Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Side Dish: More with Alex Edelman

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

More of my interview with Comedian Alex Edelman. We dig into whether sitcoms and action movies are political, how Alex became buds with ‘Modern Family’ co-creator Steve Levitan, his early career working with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and how he’ll continue to cover “spicy” issues in his standup. This episode was recorded at Chifa in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Here's a little side dish from this week's episode of Dinner's On Me. This week I was at Chifa, an evening. Eagle Rock with Alex Edelman. You know him as a comedian, and he's also behind the award-winning stand-up and Broadway show Just For Us. He's also one of the stars and writers of the sitcom The Paper, now out on Peacock with its second season. Over Chifa's famous Addicting Noodles and Bolo Breakfast Sandwich, we get into his love of sitcoms, the art of writing jokes that are both incredibly smart and incredibly dumb, and what it's

like to go from being a longtime fan of comedy to working alongside some of the show. of the people who inspired your career. But to get back to the conversation, you're pulling up a chair as Alex tells me about the dinner, where at 18 years old, he met modern family co-creator Steve Levittan and found himself with a front row seat to a show that would become one of television's biggest sitcoms. I had a boss that used to say that sitcoms are a liberal. Every sitcom is a liberal sitcom. Really?

Think about it. Right? Like, you know, say in Act 1 somebody meets a person down on their luck. You know, that's before the first commercial break in a sitcom. They're going to help them by Act 3. They're never going to decide that it's their personal responsibility to, you know, pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Right.

Right? Like, that's an inherently liberal. There's a comedian Nish Kumar in the UK who says that, reaction movie is inherently conservative. Because no one's ever like, let's solve this with diplomacy in an action movie. He goes, except for Iron Man too, which is the worst Iron Man. He's like, because that's what happens. He gets bogged down to the diplomatic quagmire.

I don't want to misquote Nish. He's a really brilliant comedian. And I also can't remember if Nish says the thing about sitcoms, but like my boss Chris Harris used to say that too. How did you and Steve Lovettam mean? Oh, my God. Do you know the story? I don't. No, so Steve, one of the creators' mom family, told me about you after I had already met you.

I was like, yeah, I already knew Alex. I'm already a fan. And he was so proud of you because of the special. When I was a kid, I got a job at the Dodgers. Okay. I worked, before I was a comedian, I worked for baseball teams. Okay. I worked in PR. And, I mean, this shows a lot of people talking with their mouthful.

Yeah, yeah. Or like a little bit. But. And I was, because it was so young, because I was so young, the daughters. Is she spicy? Are you having a moment with spice? No, I just had rice go down the wrong way. The Dodgers insisted I lived with a host family.

And my dad knew this doctor. Frank. And Frank was friends with Steve Levittam. And so one day they were like, okay, we're gonna go over to this house for dinner this weekend. He's a comedy writer. If you want to come, we know you love comedy. It was like 18 years old.

And it was Steve Levittam. And he had just written this pilot. And they had just shot this pilot. And he was literally, said to Frank, do you want to see this pilot? And it was modern family. No way. And he had done Just Shoot Me. Don't forget, Steve had done Just Shoot Me.

So he's already rich. With Josh Gad? Was Josh on Just Shui? No, he was not on Just Shumi. He was on Back to You. He was on Back to You? Back to You, which was the Kelsey Grammer, Ty Boreau, Josh Gad. And by the way, my college roommate was Steve Levittam show called Oliver Bean.

Oh, yeah. My college roommate Grant Rosenmeier was Oliver Bean and Oliver Bean. Wow. And by the way, and this is how young I was. I wouldn't meet Grant Rosenmeier yet. I met Steve Levitt to him before. I was like a freshman in college. Right.

