Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - ALEX EDELMAN Didn’t Get To Tell All His Family Trip Stories

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Alex Edelman joins Seth and Josh on the pod this week! He tells them all about what it’s like to travel with his parents, his cringe-worthy teen relationship story, all the travel stories he wished he had time to tell, and so much more! NissanThanks again to Nissan for supporting Family Trips, and for the reminder to chase bigger, better, more exciting adventures. And enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at nissanusa.com McDonald'sWe Love Mcdonald's and we love saving money it's a match made in heaven. Save money everyday with the McDonald's App.  Must opt into rewards. GametimeDownload the Gametime app today, create an account, and use code TRIPS for $20 off your first purchase. Photo Credit: Peter Garritano 

This episode of Family Trips is brought to you by the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder with seven drive modes. The Pathfinder is built for even the most epic journeys. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Hi Pashi. Hi Sufi. How are you? I'm good, how are you? Good. I just want to, we're recording this after we talked to our guest today, Alex Edelman, and you know what? I do eat my words about halfway through this episode because we talk a little bit about the standup comedy scene in Boston, and you do that thing where you get like scoldy and unlikable and you tell us to get

onto the family trips tip, and by the time we do, I'm gonna say maybe he had more great family trips than anybody we've ever talked to, and we ran out of time. So just fully owning it. And one of the reasons I bring this up is I saw Mom and Dad this weekend. Mom and Dad listen to episodes of Family Trips

while they're driving to see me and my family. They had very high praise for Ben Schwartz. I do too. And I think we saw that coming, right? That was gonna be one. And mom said to me, she goes, sometimes I get so antsy when people aren't talking about family trips.

And I wanna yell at the car radio, get back to the trips. So, what I'm saying is, we all give Josh a hard time, family trips and I want to yell at the car radio, get back to the trips. So, you know, what I'm saying is, you know, we all give Josh a hard time, but just know he's, you know, this is a real nurture thing. This came from our mom, who's always, even as kids, she was very single-minded.

She always said when we were little, if a podcast says it's going to be about something, it should only be about something. I mean, I like that you say that we all give Josh a hard time. I don't know who the all is, because I feel like what I keep hearing out in the world is that I have, there's a lot of support for my trying to keep it on track. Right, well the people, yeah, no, I mean me and the silent majority, the people that don't want to, that aren't going to like come up to you at your weird vegan grocery store and

be like, hey man, let them talk about what they wanna talk about. Yeah, sure, well, you listen to this episode. Yeah, no, but again, I was wrong. And again, I like talking to Alex about everything, but I feel like we scratched the surface. Yeah. So he was an absolute joy and also a real joy to see mom and dad this weekend. Yeah.

How was that? It was great. You know, it's always really great to see him. We had a very nice time with the kids and yeah, A plus. Games? Were you guys gaming around? I knew you were sort of reined in one day. We got reined, I will say dad, to his credit,

dad had knee surgery and he, you know, we sort of have a hill that goes up to the basketball. We have a little tiny basketball hoop and the boys now have it in their head that they like to play basketball and they don't like to play basketball at the same time. But both boys wanted to play with dad and he had to do this like sort of long walk up to the hoop.

And then I would say somewhere between 30 to 45 seconds into it, the boys decided they were done playing. And then he had to walk all the way down. And then the other one, anybody, he just was like great grandfather service. Yeah. Talked about him. Did he bring his, I bought them, mom and dad both,

like hiking sticks for Christmas a couple years ago. They did not have sticks. They didn't have sticks. It's just, golly. Come on. Yeah. That's a perfect time to use your sticks. I use sticks when I hike. Like, if I hike something that needs it,

and definitely if I just had meniscus surgery. And you know how like when the like the two or three times people have come up to you and been like, hey, those are cool sticks. Everyone else has thought you're a dork. Well, I will say this. It's like they haven't. Yeah, go ahead.

By the way. Yeah, go ahead. No, I was just joking. I think sticks are great, go ahead. When I hike with my sticks, I'm in places that you definitely want them. And people that don't have them, I'll be hiking on trails and you'll see people in jeans

and you'll see people with improper shoes and those people are in trouble and they're not having as much fun as I am. And they're not seeing as much as I am because they have to look down at roots and rocks and the dumb flats that they're wearing instead of proper hiking. Here's the two things I need.

When I go hiking, two things I make sure I bring. My Crocs and a growler full of IPA. A big old glass growler. I like to have it in the glass. And an external and a speaker to play your jams. An external speaker that play your jams. An external speaker. That I have to carry. To play your pop hits.

