hillary before she came out, during her speech, afterwards. Powerful. The headline. People went, Oh, that speech was great. I don't know if that speech is any better or any worse than what Hillary Clinton usually delivers. I think she's a pretty decent order. But the fact that people are watching is like, Here's what you could have won, speech from Hillary Clinton. And feeling it, sorry to yell, but feeling it a certain way. I know these candidates by and large, and maybe I'm a little jaded, but what I don't know is this many people watching them representing the states that they're from, representing the hours long trips to be here, the hotels that they had to get, the weights to get into the convention center, standing there for a moment of hope or a moment of redemption, I guess is too strong a word, or a moment of narrative satisfaction in the face of this very scary election. It's all been the people for me that have been the highlights. Sorry, John. It's a little-No, no.

That was a good answer. You get a star. You're a good boy.

Thank you.

I want that star. You took part in the Broadway for Biden fundraiser.

Yeah, that's right.

This year, right?

I got in trouble.

Right. Well, we can talk about that in a second. You got in trouble because you made a couple of jokes that...

Made a couple of jokes about the President's age. I said...

That may have been a little too on the nose.

Go ahead. I said, the President, he loves Hamilton because he knew him, which really...

Which he enjoyed. Biden would have enjoyed that joke.

He enjoyed it. He enjoyed it. And the first lady He enjoyed it, but some other people were like, What are you doing, dude? Yeah, they're like, What are you doing? I'm like, He knows he's old. He's talking about his 278 years of public service afterwards. But yeah, I did this probably for Biden's fundraiser. Right.

So you did that, right? And now it's just been announced that there is a Broadway for Kamala fundraiser that's going to be happening. You're going to be involved in that.

But it's not just a fundraiser. I guess it's a group of people organizing a little movement that's organizing busses and phone banking. It's like a confederation And I think there will be a live event, but I'm actually not doing anything live event-wise. I'm just helping sort volunteers and talent into things, too. I've done some stuff with Knock for Democracy, which puts people on busses and sends them to swing states and stuff like that.

Okay. So the reason I'm stipulating here that you are a committed Democrat who's been active on behalf of the Democratic Party in this election cycle under now two different not nominies. The original nominee, Joe Biden, the current nominee, Kamala Harris. If Joe Biden hadn't decided to bow out a month ago, would you think you'd be in Chicago for the convention?

That's a really good question. Why?

Thank you.

I was just surprised by it. I'm not being... I'm just surprised. I thought you were going to say, would you still be supporting Joe Biden?

Because frankly, I would support- Well, I know the answer to that question. I mean, you're a committed Democrat, and you think that stopping Donald Trump from getting I feel like in the White House is really important. Yeah. As do, you're talking about commonality of interest. One thing we can bet that everyone in the United States tonight will agree on is that not letting Donald Trump have another term in the White House is not just important, but a really important thing.

Which means that Doug Emhoff has the opportunity to do the funniest thing you could possibly do, which has come out for trying to ask. But I think, I don't know, probably not.

Because?

If I'm giving an Honest answer, probably not, because I think part of this is... If I'm examining my own answer, part of this is vitality. I'm really interested in the... There's a vitality to this moment that I'm really responding to when I'm in the room. And I don't know that... I think Joe Biden has done a wonderful job. I'm totally... And again, I don't know if it even has that much to do with the candidate, but it definitely has to do with the surge of enthusiasm, the vitality in that enthusiasm, I think it's part of the reason that I'm here.

I think it's okay to say this now. I think you can answer the question I'm about to ask you honestly, which is not a question that previously people couldn't answer honestly. When Biden decided to bow out on that Sunday, your immediate reaction to that was, what was your emotional reaction? Relief? I mean, this is what... There's no one who's being halfway honest who wouldn't say the following. The exuberance, the enthusiasm, what we've seen over the subsequent month around Kyla Harris is a reflection of the fact that for a lot of people who respect, revere, love, value, fans of Joe Biden, people who have nothing bad to say about Joe Biden, by the time we got to that day in July that he stepped aside, they had become deeply concerned about whether you could win the election, and that when he stepped aside, they felt some combination of relief and a surge of renewed hope. Everything we've seen since then has demonstrated that. So I'm always just interested to hear the personal element of it for people who are invested in this way. I know you like Joe Biden.

I was relieved, but not overjoyed. First of all, I thought… I think, honestly, I wonder how it actually went down because I hear all these different versions of it, even in… It's so hard to read. It's so hard to read the movements because there are four or five of them. Do you know what I mean? There's the version where Joe was forced to do it. There's the version where he bowed out graciously for the good of a nation. There are so many different ones, and everyone will tell you which one it is based on their agenda or how they'd want to feel about it.

So the truth is-When we're not on the podcast, I'll tell you what actually happened.

I mean, sure, but I've heard what actually happened from four different people in four different... But I would actually like to know. I bet. I'm sure you know.

But like-Let's just put it this way. Neither one of those versions you just gave are accurate.

But that's how I feel. I mean, obviously-those are the extreme versions. Exactly. But that's why I said there are four or five different versions. Those are the two, and there are three in the middle. I'm sure that one of those is probably closest to the mark and not even...

