Funny, surreal and all embracing… Alex Edelman's new show provides some irresistible comic shtick

New York comedian Alex Edelman has form this side of the pond. He's appeared on Live at the Apollo, The John Bishop Show and Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, but I know him mostly through radio. A shortened version of his debut show Millennial, which won Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, featured on BBC Radio 4, as did follow-up series Special Relationships and Alex Edelman's Peer Group. I relished the chance to see his comedy transferred from the airwaves to the theatre.

Just For Us is a collection of revelations and contradictions about his Jewish upbringing, as well as a celebration of his Judaism, from his Orthodox youth in Boston to surreal encounters at a white nationalist meeting – his attendance at which was an eccentric response to being hounded by antisemites on Twitter.

He bounds on to the stage, grey shirt almost disappearing into a grey set, which contradicts his immense, almost agitated energy. There are stools on which he alights occasionally as he confides in his audience, but the man and his story are constantly on the move. His opening gambit, for instance, is about a gorilla, who has learnt sign language, being told of Robbie Williams’ death by his signing keepers, followed by a hilarious and detailed description of his family’s one-off Christmas celebration to make a gentile house guest feel at home. “We’re going to do Christmas!” His Dad announces with grim determination and no apparent seasonal goodwill, before proceeding to engineer a Christmas like no other, complete with a singular Santa.

Edelman proceeds to big up his Olympian brother AJ, a member of The Israeli Bobsled and Skeleton Team – and the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Olympics no less. The climax, though, is as unsettling as it is graphically comical. Edelman paints a bleak picture of the rather rundown flat where white supremacists gather for a meeting they proclaim "just for us". He manages to fit in so well that he even finds himself fancying an attractive young racist called Chelsea (an eyebrow-raising moniker). Together they tuck into the pastries on offer and I can empathise with that. The need to snack whatever the situation is at once typically Jewish and universal.

Just for Us is appealing and life affirming both as a show and a title, appropriated as such from bigots and reclaimed to include his whole audience. It is indeed funny and revealing for all of us, Jewish and non-Jewish alike – perhaps even white supremacists.

Alex Edelman: Just for Us runs until Sunday 26 February. 7.30pm, 3pm (Sat only). £32.50-£37.50, £29.50 concs. Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1 1TE. menierchocolatefactory.com