Yeah, and that's only because my boombox is in the shop. Right. Yeah, no, they didn't have any sticks. It was great. There is a thing, the Poncas. Oh, there's a really nice development, which is, you know, the boys called mom and dad, Ponca, Yerry, and Ponca, Hurry.

Addie, in that great development, Addie calls them Ponca, Yerry, and Hurry Potter. Harry Potter? Yeah. Cause she, the boys talk about Harry Potter a lot. Yeah. And so she called her Harry Potter, I think not realizing it was,

she wasn't doing word play. Right. But it is word play, yeah. It is word play and so it made everybody laugh. So it's a real winner. Yeah. It's the kind of word play that for those of us ourselves included,

when we drop some word play on, maybe we should be a little less proud of ourselves if- That a baby can do it. If a baby's stumbling into like a good one. It's like, oh yeah, these are sorta, you kinda teed up for some of these sometimes. We have a lot of words that mom and dad still say because we said it as kids.

So, my niece Agnes came over dressed in a full princess suit. And so what did mom and dad call her? They didn't call her a princess, they called her a- Princess. No, what, princess. Oh, okay. Yeah, okay.

Oh, princess, you thought princess? Oh yeah, no, princess. Princess, so, and it was explained to the kids that you, when you were a baby, obviously you've grown out of it, based on the fact that I teed it up and you put it in the, put it to let it roll to the backstop.

Prince saw is what you said when you were a kid and so they still say Prince saw. And Addie had, Addie's birthday was not during the school year so she did not have a birthday party at school. She had what they call a special day, but she called it a special day. And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna call special special

for, you know, the rest of my life. Yeah. I mean, you hold onto it for as long as you can. And then you'll try to convince your kids to say it like that. And then one day they'll forget it. Well, that's the thing. They outgrow it and you're still saying ornages instead of oranges.

And they're like, what the fuck's wrong with you? You're like, yeah, I've learned it from you. Yeah. Yeah. Our buddy Finn that used to say dogs would sluber. I know Alexi was like, Alexi loved sluber. And then when she eventually heard him say slobber, she was like, oh, yeah, he got it right now.

Sluber is a better word for it. Yeah. And some other breaking news. Should we break news on the pod? Yeah, we have a venue selected for the wedding, and we are getting our ducks in a row, and we're going to be sending out, save the dates, and we've got to figure out invitations,

we've got to figure out our guest list. It's stressful, but we're very excited. Yeah, so we're full speed ahead and it's exciting. It's a little stressful, but we're trying not to let it be too stressful. We've already had a couple of moments where we can sort of sense some tension between us. And we've been able to laugh that off

because we know that it is, we know exactly what it is born from. that off because we know that it is, we know exactly what it is born from. And yeah, I think we're both giving each other a bit of a longer lead. Are you worried that dad will be at a gas station and the guy on the pump next to him will be wearing a Steelers hat

and he'll strike up a conversation with him and then he'll call you and say he would like him to get an invite. I don't think that's gonna happen. I hope that's not gonna happen. He's definitely gonna talk to that guy if that guy's wearing a steely. He's definitely gonna talk to that guy.

If you're that guy, don't worry. My dad's gonna talk to you. Yeah. So, yeah. That's very exciting. Can't wait. Also, we made an error. Could I reference an error we made?

Oh yeah. We don't usually like to admit to our errors. No, exactly. But we made an error. Could I reference an error we made? Oh yeah. We don't usually like to admit to our errors. No, exactly. But we made one. We were raised by Larry Meyers, and we have been taught not, no. We had JK Simmons and his wife, Michelle Schumacher on the show, and I said they were our first married couple.

We also had Paula Pell and Janine Brito. And thank you, a lot of our listeners pointed that out. Yeah. Blew it. We blew it. And we're owning it. In our defense, 95% of our listeners are hardcore Christian nationalists.

But they love our sponsors. They love our sponsors. And they support them. Apologies to Janine and Paula, one of my favorite married couples. Yeah. Also mom and dad, but I feel like, you know, if you can call that a marriage.

They're over 50 years, they're crushing it. They are crushing it. You know what? They are crushing it. Yeah. Still, you know what's amazing? Huh? For 50 years, they've still never used those sticks.

50 years of marriage, they haven't even unwrapped the sticks you got them. Well, one day, a boy can dream, a son can dream that the gifts he buys to make his parents' life better and easier will eventually... You know what? There's another path. You know what the other path is? Don't buy him anything. Don't get him shit. I almost, oh, I came so close to clicking by now on those sticks.

