Menorah-lighting comic cheered after terror attacks

Jewish comedian Alex Edelman’s performance of “What Are You Going to Do” on Sunday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene hit differently than most comedy shows.

It was the first night of Chanukah, and the night after 15 Jews were slaughtered at a celebration for the holiday at Bondi Beach in Sydney. The day before, a masked man entered a Brown University classroom and sprayed students preparing for their final exam with bullets, killing two and seriously injuring several more.

When Edelman appeared on stage, with a large Chanukah menorah in his hand, he seemed visibly shaken. After putting the first Chanukah candle and shamash into the menorah, he paused and turned to his father, who was in the audience, to check if the candles ought to be lit before or after reciting the blessings.

The crowd in the full, 2,096-seat theater sung the blessings along with the Tony- and Emmy-Award-winning writer, seemingly with an air of defiance.

When Edelman, 36, thanked BAM security, and then brought out Ben Folds, the Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter, who played several songs, including “Hava Nagila,” with the audience singing along.

Folds, who isn’t Jewish, smiled and faced the crowd. “I’m just a white guy from North Carolina,” he said, to audience laughter.

One of Edelman’s best-received jokes of the night revolved around his brief career as a hospital clown. He went to the hospital in full clown attire — squeaky shoes, painted face with a red nose and a rainbow wig. One hospital patient, an adolescent Palestinian boy, had an arm amputated below his elbow.

Through multiple visits from Edelman as a clown, the boy stayed sullen. Edelman used every trick he could think of until one day, the boy spoke.

In hesitant English, the patient said that “for four years, I have not had my arm. For four years this,” he said, gesturing to his amputated arm.

“But still, you are the worst thing I have experienced,” he said.

The audience laughed at his joke as Edelman laughed at himself along with it.