In a lot of cases in the world, there are actually... I mean, there's Rashaun is Rashaun for a reason because even within the realm of once you get away from the ridiculous outliers at the far ends of the spectrum, the absolutus positions. In the middle, people of good faith who don't even have agendas.

But your question was, how did I feel? I felt a little sad for the President. Also, he could have stayed. I really do believe that unless you tell me otherwise, I do believe he could have stayed on a ship, even as the people on it were punching holes in the sides. Sure. I did feel what I feel whenever I watch someone do something in the public eye that is not immediately the most self-serving thing, which is the awe that there is anyone in the world left who does that. I can't help that awe, by the way. Even when I watch, the most perverse example of this is Mike Penns deciding not to go along with the Trump thing.

It was Trump's fake elector's scheme and trying to...

I I felt a degree of admiration for that. I felt a degree of... Whenever you watch Liz Cheney, Kamikaze, her own career in order to... Everyone says it should be an easy thing to do. Obviously, there are benefits to doing the right thing that from the other side will earn you some approval. But whenever I watch anyone do anything like that, I feel that admiration. I also felt really hopeful because that did create a window for It did create this new opportunity. It did create this really powerful thing. I also really like Kamala Harris. I think Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoffer are really impressive people who are relative. Veep makes fun of it, but have done a pretty good job in the quiet public part of the naval observatory. I think they're really impressive folks. I was really overjoyed for Doug and Kamala.

What this This is a question that could sound like it has an edge. I don't mean it this way. I think a lot of people on that day when Biden decided to endorse her, at least in the political class, there were a certain set of expectations on the basis of what has been the conventional wisdom about her performance as vice President and her very bad presidential campaign, which I think no one would try to claim that when she ran for President in 2020, she ran that that was a well executed endeavor. But that has made a lot of people... A lot of people have been surprised. People who are, again, sympathetic Democrats have been surprised at how incredibly well she's performed in this period. Did you have a point of view where you were like, if I had said to you on that day, if I had said, Alex, it's up to you. Either Kamala Harris can be the nominee. She can consolidate the party very quickly. She is going to be the day factor nominee from the moment that Joe Biden bows out. Or you could have some a competitive process in which you would get to see her compete against Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Westmore, whatever, a collection of top-tier Democrats, which would you have opted for?

I have to think about that, but ultimately, I think that she'd prevail. I think I think that says more, maybe that's a slight indictment of the bench that Democrats have.

No, I don't think it is. I think there are many people who had the view that if you had an open process, that she would prevail. Sure. She had lots of advantages and had lots of strengths that would have made her the front runner in that process. But the question of whether if you had to choose- I think before he dropped out, there was a sense that an open convention would invigorate the party.

And so I was I'm excited about that. Then what happened was he dropped out, and it's genuinely numeric. It seems numerically impossible or statistically impossible or stochastically impossible to imagine a situation where the party is more invigorated than it is right now, if we're being totally honest. It's a really invigorated party. I think what's happened is vastly preferable. And also, like you said, she's done a really good job. She's doing great. I didn't follow her presidential campaign last time around because, frankly, that wasn't my candidate. Who was your candidate? Biden, ultimately, but I was really interested.

Not at the beginning of the... But before he was the nominee. Budaj. Budaj.

Budaj. Budaj. I was really struck by Boudgege's ability to speak to all Americans. I think Boudgege has a talent for nuance that I don't know anyone else can completely match. And I was really, really blown away by it. I remember seeing him on Fox News talking about guns in a way that I thought both Republicans and Democrats could understand. And it really surprised me because the last person I thought did that was Barack Obama when he was running for President the first time around. I thought he was really able to speak to Americans on all sides of issues. And so really, really impressed.

Were you rooting for Pete for a beep?

No. No. I thought that- Had you ever heard of Tim Walsh before Tim Walsh came on the Nationalist?

Oh, this time?

Yeah, this time. I thought whoever they picked would be... I didn't really care, if I'm being honest with you. Really? Maybe I should have, but I didn't know enough about Tim Walsh, to be honest. I didn't know anything about him. Right.

Did you know who was the governor of Minnesota?

I did. Because you have picked him out of the lineup?

Yeah.

Really? Yeah. Al Franken is a friend of mine. And so Al Franken talks a bunch about-He could have picked him out of the lineup.

Yeah, Al Franken could have picked him out of the lineup.

Al Franken said nice things about him for years. Really liked him. He's been like, Al Franken. Al Franken's fantastic. So I really, really enjoyed. I'm going to evade Franken.

If I'd asked you when you first saw him to say how old you thought he was, what would you have said?

Tim Kamala's? Yeah. I don't know how old he is now. Was he 62?

No, he's a little younger than that. He's basically the same age as Kamala. I think he looks... I always look at him and think... There was always the people were like, Hey, he's cool granddad energy. And I'm like, The dude's my age.

It's like... Can I tell you something weird? I don't know how old Kamala is. I don't know how old Budujet is. I don't know how old any of these people are. I just know how old they seem.