And then I thought, I bet they'll never use them. Yeah, you'd be right. Also, I think you really, I really love talking to Alex. And let me just say, because we talk about it a little bit, I can't say enough about Alex Edelman has a special called Just For Us on HBO. It's this wonderful stage show he did. He's a really funny comedian.

This is way more than just a standup special. He tells a story about basically going to an event at a white nationalist's house. And very rarely do you watch something this funny that also has such a nice dramatic thrust to it. So do check out Just For Us. That's available on Macs. And first, why don't you listen to some Jeff Tweedy. Family trips with the Myers Brothers. Family trips with the Myers Brothers. Here we go. There he is.

Brookline's finest. Oh my gosh. Conan's here? Wait, John Hodgman's here? Oh, Hodgman too. Well, there you go. I do love Hodgman. I am like the ninth most successful comedian in Brooklyn and kind of like.

It's a hot pocket. We come from a hot pocket, you know, cause we kind of have Sandler and Silverman from our neck of the woods in New Hampshire, which is crazy. Yeah. Oh my God, that's right. I forgot that you're from where in New Hampshire.

We're in Bedford, but we went to high school in Manchester where Adam's from, but Silverman belongs to Bedford. So it's a pretty, it's a good gang. Josh, I'm such a fan. It's so nice to finally meet you. Oh, thank you, thank you. You've never met, look at this.

Alex, with a photo of us together at a Red Sox game, where's that, where you had the photo of you and Fallon. We met at a Red Sox game, but we were not photographed together. I don't know that we were photographed together, but I saw you host the Red Sox team dinner when I was working there. Yeah. Wow.

That went really well. That must've been between 2003 and 2007 is the only thing that I can figure on. It was, I feel like it was- Those were good years. Yeah, good years. Yeah. I think it was maybe a breakfast-y type thing, because I remember, I feel like it was,

no, it was before they won. So it was between three and four. They had not won. Really? Part of me thinks it was after we had won the World Series. Yeah, you know what? I think you're right. I think it was the team's opening dinner for the next year.

But you, I remember you crushed, and even then I had not started comedy yet, but I remember thinking, this is not an easy gig. Yeah, I would not think a baseball dinner would be where you want to do a tight 10, because I'm sure they're not giving you five. I'm sure they want you to do a little more. I did Pedro Martinez's charity dinner last year,

and I was getting nothing, and then I started making jokes about the ballplayers, and then they were all ears, and that was the... I remember, the only joke I remember is that Johnny Damon's book was called Idiot, is that right? Yes. And I said, yet another thing

he has in common with Dostoevsky. Wow. Yeah, I know we were at that first game of the season after they won the World Series because we were sitting on monster seats and Doug Mirabelli hit a homer, ripped it, and our dad tried to catch it bare handed and it hit both of his hands so cleanly

and dropped out of them and someone else got the ball and then he had to hold two bags of ice because his hands were swelling up. It was also freezing, freezing cold. It was freezing cold. And I was not on the wall seats for that moment because me and Mike Schur had gone to buy jackets in the like the sports store in Fenway, the sports store.

That's what they're called, right? You worked at Fenway, sports store? Yeah, yeah, we called it the sports store. People were like, gonna go down to the sports store for some Boston Red Stockings baseball hats. So, you know, we are obviously gonna talk about family trips, but you know, we were an hour from Fenway and. So, you know, we are obviously gonna talk about family trips, but you know, we were an hour from Fenway and that was, you know,

not maybe a full trip, but it was a huge deal for us to go to Red Stockings games. How often when you were a kid did you guys go? My parents, my parents do not like baseball. My parents are polite about my love of baseball. And when I was a kid, when I got a job there at the Red Sox when I was like 13 or 14, I'd bring my dad to ball games. Which is a nice role reversal for her, usually.

Usually a 13 year old isn't like, dad, we're gonna go down to Fenway today. And dad's like, oh boy, you know, like you see. But I bring my go down to Fenway today. And dad's like, oh boy, you know, like you see the other way around. But I bring my dad down to Fenway and it was cool for him for a little while. And then once he brought a Tom Clancy novel and he sat there leafing through like hunting

for the red October while the Red Sox were playing. And I was up in the press box doing some work because I'd leave my... And my... I heard one of the announcers making fun of my dad because he was on camera in the employee seats. But, you know, we... So my parents took me very rarely.