But I met Steve and he was wildly indulgent this kid who is like, do you know who Steve Martin is? He's like, yeah, idiot. I know who Steve Martin is. You know who George Carlin is? Gary Shandling, you know, like that's Steve in the day and stuff. I'm just finding out about these guys. They're crazy. You know, but like Steve was really cool and I told him

hey, I want to be a comedy writer. And he wasn't like, good luck with that. Right. He's like, oh, good for you. But so, you know, as my career progressed, Steve remained nice to me. But I loved Modern Family. I watched every single episode. I didn't realize you were that much younger than me.

I guess you're born in 89? Okay, yeah, you're pretty... Yeah, yeah, that's... How old were you on that show, 27? No, I was in my early 30s. That show, ma'am. Yeah, it's crazy, so you saw the pilot.

I saw the pilot before it aired. Yeah, that's incredible. By the way, there's how long it was. It was like a DVD. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It popped in a DVD. I remember showing that DVD to some of my friends. And it was always that thing of like, you know, you want to watch my pilot.

And I was like, oh, God, okay. Yeah, sure. But I would, like, babysit Griffin. No. But when I say babysit, I was close to their age. You know, like, they would go surfing. They'd go surfing and they knew how to surf. And I'd be like, do you show me how to surf?

The babysitter. The babysitter. Yeah. But, you know, the funny thing is Steve McKeigh. Queens kids or grandkids were like friends with them or something. Uh-huh. So, of course, you had these, like, tan, gorgeous, stunning California-Aryan children. Yeah, yeah.

And Griffin, who's Steve's kid, who's, like, nine feet tall. That's right. You remember? Yeah, yeah. And then you have this, like, you know, like, I was going to, after I met Steve, I grew two and a half, three inches. Like, I was still small. Right. Like, I grew in college.

and so like these kids basically like I was you know part of this little like group I was so lucky and had no idea how lucky I was but like they were so athletic

and not spicy yeah I guess it was gonna be oh no I like it but it's gonna numb it's gonna numb me up she's spicy Annie whatever I don't need to sit next to me

on a plane tomorrow is that a gross thing to say it's super gross My little brother, Austin, says that a lot. I'm lactose intolerant, but like every other Jew, I'm like, it's not my problem. I don't have to be around it. But yeah, Steve and his kids were like... And Ali, his daughter, is a writer on Estinl now.

Yeah, you know, the funny thing is I wrote... And his other daughter, Hannah, is really talented, too. I wrote a monologue for Allie during the pandemic for, like, there's 24-hour monologues things that we've done those. And she crushed it. Like, she's so funny, so talented. Yeah, that's a very talented family. Yeah.

And like, I've known all of them since, like, yay, hi. Because I was the same hype. Yeah, yeah. But they're cool, cool kids. Now for a quick break, but don't go away. When we come back, Alex tells me about his new show and what existential issues he'll dive into next. The challenge of making high-minded concepts

funny, and juggling being both a writer and an actor on Peacock's The Paper. Okay, be right back. On days off from Jesus Car Superstar in London this past summer, we would head out to the English countryside for a little family reset. The boys were in heaven. They were running around, looking at farm animals, getting as muddy as possible. Justin was, you know, thriving, taking runs in the morning. And I finally had an excuse to sit quietly with my Kindle for a few minutes without feeling

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What is your next show about, do you know? Sort of about, like, family. You know, my dad is this really brilliant, like, cardiologist, and he's definitely, like, made a good use of his life. And now people don't just want me to do comedy. They want me to, like, represent, like, you know, things that are, like, bigger than myself or, like, weigh in on really spicy issues. And I find that desire a lot more interesting than the spicy issues themselves. So, like, there's a little bit in there about, like, you know, Israel and Palestine.

There's a little bit in there about, like, although nothing too, like, you know, nothing too crazy. Yeah. But, like, I find that. desire that expectation to be really, really interesting. I think all like really good solo shows, or at least the solo shows that I like, asks, like,

what is my place in the world? And I always find different ways to ask that question. Like, my first show was called Millennial. It was that asked that question. And then my second show was about the loneliness epidemic, like a few years before people started terming it. A problem, because if you traveled, you just saw it everywhere. And this, you know, the last show was sort of about, like, whiteness and Judaism.