They're all just on the brink of... Well, not Budujet. They're all the others that you just mentioned. Me, Kamala, and Tim Walls, the people in this conversation right now, although I was not on the short list for a BP. We don't know that. No, I know that. I don't bet, buddy. I can't clear a bet. My criminal record alone disqualifies me. But we're all like, very late '50s. Ioh, wow.

I mean, I'm really...

But some people-Pete is younger, though.

Yeah, I know Pete's younger. Whenever I see Pete, I ask how the 14th gentleman is. I'll be like, How's Chaston is? If you think about it, Secretary of Transportation. The 14th gentleman. That means Chaston is the 14th gentleman. I'll be like, How's that? I met him at the county center. Are you saying that's like the low...

That transportation is like the lowest department of the cabinet? I think in the line of succession, isn't he the 14th? I don't I know. You know this better than I do.

I think it's the 14th. I can't believe it's the 14th gentleman.

Maybe the Department of Interior, it seems to me, might be below Department of Transportation.

That's possible or agriculture? I think Vilsack, I don't know. But in any case, I'm a big fan of I'm a big fan of younger politicians, but I wouldn't exactly know.

I like to think about the possibilities about what the... I shouldn't say I like to. It's an interesting question. What the weird chain of events that would have to occur that whoever is 14th in the line of succession would end up as President.

It would be a designated survivor situation, weren't it?

Yes. I don't even know. Vice President, Speaker of the House, President Pro-Tem of the Senate, typically the Senator with the longest tenure of the Senate, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior is number eight. That seems way too high for Secretary of the Interior. Agriculture is number nine. Commerce is 10. This seems like a fucked up order. Anyway, Secretary of Labor is 11. Health and Human Services is Housing and Urban Development, 13. And transportation is 14. Of course, you got it right because you're a fucking dork. Secretary of Energy is 15. Education is 16. Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security is 18. That's just because it's the most recently.

I mean, it does seem to be inC'est a lot of whack.

Come on, how can you have the Secretary of Agriculture, a head of the Secretary of Homeland Security?

It's definitely seniority, isn't it?

After attorney general, after number seven, things get a little hinky.

Attorneys general, that's right.

That's right. So I wonder at this moment what your level of... There are two different, generally, two different breeds of Democrats right now, I would say. And you're a good example of someone who's really interested in politics, but it's not in the political class, obviously. You're an entertainer. No, I'd have better seats. On a good day, you're an entertainer. You're a funny man on a good day. On a good day, yeah. Yeah. But there are two breeds of Democrat right now. And one of them is like-Altasian and poodle? One of them is, one would be really, I don't want to call it irrational exuberance, but exuberance.

I think I'm exactly in the right place.

And who thinks, We're going to crush it now. She's a movement. It's basically Trump's on the ropes. He's out. And then there are the Democrats who are in the, Hey, man, this is still going to be really close. Just let's not get our skis. It's going to be really close.

I'm type 2. Okay, you're type 2. I'm type 2. There's no way.

You're basically a depressive.

I'm not depressive. I also don't know that with President Biden as a candidate, that it was a lock for Donald Trump. I'm glad that there's a huge infusion of cash, but remember, I'm 35 years old. So in my lifetime, with the exception of President Obama's second term, I guess. I mean, look, these have been pretty close elections that are decided by tens of thousands of voters. The first election I really remember was Bush-Gore. That was pretty close. I mean, someone like me, elections come down to a couple of thousand people counting a couple of thousand votes.

Not in 2008.

No, that's what I'm saying. President Obama was different. He was a horse of a different color. But like, oh, yeah, no pun intended. No pun intended, no pun intended. But honestly, and by the way, to me, he was a generational candidate, right? He was an excellent person that was at least grudgingly respected by Republicans, at least during his at least during the election cycles, and is really brilliant speaker and really brilliant people person, and probably the last politician that I just feel totally lit up by.

What do you think that your tribe, and I don't mean the Jews. Go ahead. I mean the comedians. What can comedians most... If comedians were all band together in a way that comedians never will because comedians are like... They're anarchists at heart. Sure. You're never going to have... You You guys could all be in SAG or something, but there's no world like the comedians, like the comics union, like the American Association of Standup comics. That would be a really funny union. Wait, you're going to tell me there is one?

No, not yet.

You're looking at me like, Okay, let's just imagine that you guys could all be herded, like cats on mushrooms, and get them all in the way. Be like, Okay, all the comedians are together now. We're going to take collective action to try to help Kamal Harris win. What would be the thing that you What do you think that comedians could do, comics could do to help most?

I honestly think that a big issue with all entertainers who involve themselves in politics is that there's this idea that an entertainer should bring their audiences along. But the The truth is that entertainers are... Most creators, I'll say comedians, in their aspects as creators are not like popularity figures. Comedians can crystallize really complicated ideas in really simple ways. All the jokes that I consider to be my most successful jokes are ones that have crystallized ideas that already exist in ways that are easy to understand. I have this one joke from 2015 that for some reason has now become a A talking point. Really? Do you not know about this?

Have I told you about this? A talking point? A talking point for whom?

Democrats.

Okay, let's go. I don't know anything about this.

