Alex Edelman - Millennial

Before this year’s Festival, recent university graduate Alex Edelman admits that there was no "eureka moment" when it came to choosing standup comedy as a career. He spent $193,000 on a first-class American education but ultimately found himself playing to the circuit crowds of Boston and Los Angeles—and has found that very decision to be fertile ground for his material. This, along with bright, mature comedy on topics ranging from gay marriage to the US presidency, highlights Edelman as an essential young voice in standup.

It's Edelman's remarkable gift for storytelling which allows him to achieve such precision with the material. He performs with great natural flair in this Fringe debut, such that it’s hard not to immediately fall in love with him. He possesses a lot of the traits that new standups try to use as crutches—neuroticism, awkwardness and fidgety behaviour—but casts them aside to engage fully with such tricky topics as Israel and religion.

Edelman comes alive when satirising the contradictory problems of the West: the US's ludicrous economic divisions, how current generations don’t know life without the internet and a black President, and how university education does not guarantee you employment. This is beautifully crafted, politically charged and confident comedy that sees Edelman rocket through the hour. A question mark is left hanging over whether or not Edelman feels fully part of Generation Y, given the intelligence of his set. Appropriate, as we’re left wishing for another hour of material.