And this show is the... Sort of. Yeah, yeah. Shows about assimilation or anti-Semitism. And the funny thing is, like, the big challenge is making all these, like, very high-minded, artsy things that, like, jokes about your penis. So you really got to make sure that, like, you're somehow very good at that. It's a very hard, you know, needle to thread. Well, I've always liked high-low.

Like, you know, it's so funny because, like, I think, like, even talking about, like, modern family, like... No, think about how brilliant it is to have a joke about, like, Ty's character not being the brightest guy in the world. Like, that's the joke essentially, right? That, like, Ty's character is not very smart. But then the joke that he's doing, like the ABCs of closing, the carrying it all the way through the alphabet.

Yeah, yeah. Like, that's the smartest joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't think of a smarter joke. So, like, I love that blend of dumb and brilliant. Yeah. And, like, there's such a magic trick there. me like I'm an idiot.

You're 20 jokes that about being an idiot that no one could write except the author and like that's a really that's so fun. Yeah, yeah. It's so, so good. And like John Malaney does that. He's like one of my favorites.

Brabiglia, another Broadway denizen. Do you enjoy Boberna? Like Mozart to me. Yeah. Same. When I first saw him, I was like, oh, I've just discovered little did I know. He was like, by the way, I discovered his like special on, you know, Netflix for HBO, whatever.

Of course. I was like, no one else knows about this guy. It's got to just be me. But he's also like, you know, the funny thing is like, his stuff is so visceral and of a moment. He's so great at asking what's my place in the world. Yes, he is.

And I've known him a little bit too since we were both like Boston area teenagers. I was aware of him when I was starting college. He was dating a girl on my floor. And I like see him around. And I always knew of him. Why were they dating on your floor? but I mean yeah yeah listen I had a really comfortable floor

it was Tarazzo so you know I mean it's so funny eyes and lows what eyes and lows you need them both like you need that blend or otherwise it takes a really smart guy to play dumb yeah yeah and also have something there and you're saying that because you're playing a dumb guy

my guy in the paper is like the dumbest guy in the world but by the way other people write other people write Well, I was going to ask you this. Like, do you have a write for your, do you write for your own character? Oh, all the time. Yeah. All the time. A lot of the best jokes on the show are Greg and Comen, the creators.

And a lot of the worst ones are like. No. I just, and the truth is I'm, uh, because I'm on the show, especially in season two, I'm less fulsomely in the room and some of the other writers who are doing like three and days. I'm not doing as many of those. How many actors are also writers? Uh, there's me.

Eric Grant Hill. who's a genius. Bemisola, Ikemelo, and Mo Welsh were also, like, brilliant. So that's four of them. And, but, you know, occasionally, like, people pop in. Comen, who's one of the creators, has done a little cameo, was, like, a paper boy. Greg Daniels, he can't get him to do any cameo, even though he's, like, so funny.

I would love it when the writers would do cameos on Modern Family. Oh, my God. Wait, who do... Did Danny Zooker ever do one? Oh, I'm sure. I love him. He definitely, he loved Danny Zooker. Dude, it's like a murderer's rome.

of people that worked on that show. Yeah, no, they were, like, unbelievable writers. Yeah. And like, almost all of them at some point did a little cameo. And I would just love it because they were such, you know, when they, when it was their episode, they'd sit behind the monitor and they would just like really nail down, like, their words. No, no, no, it's not that.

It's this. Oh, really? Not everyone. Everyone obviously was a little different, but there were certain writers who, like, really, like, their words. And usually they were right. But how much improv was on your show? Not too much.

I would say about, like, maybe 20% improv. That's a lot of improv. But then when those writers would be the actors, and I would love watching them get directed. And it was almost like we were overdoing it with them. We got to take that again. That was way too big. You had Jason.

