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Alex Edelman starts his solo show by bringing its scale all the way down.
So why are we starting by imitating a zookeeper describing celebrity deaths in sign language?
Because Edelmans opening gambit reveals itself to be cannily constructed.
He pulls the audience close with the self-deprecation and then destabilizes the dynamic.
Regarding the invitation, he points out that as an Ashkenazi Jew, heiscurious about his whiteness.
By the time hes started flirting with a woman named Chelsea (You never know!
), you might feel the air pressure doubling in the theater.
But like the stools, Edelmans sometimes shaggy material is laid out intentionally.
To a much more extreme degree, he was also performing to ingratiate himself among the white nationalists.
Just for Usis at the Hudson Theatre through August 19.
One Woman Showis at the Greenwich House Theatre through August 11.