It feels like I'm out of the loop on a key Alex Edelman thing. No, not at all. Not all. In 2015, I did this joke joke about, or 2019, actually, did this joke about millennials buying houses.

Okay, wait, Alex, wait. Stop. I want you to stop right there. Okay. I think the wise thing for us would be to take a break, pay some bills for the podcast here. And then while we're doing that, we can go online and we can find this joke in its original form, which I bet is very funny, as opposed to the half-mumbled, half-ass summary of the joke that you're about to do. And then everyone can hear it and we'll know what we're talking about. So let's do that, shall we? And then we'll come back and break that joke and a whole bunch of other stuff down with my friend Alex Zettelman. So stick around.

I think it's a really weird time to be a young person. I was writing on a TV show, and at the end of this TV show, I checked my bank balance on the ATM, and I had Not to brag, $5,421 in my bank account. This is how little I know about being an adult. I saw the bank balance on the ATM screen, and I thought to myself, with no irony, I should buy a house. Not a big house. One of those small $5,000 houses. How is any millenn ever going to own a home? How is any young person ever going to own a home? It's maybe hate old people. I see a few of you in here tonight. I hate you. Because every old person in a city like LA or New York or London is the same. They're like, My house is worth $2 million, but when I bought it in 1981, I want. I paid 11 raspberries for it. Every young person is like, I have nine roommates. We each pay $11,000 a month. Although I missed the payment last month, he took a toe. I walk in a circle now. Every single one of us is a lawyer except for Ted.

He's a dog with rabies, and we I'd love to get him out, but his name is on the lease. Every single old person is like, I'm a librarians with a home at the beach. Go fuck yourself.

We're back with Alex Zettelman, and that was the joke from 2019. That we were talking about before the break.

That was the joke. It got put on TikTok and Instagram a couple of times. It went viral, never for me, but always for these comedy aggregation accounts. Then some Portuguese Portuguese kid, did the joke word for word in Portuguese. Then one of these, a left wing content farm guy took one of the meme videos and made a video of old people dancing and captioned it, Boomers who bought their houses in 1984 for X raspberries or something like that. Last week, this movement from joke to talking point became complete because Elizabeth Warren uploaded a video of herself saying, do your grandparents buy an apartment for seven raspberries? And now you can't. Also, I don't care at all about… I'm not like, why isn't Elizabeth Warren responsible I'm not necessarily sourcing her memes or something like that, or her talking points? But it is interesting to see that very simple idea in five years, obviously. Five years, move from, here's a joke that's a simile to To me, that is because the joke is crystallizing an emotion that we all feel but don't put into words often. So what comedians should be doing, if they decided to, is crystallizing ideas that we all understand and putting them into entertaining, easy to understand, easy to consume, easy to share bites.

I wish campaigns, Democrat campaigns, engaged people more more behind the camera in entertainment than they did in front of it.

So instead of comedians in cars having coffee, it should be comedians in conference rooms coming up with material. Comedians in the battle ride states, crystallizing ideas. That's really good, man. Let's go pitch that to Netflix.

That's really funny. That's great.

I'll tell you two things, and then I want to ask you a few things about your non-political... That are not political because your life is more... We're right on the brink of the Emmies, and I've never really been part of a For your consideration campaign before. I mean, I've been part of Emmy campaigns before, but not been helping to someone. Sure. I want to help you win an Emmy Award here right now. Oh, please. Although it means beating Berbiglia. So It seems like it's like such a fucking hard deal. I don't feel like I shouldn't be a partisan here between you and Mike, but we'll get to that in a minute. But first, let's sneak in one more ad break, and we'll come back, and we'll talk about the Emmies and comedy and everything else with Alex Edelman, here on in Politec with John I.

I grew up in Boston. I grew up in this really racist part of Boston called Boston. It's a Tuesday night, and I'm doing my favorite thing. When I'm alone, I lie on my couch and I hold my phone like an otter, like an inch from my face. And I see this tweet, and I send it to my best friend in the world, I wrote, David, do you want to come with me to this meeting of Nazis and Queens? By the way, nothing says white privilege more than a Jew walking into a meeting of racists and thinking, this will probably be fine. It's Queens, the most diverse borough. You can't even get 17 Nazis together without a Jew being sat right there in the middle of you. There's a huge part of me that genuinely walked into this room thinking like, They're just anti-Semites because they haven't met Alex yet. At some point, this guy, two seats away from me, went, Jews are sneaky and they're everywhere. And I was like...

And we are back with Alex Edelman. And that, of course, was the trailer for the HBO special based on your Smash hit, Tony winning One Man Broadway show, Just For Us, which for anyone who's still out there, who somehow hasn't seen it yet, either on stage or on HBO, is the hilarious, moving, transcendent story of the night that you, Alex Edelman, noted Hebrew, spent the night you spent at a white Nationalist meeting in Queens. Special has now been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing on a Variety Special. Alex, I've said it to you before, and I'll say it again. You've had an amazing ride. For anybody that does know, Alex and I, I've been...

You've been part of it and on it.

I was a relatively early adopter. Not among the very earliest adopters, but a very early Alex Edelman adopter and proponent and fan and a proselytizer. This is like it now, right? You won the Tony. That was totally cool. You've been fetted and praised and honored and all this stuff. Is the Emmy the last thing?