Jason was a director on your show, right? Jason Hiner? Yeah. He directed the pilot, and a lot of the first season, yeah. He's unbelievable. Yeah, he's great. Now for a quick break, but don't go away. When we come back, Alex opens up about what it's like juggling two jobs on the paper,

from surviving long days in the background to working with comedians who are determined to make each other break character. Okay, be right back. Remitly knows if you live a long-distance lifestyle, you probably developed a few unexpected strengths. Like instantly converting time zones. So when a text says, let's talk after dinner in Mumbai, you know they really mean during breakfast in Toronto. Or becoming the unofficial family text support, explaining why Tiarosa in Mexico City can't hear you when she's the one on mute. Can you hear me? Download the Remitly app today

and keep your long-distance game strong. Remitly, trusted by millions to send billions worldwide. And we're back with more dinners on me. Do you like being here in L.A.? I love it. I love it. I love it in a place to go. I miss New York.

I'm in New York all the time. You feel like such an East Coast guy to me. I'm in New York all the time. Every single, you know, every single month. I'm there for a little while. Like, it's where you do stand-up comedy. It's where you do the, it's where you do all the stuff. Do you do stand-up here?

What places do you like to do at? I do it like UCB here. I do the improv. I do the Laugh Factory. To this comedy store. A bunch of like the east side places, like bars and clubs and stuff like that. When you're in production for your show, do you can't, right? No.

Yeah. It's nuts. It's a good whole. Yeah. Sometimes when we're writing, I'll do it, but it's like, it's fucking, it's difficult. Yeah. What tires you out sometimes is the waiting. Yeah.

You spend a lot of time, like, waiting on set. And also, we're in the background for a lot of our shows. Yes, yeah, you are. So that's, that's a nutty professor situation, but it's, it's great. It's really, really good. Oh, that was the other thing Ed would always do. If you would hate being in the background of a shot, he would always, like, if we had these big party scenes, he would come in and say hello to everyone

and then go to the bathroom. He would say him going to the bathroom. He'd like, I gotta, yeah, I gotta go to the bathroom. And he'd like leave and we had this like room that was the bathroom in almost all the houses, but specifically Jane Glorias. And like he would shut and then he would like be off camera until he had his next line

and he would be coming out and he would say his line assuming he didn't have to be part of the conversation before. He would always do that. He would find ways to, leave the set, like go and get a whiskey at the bar, something like he would remove himself from the scene. And all of us are like just in the background, like having to be there all day, pretending to talk.

I'm like, God damn it, Ed did it again. He extraded himself in the scene. Yeah, I mean, like, that wouldn't fly on our show. No, it wouldn't. He'd be like, I'm going to the water cooler on the seventh floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And be like, what are you doing? But, like, Donal's unbelievable.

We have really incredible, like, this guy Tim Keyes on our show is like so funny he also will try to break him which what he'll do is he'll just get closer and closer to your face and talking and he'll like breathe on you and sometimes I do this

like I'll dig my hand like that so I'm like but only when in scenes with Tim or Eric because like stop yourself from laughing like season one he I had a scene with him where he's He's like whispering in my ear. And it was so, it really throws you off your game.

And I'm trying to, and I'm like, no, no, you got to improvise back. You got to, like, do all this stuff. But, like, he's an unbelievable improviser. And when I was starting comedy in the UK, he was one of my favorite comedians. So when he... That's so cool that you get to work with him. Oh, my God. It's, that's the coolest part of being in sitcom comedy, whatever.

Because, yeah, you get to, like, see these people. Yeah. And, like, it's just an incredible, it's just an incredible group. Yeah. Like, they're really amazing folks. Yeah. I'm so lucky. No, you're very lucky.

And it's also, like, a show that is, it's great. I mean, it's a great show. I love that you, it's, it shouldn't be as good as it is. Like, or I know that's a, man. But the same way that the office was like, you know, it's really, we just had Jennifer on two episodes ago. Oh, my gosh. Is she cool?

