About 700 University of Michigan students and community members gathered in Rackham Auditorium Wednesday evening to watch Jewish comedian Alex Edelman take the stage. This 75-minute performance, organized by University of Michigan Hillel and co-sponsored by MUSKET, Impro-fessionals and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, was free to all students and the final performance in a series of three shows on college campuses called “Alex Edelman: The Campus Tour.”
The first half of Edelman’s show included a stand-up routine and touched on a variety of unrelated topics such as his parent’s relationship, Kosher meals and his brief former employment at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Following this act, Edelman took questions from the audience. Members asked questions about Edelman’s rise to fame, his Jewish identity and, more lightly, whether inanimate objects were Jewish or non-Jewish.
Edelman said his Jewish identity is central to the storytelling in his stand-up, as he grew up attending a Yeshiva and identifies as Modern Orthodox.
“Judaism informs so much about me and for a long time, I tried to not talk about or shove it into a box and keep it separate from my professional life, and now it’s very much part of who I am and I’m cool with the aesthetic of it all,” Edelman said.
Davey Rosen, interim Hillel CEO and rabbi, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily he felt excited to bring Edelman to campus and hoped this event would have a positive impact on the whole campus community.
“We thought that this would be a great way to be (involved) in community,” Rosen said. “He is brilliant. He can speak to the moment and he can connect with students regardless of background.”
Edelman is most known for his one-man, award-winning comedy show “Just For Us,” which has been touring for multiple years, including for two months on Broadway. Edelman’s performance at the University, however, did not include his typical “Just For Us” material.
“Alex Edelman: The Campus Tour” visited three universities: the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Northern Carolina. In an interview with The Daily, Edelman said he chose to visit University of Michigan because two of his closest friends are alumni and because of its large Jewish community.
“It’s just robust,” Edelman said. “It’s Orthodox. It’s Reform. It’s Conservative. It’s Reconstructionist. It’s multi-denominational. The students here, they have different upbringings, different ideas. There are three options here for going to Shabbas.”
After receiving notice in early November that Edelman was planning to come to the University, Hillel assembled a committee of six students to organize the logistics of the show, spread the word and find cosponsors, according to Rosen.
LSA junior Evan Cohen was part of the committee and said he enjoyed working with all the different organizations involved to make this event happen.
“I think all of the (cosponsors) really played in well together,” Cohen said. “And without each of them, I don’t think it would have been as big as it is.”
Rosen said Hillel has a long history of putting together large events for campus, but they have not done something on this scale for a couple of years. Rosen said he always wants students to be involved in the planning process to help build up their organizational skills.
“For me, putting out a large cultural event is a way for Jewish students who are planning those events to learn what it takes to put on something of significance and that is of a benefit to anybody, not just Jewish students,” Rosen said.
Edelman said the college tour was partly motivated by the increased attention and conversation on college campuses since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. He said he hoped the performance would encourage thoughtfulness and open-mindedness.
“College students tend to be weirdly on the front lines of every sort of rancorous conversation,” Edelman said. “I want people to be able to have difficult, productive conversations. (I’m) so eager to facilitate that and advocate for that and have good chats with people who are trying to do that.”
LSA sophomore Rebecca Kratz said she felt the Q&A portion of the event gave her insight into how best to handle difficult conversations in the future.
“In the middle of a really stressful semester, it was a good laugh,” Kratz said. “I also thought he touched on a really important note that conversations can be really productive. It is something we should all implement in our lives going forward.”
Daily Staff Reporter Eva Bard can be reached at evabard@umich.edu.