The Emmy is the last thing.

The MME is the last thing.

It's like the last thing, the last honor you could win for this thing.

It'll get released at some point in the UK.

I'll have to do a little bit of UK press, but I can't imagine that I'm very...

I mean, for me, this is it.

So Just For Us has When you started the show, you did it for all the reasons that one makes a piece of art, but had no way to imagine what it would turn into, how long it would go, how many people would see it, how popular it would be, how transformative in your life. Does the Emmy matter? Oh, it's such a good question. Do you care? I mean, obviously, you'd like to win it.

I mean, anybody would like to win it, but you care.

I care because it would... Allow you to be for Big No, that's actually the worst part is that I'm stacked up against four people I really admire in the Oscars. Even in the Oscars, I really like Jimmy Kimmel and Carol Leifer and other people that are nominated. So it's like the competing part is not great. You know what it would be?

I think it would remove that from a thing I ever have to do again.Right. That makes sense.Win.

An Emmy? Yeah. It just would be nice to have... And also, you know... No matter how bad your career goes from now on, you could always be like, I want an Emmy 23 years ago. No, because I can say that about a Tony, too. But it's just like... Yeah, but it wasn't like a real Tony. Yeah, you're right. It's a special Tony. It'si can hear you. They made up a category for me. I'm kidding. The Tony was very... It's very real. It's a very real Tony. It's just like... I don't know. I worked really hard on this with a bunch of really talented people, and I made the best thing I possibly could. And so I'd love to see it honored as such. And I'd love to look, if I'm being honest, I just want to be able to thank my collaborator. Yeah, Adam. Yeah. Adam Brace, who I wrote the show with Adam Brace as my director, and he passed away right before it all It started on Broadway. Yeah, right before the Broadway rather started. I loved him deeply, and I feel so sad still. That's the thing. The funny thing is, I feel like the loss of Adam was braided with the success of the show.

Even though I'm still very gratified by the success of the show, that experience. Also, I haven't really talked about Adam. I haven't written much about Adam. I think I'll do something today or tomorrow, like I think I'm going to write something about Adam because I've been working on... I have a little diary I've been keeping for six months about it, and I guess it's the last chance to loon. But if I won something, it would be nice to say something about him. Also, I feel a little bit of pressure. I feel a little bit of pressure for all of the work that I've...

If no one else cared about it, I wouldn't care.

But the people that A lot of people have put a lot into this, and people are like, God, it'd be really cool if it happens. Now, I feel an insane amount of pressure. If you win it, will it mean more to you than the Tony? I don't know. I really don't. I mean, the Tony is your people. Yeah, the Tony is my people, but they're two separate entities. One is the stage show and one is the special. To an observer, that doesn't mean much, but to me, it means so much. The special is the permanent reminder of this thing.

It's the execution of a live show that was really important.

I got the best director I could, Alex Timber. There's literally no one alive who's better at this specific thing. He does theater. Alex Timber. Alex Timber has directed it and has directed a ton of other... Sure, but... No, he didn't. I mean, he's a God in this. Oh, he did John Mulaney specials. He did American Utopia. No one does Broadway to screen better than him. No one does theater and stand-up better than him. So genuinely, I'm actually really, really bummed he didn't get a nomination because he deserves one so... He directed such a gorgeous version of it and he worked so hard on it and he edited it to In a perfect way. He did more rounds in time editing than...

I'd say four or five times as much work as you'd imagine should go into this. But he did a really good job. And so it'd be a nice acknowledgement for myFor my collaborators. As you come to the end of this period, which is the last time you did the last performances of the show in, was that in LA or in April? End of March. End of March, right? Yeah. So it's essentially been now however many months, five months. Five months, yeah. Since you've last...

This show that you did constantly for four years?

Yeah. Then you stopped. What's it been like to not be doing... It's still been very much in your life because of these various awards and people who want to talk to you.

It's been great. Do you miss it? Not doing it? Yeah, I miss it. I miss not terribly. I'm also still doing stand-up, trying to write a new one and working on a television show and writing other things and looking to create other things, which I'm pretty psyched about.

I understand all that, but do you miss it or not?

Yes and no. Yes, I miss the experience of going on stage to deliver a really refined expression of myself that's extremely cathartic. But also, you can't live in your childhood bedroom forever. You have to keep growing. I could have toured that show for another two years. I wish somebody had told me that because I lived in my...

That's the thing that someone should have told the 21-year-old me, so I wouldn't have tried to live in my childhood bedroom until I was 37.

I mean, honest, but are you being I'm being a little facetious here, hopefully? I didn't really try to live in my childhood bedroom until I don't think either. I'm 37 now. But you know what I mean, right? You got to keep getting bigger. Steve Martin tried to get bigger, not size-wise, but Steve Martin grew as an artist. Ironically, Steve Martin is now much less popular than he was at his height, but he has matured so much as an artist. You also can't be the wild and crazy guy forever. But also, that's the other thing. Comedy shows, even if they're conversant in the time that they're being performed in, they're a snapshot of a moment. I try to make the show timeless, but there are other things to say. You got to play a new game at some point. I'm happy to have it behind me, but I miss my crew. And most importantly... All those people applauding every night.