I don't know her at all. She's the greatest. Actually, a lot of that cast. I don't know anyone for that cast. Really incredible, because we were hot at the same time. Even Oscar keeps his distant. No, I was kidding. Oscar is a friendliest dude on the planet.

But yeah, we haven't had a ton of crap. When they came to visit set, I was like, I can't meet them. I can't do it. I'll freak out. I mean, like, those, like, especially like Krasinski and Karel. Uh-huh. I think if I met them, I would, like, faint. Ray and Wilson, I was like, you know, at least we'd talk faith.

And, you know, for Prasinski, I'd talk Boston. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, they're superheroes to me. BJ Novak and I are really, like, pretty good pals. I was going to, I assume he would be because he was also a rider on the office. And also a Boston guy. Like, you know, I did the job, you know, I took the job partially because it was Novak-esque. Right.

And I was like, I'll learn what to do. Getting to write an episode for the first season was, like, the coolest thing in the play of it. being on set with Jen Salada, who's our director. Wait, let me ask you about this, because this is a very rare thing when you write an episode of television, then you're actually in that episode. And you're, as a writer, are you constantly coming out of it and looking at it?

Do you lock scripts? Our scripts are pretty fungible, and by the way, Greg Daniels finds a lot of his show in the edit. Okay. Like, there are three. different sort of shows. There's the one that's on the page, the one that's in the camera,

and then the one that's in the edit. And, like, Greg is so... I've met showrunners who are good at aspects of each, but Greg is a genius. Greg's an amazing director and an amazing editor. And I've watched him, like, just with my episode, the episode that I wrote for season one,

just watching him turn the screws and making the show like what makes him I think if you had to nail down one aspect of his technical genius I'd say the thing that I think Greg Daniels did he director episode that you wrote he didn't Jen Salada did it who's also amazing

and it was in the middle of like a hectic time in our like series run because you shoot them all on the trot and Jen was like you know did some really brilliant elbow work on the show and like just a great director But like what Greg can do is he understands that putting pressure on here will make this part pop or putting or taking this part out will make, you know, this part sync.

He understands the invisible supports that each story has. And so sometimes he'll be like, I want a little more of this. So let me edit this. And so like, I think that's the thing that's partially instinctive and part of a thing that like you can't teach. No. Yeah, for sure. So like, it's great. it's got to feel really cool

to be a fan of Greg and that type of comedy and then be a part of it as an actor and also be riding the wave of like it's an episode that you wrote. I just imagine that must have been a really cool moment for you. It was awesome. Yeah. It's like really amazing.

Yeah. Like really cool gig. Really I'm the fucking luckiest guy in the play. But I mean look we got we did season two. Hopefully there's more. It's an, I can't

I can't believe I get to be like on a sitcom. I love sitcoms. So like, you know, I do a bunch of other writing and performing and stuff like that. And, but like getting the act and write and, you know, like, be around to speak writing for Trump, right? Well, yeah. Especially the White House Correspondents dinner, which was especially joke-free. Oh, my God. It's so funny.

I was like, someone trying to kill him with the last one. And I think this one was worse for him. I think this one was worse. He was so bad at this one. His delivery is so awful. Obama, people forget this about one of Obama's White House correspondent series. He was so funny.

Not only did he do it. He killed. He killed. And then people forget this. Later that night, he got bin Laden. I know. I was at that dinner. What?

I was at that dinner with people who basically knew what was happening and they were just super tired of it, obviously. I killed. I got insider information over like a salad. But yeah. Crazy. So I can't do stand-up if something else crazy is going on in my life.

I'm so like, imagine having to do stand-up within the background. You're like, okay, when I go home, we have to kill bin Laden. Yeah. Like, that's a crazy thing to do stand-up within the back of your mind? No. Isn't that crazy? You're just like, in the back of my mind, I'm like, well, also, we're going to have to kill bin Laden after this. It's the most of the same thing.

