Alex Edelman Announces One-Off Benefit Performance in Honour of Adam Brace

US comedian Alex Edelman, Soho Theatre and Pleasance have announced a special one-off benefit performance of Alex’s award-winning show ‘Just For Us’. On Saturday 26 August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in honour of the show’s director Adam Brace, the show will conclude its Broadway debut. The artist, venue and all producers have all waived their fees, so that profits go to an award that will be set up in Adam’s name. This will go on to support talent in the way that Adam did.

Speaking about his journey with Adam, Edelman said: “My collaboration with Adam started at the Fringe in 2012. Our first show together in 2014 gave me the ability to be a comedian. And I think it’s appropriate that, after such a long journey, this show should have an Edinburgh goodbye – in his honour – at the Festival that was Adam’s favorite place. And mine.”

This singular theatrical comedy experience is expertly created by one of the most distinct names in comedy and is an exploration of identity and our collective capacity for empathy. It’s also simply “belly-laugh funny!” (The New York Times). After a series of anti-Semitic rhetoric pointed in his direction online, standup comic Edelman decides to go straight to the source; specifically, Queens New York, where he covertly attends a meeting of White Nationalists and comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What happens next forms the backbone of the shockingly relevant, utterly hilarious, and only moderately perspirant stories in ‘Just For Us’.

This one-off show concludes Edelman’s Broadway debut run of ‘Just For Us’ right where it all began for him as a comedian as well as this show, at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He has since taken the show to acclaimed runs in London, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Boston, and Washington D.C., as well as a six-time extended off-Broadway engagement across three venues in New York City, which earned a “Critic’s Pick” from The New York Times, a 2023 Obie Award, and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. The show has been seen by large crowds and over 50,000 people.

In May of this year it was announced with deep sadness that ‘Just For Us’s’ director Adam Brace’s had died following a short illness. Adam was a director (including of all of Edelman’s shows), co-creator, dramaturg, script editor and writer. He was a unique talent of our time, working with artists all over the world across theatre, comedy and performance. Adam was fiercely proud of all his shows and the artists he worked with, he loved working with them, and everyone loved working with him. A festival staple, Adam’s presence is very much missed at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival by family, friends, colleagues and collaborators, with performers talking about his influence and impact of his loss on stage in their shows.