No, I missed my last collaboration with this guy, so it'll be broken record.

I am now fully beyond Adam. It's a really... Sad. Horrifying. Horrifying, right. I was operating this well-oiled machine.

You don't have to build a new machine without the guy who did it before.

So let me ask you, in the period of time since you've been making the show but have been still out there wallowing around in the very nice...

I don't mean that in a snotty way. I mean, wallowing around in the afterglow of when someone has a big success like this, and then there's this the jet trail of people who are still discovering it because of the fact that it's special. Oh, yeah, of course. So people are discovering it. You're getting things like an Emmy nomination or a Tony or whatever. Has that period, in addition, it's for the ego and as a matter of transitioning out of something that was a regular daily part of your life. It's good for the ego. It helps with that transition because you don't have to just go cold turkey, where suddenly you're forgotten about the whole thing. Have you learned anything in that period? Do you feel like as you've watched it, as you've experienced all of this, have you learned anything about yourself, about your relationship to your work, about your relationship to your audience? What have you learned in the period of the afterglow? I still see ways to make Just For Us better, which is so funny, but you just let it go. It's like time to...

It's discovering. It's like house that you sold and you'd be like, You know what look really good in the kitchen there? It's stupid. I think in this post mortem, you see what sticks with people. What sticks with people now is different than what stuck with people two years to go. I've learned that I'm actually pretty satisfied with that chapter in my life. I wrote it till the wheels fell off. And also people keep trying to get me to bring it back, and I'm like, it's over. We're done here. I'm not doing it again. Stand strong, my friend. Unless someone offers me a metric fuckload of money, seven figures, I'm not bringing it back. I did the line of succession already. I'm not going to go back to Google and try to measure a metric fuckload because... Yeah, you can't do it. Also, we don't use the metric system. That's right. Good point. But also I've learned that if you can say something, again, if you can crystallize the way that people feel in a way they haven't previously seem like there is a massively underserved market for people who want to believe that you can have conversations with people who are fundamentally opposed to you.

And I didn't think that I I didn't think I really understood that while the show was going on. But in terms of what resonates with people now after I've stopped doing it, people reach out to tell me. They feel compelled to tell me about that one aspect. They're like, Oh, my God, I can't believe that in this time, you would have conversations. I don't want to be like the event that it's based on is seven years ago. I guess about myself, I still want to do stand-up comedy. I didn't know that. I thought that once I put the show down, I'd be fully invested in other things. But I still love stand-up. I really love stand-up. And so I'm doing that. I like doing it quietly. I find-You like doing it quietly? I don't want to do a whole big tour right away. I just want to do it in basements. But you're out doing sets. I do it in basements. I do it at the Comedy Cellar. And also, I find being noticed in any way by a stranger to be a little dysregulating. That's a new thing I learned about myself, too. There's lots of little things in different aspects of my life.

But also, there's not a huge slump. Everything all right, John? Yeah, very fine. Sorry. There's not a huge slump.

Things have largely chugged along.

I have a lot of work to do.

I'm still probably on a vacation.

Haven't taken a break since the show I did. I really love my job, but it's chugged along. You're working Doing some TV writing? Yeah, TV writing and acting. I'm acting on this show as well. You're acting on that show as well? Yeah. Okay. We can't say what it is, though. No. I just want to know this. Is it going to be good? I think so, yeah. Really? Yeah. Okay. But it's really good. I think so. Who knows? It's a little bit of an unfair tease. In your- I'm writing some movies. I'm writing- In your stand-up right now. I'd like you to... Because I've really enjoyed this conversation, but it hasn't really been funny enough. I'd like you to... I want you to do a joke.

From your stand-up?

A joke that you're like, I wrote this joke, and it's part of my new stand-up routine, and I'm really proud of it.

It's really funny. I have just I'm thinking about this in terms of a new joke. I have a joke about seashells? Just tell the joke. Oh, okay. Which is that? Just pretend you're the comedy seller. I would never do this for someone I didn't really I really love. So I hope you're witnessing me. This is for someone I really, really adore. Alex just looked at someone else in the room, just to be clear. Listener, he's being a little weird, but okay, go ahead. He's almost on his hands and knees now. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not leaning forward to the microphone. Okay, go ahead. All right.

Okay, here we go. Everyone's very concerned about AI taking their job. And I'm not concerned because who would make this on purpose? I'm gesturing them.

I said, Who would want this? I'm in 35 I've real men who collects seashells still, unironically.

And no crowd I've ever mentioned this to has gone along with me, and they're exceptional. First of all, they're crab starter homes.

Second of all, they're geometrically perfect. And third of all, they sound like where they're from. And people are like, It's not really the ocean. It sounds like the ocean.