Like, I can't schedule a flight too close to a show. Otherwise, I'll be, like, distracted the whole time. I'll get off stage early. Obama is just like, yeah, yeah. Here's another joke about John Boehner. Also, I got a good kill. I mean, like, that's crazy. That's nuts.

It's so true. I don't think in hindsight, you know, after that happened, I was like, I can't believe, first of all, that we were in that room with those people, you know, on the brink of such a moment of our history, too. It's wild. Wild, wild, wild. Yeah, that's nuts.

Do you think he'll direct episodes of the paper? If we go to, if we go to like a fifth season, maybe, I'll be like, excuse me, Greg. I'll be like, yeah, let's get someone to hold up. her hand all the way through, but... It's my one regret that I didn't. Oh, do it on Modern Family? Yeah. Did anyone from the cast do it?

Julie Bowen, and she did a great job. Really? Yeah. She cool. Really impressive. Who's the worst person in the worst? One of the kids? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those kids were unconscious. They were so good. I know.

What is it about child actors that makes them these Olivier-type children? They're so, so good. Either they go out of it or they don't. And, like, I feel like, they were all so good. That girl will play Lily? Oh, my God. Aubrey. Wow.

Amazing. That show, it's like, it's so funny, too, because people have such short memories for television. And it was like, I was, uh, I was curious, like,

like, who won an Emmy 30 years ago for the best supporting actress in a comedy. And it was from, like, one woman won, like, three Emmys. I'd never heard of her and never heard of the show. I think her name was Baker, like Katie Baker or something like that. Oh.

And it was like, Picket Fences Oh, picket Fences Three Primetime Emmy Awards You're a little young for picket Fences 92 to 96 It's a David E. Kelly show Yeah

And I've never even seen it I remember picket Fences Three Yeah That's a lot That's more than two That's three more than me Yeah yeah

What you never won any of this? No nominated five times Lost time Who'd you lose to? Eric Stone Street Tony Hale Ty Borell Tony Hale

Eric Stone Street What's it like to lose to a fellow cast member? It feels, did it feel like crazy? You're just a little like... I mean, I knew Eric would win the first year, and I was pretty confident that Ty would also win. The fifth year, it was just me and Ty nominated from the cast. And I thought this was...

I did think this was my year and he won. And of course, I'm happy for him, but I was like, Ty, you don't need to. Yeah, you don't need two. Although Julie, when we did the wrap... When we wrapped the show, she has two of these as well for playing Claire. Her kids broke her Emmy, and so the ball that the Emmy holds or the angel or whatever it is holds broke off. And she gave me that as part of it.

She felt like I always deserved one. And so she gave me part of her movie. And then after I won my Tony Award, she asked for it back. That's so funny. She thought, well, you have something now. Can I have? And I didn't give it to her. I was like, no, you gave that to me.

That's amazing. You don't need it back. You're a lowercase E, E, T. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, that's insane. Exactly. Oh, my God, when you won that, Tony. That was wild.

Wild. Isn't it a crazy moment when you, like... Yeah, I kind of blacked out, for sure. Me too. Yeah. It's a scary thing. That was a little more from my conversation with Alex Edelman. If you haven't heard our full conversation yet,

make sure to check it out on Dinner's On Me. This episode of Dinners on Me was recorded at Chifa in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. Next week on Dinner's On Me, you know her as the breakout star of Never Have I Ever, and now she's leading Netflix's new comedy Best of the Best. It's My Tree, Ramakrishnan. We talk about landing her first acting job after beating out 15,000 auditions, yet for real, finding confidence through theater and getting obsessed with the world of collegiate competitive Bollywood dance.

Dinner's On Me is a production of Sony music entertainment and a kid named Beckett Productions. It's hosted by me, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. It's executive produced by me and Jonathan Hirsch. Our showrunner is Joanna Clay. Our associate producer is Alyssa Midcalf. Sam Baer engineered this episode. Hans Dale She composed our theme music. Special thanks to Tamika Balance Kalasni and Justin Makita.

I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Join me next week.