Alex Edelman: Everything Handed To You

The Pleasance until August 30

Four stars

Winning last year’s Foster’s Comedy Award for Best Newcomer has had consequences for Alex Edelman. Not only is there pressure on the 25-year-old from Boston to deliver comedy’s equivalent of the ‘difficult second album’, his success has also meant that for 11 out of the past 12 months he’s been based in the UK, developing his career, away from his family. Perhaps, conversely, that’s why they’re central to so much of his new material: not only does his upbringing in an Orthodox Jewish community offer jokes at his parents’ expense, his brothers (a bodybuilding twin and another 13 years his junior) are like a talisman to which he returns again and again. Using his last get-together with his siblings in a Texan airport terminal as a hub, Edelman’s routine flies out to stories about living as an American in London, performing a gig in Estonia and celebrating Christmas in the family garage. You don’t want his routine to end: Edelman truly is a comedy star in the making.

Alan Morrison