It sounds like where it's from. If you put a croissant up to your ear and you heard, you'd be like, that's pretty cool, no? It's pretty cool. So this is like a little snippet. And I don't even know if it belongs in a show, but I really love that little... I don't know. There's little thoughts and things are coalescing and becoming little-The croissant part is really funny. I know. I like that part. You know why I like the joke? The C-show part, the croissant part really gets me, though. But the croissant part, the The croissant part only works because of the seashell part. Do you know what it is? I know. But the reason I love the joke is because I've never written a joke with that exact structure where it's like you set up a bunch of pieces and the audience is like, I don't quite get this. Then you explain your perspective in one specific way and it crystallizes the idea and the audience is like, I understand what you mean now. The analogy, it's not just a simile. It's like it turns on the whole thing. I like the mechanics of that.

That's very exciting. I like that joke. Maybe I'll come and see you do some stand-up sometimes. Please, I'd really love to. You never invite me anymore. You used to be like, Come see me at the Comedy Sal. Now, I don't even get the... I feel I'm so far down the list of people who you give a shit about. It's not so far down the list. I don't invite anyone because I'm working things out in quiet.

I don't want anyone I know to see any of this. The The fact that people can get tickets bothers me. Let me ask you a couple of last things, because you are one of the great consumers of culture that I know.

And by and large, you have good taste. I wouldn't say always, 100%, but it's not bad.

We're living here in Allentown. Hey, I went to the-closing all the factors. I went to the last show at Madscrow Garden. I'd never seen Billy Joel before. Oh, my It was a transformer in his voice. Yeah, go ahead. Pilling out for standing in line. I love the Nylon curtain thing.

It's massively underrated as a Billy Joel album. That's a different problem.

It's a whole different set of... We're going to sing, listener, We're going to sing... Leningrad. We're going to sing Seans from an Italian restaurant at the end of the show.

So just stick around for that. Not an island curtain. Okay, not an island curtain. That's true.

Can you do Weed and Start the Fire? Harry Truman, Doraste, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, Walter Mitchell, Joe de Maggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studio Baker, Television, North Korea, South Korea, Maryland, Rosenberg, H-MOM, Sugar Wait, Pamu John, Randall, The King and I, and The Catcher in the Rock, Eisenhower vaccine, England's Got A New Clean, Marciana, The Barachi, Santayana, goodbye, Weed and Start the Fire, It was always burning, since the world's been turning.

We didn't start the fire, we didn't light it, but it's not it. Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger In A Strange Man, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of England, Bayes, and Lawrence of Our Radia, British Rytomania, All Miss, John Glenn, Listen, Reeds, Patterson, Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politics, just in checks. Jfk blown away. What else do I have to say? We didn't start the fire, it was always burning, since the world's been turning. We didn't start the fire, we didn't light it, but it's not it. Can I just say this? This is how a mountain called, Nester and Prokofia, have Rocafelik, a vanilla Communist block. Roycom, Wamperon, Tuscany, Dekron, Gembem, Foo, Falls, walk around the clock. Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team. Davie Cork, Peter Pan, of us present is a part of Budapest. Alvaro Guse, present is Christ, pain place, trouble in the soul, I ask. Sorry. Sorry. Well, I asked whether this is a good thing. You didn't ask me to do it.

I don't know. There's a famous episode of the West Wing where Oliver Babish asks C. J. Craig. She says he's preparing her for testimony for the special counseling. He says, Do you know what time it is? And she says, It's one o'clock. He goes, That's not the answer to the question. No, the answer is yes. The answer to the question is yes. I said, Can you do We didn't start the fire. Instead of just answering yes or no, I got the whole thing. I don't know if I could do it. Which was more impressive, although I'm certain that in the middle of there. If some of those were just you going… Because you didn't actually know the words.

What are you listening to right now that you love? There's a podcast by a guy named PJ Vogue called Search Engine, which I usually enjoy.

I was actually thinking about music, but that's fine.

Okay, I'm listening to-What music are you listening to right now that you love? I've discovered the Hold Steady, which is a thing I should have discovered a while ago, but I really enjoy it.

Great.

I'm also discovered… I don't know why I'm on a rock and roll thing, but I've also-It's never wrong to be on a rock and roll thing, Alex. I never really listened to the Foo Fighters before. But just to be transparent here, they lost their drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and they wrote a song about it. And so a friend of mine was like, You should listen to this song because you might relate to it. That got me into the Foo Fighters in a way I've never been into the Foo Fighters before.

But it's a really impressive stuff. A band from the '70s called The Roche's, our OCA, H-E. Sure, yes. He?

Yeah, we know.

Have you gone off Maggie? Rogers?

Yeah. Are you still listening to Maggie all the time? I listen to Maggie frequently, but I-We like to plug Maggie around here because-I love Maggie Rogers. Partly because Ali Clancy is Big fan? The biggest Maggie Rogers fan.

I'm a huge Maggie Rogers fan. I haven't seen her in a while, too. She's been out of country.

What have you read recently? Books? Not tweets or- I read Taffy Ackner's book, Long Island Compromised, which is good and sad. I read Paul Murray's Book of the Bee Sting, which I really enjoyed. I read Miranda July's book, All Four, which I read but want to discuss with people. What have you watched on television recently? What are you watching or what have you watched that you really like?

I have not watched television, really. I'm not kidding.

I'm just like the Olympics. I I watched every second of the Olympics. I watched javelin throwers from Uganda. Anything it could... It was really- Are you ready to join my Snoop for President campaign? I actually could do with fewer celebrities on the Olympics. I think it's- I don't care about any celebrities except for Snoop, in which case I don't want him on the Olympics.

Snoop is great. I don't want him on the Olympics.

I want him in the White House. He's fantastic.

I want him in the White House. He's really cool. You met Snoop, surely. Yes, but I'm just saying, even as a pre-existing Snoop fan, I still thought his versatility at the Olympics was I never didn't like watching him in the Olympics. The rest of the celebrities, I don't give a fuck about. I thought he was incredible. Here's my last question. Yes. This is a Berbiglia question that I think is a great question. It's not a question that he came up with for you. It's a question But he, for a period of time, I think, was asking people on some regular basis. Sure. I went to see him to doing the Old Man at the Pool at the Taper, back whenever that was, many summers ago that was. And he said to me afterwards, he said, What is it that right now, of all the things that are happening in the world right now, what is the thing that makes you most optimistic about the future? I thought it was an interesting question, and I had an answer for him at the time. A really unconventional one. The only thing I want to say about this is I want to ask you that question.

What makes Alex Edelman feel most optimistic about the future right now?

That isn't, don't say, it can't be Kamala Harris.

I just don't want that to be.

It's just like, yes, I get that you're optimistic about it.

You're glad she's the nominee.

I want to get something else.

You said you had an unconventional one. I'm dying.

I have an unconventional one. I think people are going to be pretty pissed about, actually. Oh, well. I think... This is going to be some of the Israel and I've had a feeling. I think we are watching right now on almost all sides of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, people just losing their appetite for extremism, their own, others. I think there is like, the arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards market efficiency.

I think people You took the word moral out of there on purpose.Of course. But I think the two are the same.The.

Arc of the commercial universe is long. But it bends towards what?Market efficiency.Market efficiency. But the two are connected, which is that I think people... I think we We live in an era where, at least in the first worlds, we are truly sick of watching people die. I think our idealism and extremisms on all sides of every aisle eventually. I think there's going to be a ceasefire in the next couple of weeks, months, for no reason, when the leaders on neither side actually really want it. Because I think the appetite for war in the first world is just really, really not there. I said that was my last question, but it opens up a door that we could do a whole podcast about the following thing, mind not going to. That's just instinct, by the way. Is it still the case that you think your next one-man show is going to be about Israel and Palestine?

Yeah, but you want my personal experience of it, which is not going to be who's right and who's wrong. I understand, but at the core of it, you're going to try to humor out of-My complex PTSD around it?

Yes, probably.

It's probably personal. You won't walk out with being like- I understand.

It's not going to be like... What was that play? The play that people left. The ally.

No. The play that people left? It was the play that was about the Oslo Accords that won all kinds of awards.

Oslo, right?

Oslo, yes. The Bartlett share one that he's having in the center? Yes.

It's not going to be, I understand. It's not going to be anything like that.

No, no, no. But it's going to be personal. It's going to be first person. It's going to be a story about you. But you think there is humor to be found. I mean, I say this to the guy who found humor in a bunch of white supremacists, a white supremacist meeting in Queens.

You can find humor in that. You can find humor in anything. There's humor in this. There's humor in tension and human flow. By the way, it is in some ways... I like a Dark Joke because Dark Jokes show you that there are funny... Sorry.

Dark Jokes show you that there are light things in dark places and dark things in light places. So rather like Dark Chocolate, then? Yeah, of course.

It's a good one. I'm dying to see that show when it finally gets me.

Well, it'll be a long time. But also- Hey, hey, hey. Get a fucking move on. It's not like you have anything else to do at this point. You're not doing... You were pretty busy for a while. You got a lot of time on your hands now. Let's get down to it. If you get a... Let's get a new show. Let's get it up and running.

Get it to the Cherry lane.

And then we can go through this whole thing again. No, never again. We're done. We're done. No, we're never done. Alex Edelman, you're a gentleman. Thanks for having me. You're a gentleman, a scholar, and a genius. And also a Very cute. Was any of that useful? All of it. Every single word. Every single word. No way. Yes. Every single word. Impolitic with John Heilman is a Puck podcast in partnership with Odyssey. Thanks again to Alex Edelman for coming on the pod. If you dug this episode, please follow Impolitic with John Heilman and share us, rate us, review us on the free ODSY app or wherever you happen to bask in the splendor of the podcast universe. I'm John Heilman, your Cruise Director and the Chief Political Columnist for Puck, where you can read my writing every Sunday night, plus the work of all my terrific colleagues by going to puck. News/impolitic, that's P-U-C-K news/impolitis, and subscribing. Two of those colleagues from Puck, John Kelly and Ben Landee, are the executive producers of this podcast. Laurie Blackford is our senior executive booking producer. Ali Clancy is our Executive Assistant. Jd Crowley and Jenna Weis-Burman are our indispensable Overseers and Guardian Angels at Odyssey.

And the one and only Bob Tabor, is the straw that stirs the drink, flawlessly producing, editing, mixing, and mastering this show. We will see you next time, everyone. And as always, Namaste.