Sorry, this is a long tangent. No, it's good. This is all about long tangents as long as your family's involved. My parents took me very rarely, but my grandparents, my dad's parents took me and loved the atmosphere and had my grandmother in particular, who was a Chicago Cubs fan and a Red Sox fan, and died the year before the Red Sox won the World Series.

Oh, no. Was born like the year after they won. My grandmother rooted for the, my unlucky grandmother rooted for the Cubs and the Red Sox her entire life. But she loved the Sox and took me to a bunch of games. And I think my first game was in August of 95, so I would have been six years old. And yeah, Fenway was special.

And whenever we went to a city that had a ballpark though, my parents were always good about it. I saw a game at the Montreal Expos field a couple times. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I went to the stadium, right? Yes. So big. So big and such a horrible place to watch.

You know what's so funny? When you're a kid, I genuinely remember, my sense memories of ball games are mostly of being a little opinionated bitch. Where it's just like, I'm in Olympic Stadium, this is cavernous and not a good atmosphere. I'm like 11 years old with these like hot takes on architecture. I'm like, you know what?

If only the stadium felt a little less impersonal, maybe they could really do something here. Well, you were coming out of a Fenway existence, which, you know, is a pretty great ballpark. So to see something else, to see another ballpark and be like, oh wait, they're not all as sort of charming or as storied or as beloved. We went their way.

Our first game was at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Oh my God, wow. Because our dad's from Pittsburgh. But that's, you know, that was a, you know, you go to Fenway after that and you realize, oh, okay, this is why poets have written essays about this stadium. And there's no famous, you realize, oh, okay, this is why poets have written essays about this stadium and there's no famous, there's no famous like John Updike lyric recreation

of something right about this. It looks like an upside down, whatever birthday cake. You know, it's so funny, Three Rivers Stadium, my mentor at the Red Sox, a guy named Larry Lucchino, who just passed away actually. Yes, rest in peace, Larry. He was a really wonderful guy.

Larry liked to say that he built, his additions to Fenway Park were the things that he wanted as a child at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Oh, wow. So Fenway Park is sort of based on this like dream of like, Fenway Stadium's renovations are sort of based on the things that Lukino thought he might like to have

as a young person in growing up in Squirrel Hill. So God, what a baseball heavy start to. That's all right. I mean, we were not gonna miss the opportunity to connect on our New England roots. I will say, I recently saw Larry and he told me, I hope I'm remembering the story right, that his mom, whenever his mom saw Bob Kraft,

would give him a hard time about the Patriots being a bunch of cheaters, which I liked. That Larry Lucchino's Pittsburgh mom was still busting on Bob Kraft. She was so funny and so sharp and Menino, who was the mayor of Boston, who was like, depending on who you ask, like a complete idiot or one of the smartest mayors in American history. By the way, the answer may have been both, which is that he only ever wanted to be the mayor of Boston,

had no other aspirations. And once he became the mayor of Boston, only wanted to help the city and also had a limited attention span. Like, he was always at this ice cream place in Faneuil Hall every Wednesday. Once I mentioned that after he died to someone who worked for him, they went,

oh, well, Wednesday mornings we do budgets and the mayor didn't really have a great attention span. So we'd promise him ice cream after the fact. He was a seven year old child. The mayor of Boston got ice cream and sluggers dug out underneath Faneuil Hall. And solved your problems. Solved the civic problems that you needed solved.

But again, even as like a kid, I remember seeing Mayor Menino eating bubblegum flavored ice cream. You know, like the blue ice, for some reason the bubblegum flavor is always blue with like little pink pieces of bubblegum in it. I saw Menino eating pink bubble, like pulling a piece of pink bubblegum out of bubblegum flavored ice cream.

And I'm like, what sicko eats bubblegum ice cream? What freak? There are so many, your special is so wonderful. And it was an incredibly well regarded stage show as well. And there's so many wonderful details about your family. And I do want to pull from it without burning anything into the special. Please. Your parents, Elazar and Cheryl, where did they grow up?

So my dad grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. Just a 25 minute walk away from where I grew up. And we walked a lot because we'd go over on Chavez and we weren't able to drive. So there was that. My mother grew up in a part of Cincinnati called the Amberlee Village. And so she, and so I have a Midwestern mom and a sort of East Coast Bostonian dad. And your grandparents were a huge part of your upbringing. Enormous, enormous. My father's parents were, you know, like,

sometimes I'd get annoyed, I get annoyed at the word grandparents because I feel like for me and maybe other people, maybe many other people, it doesn't fully service the amount. It implies a sort of like, you know, biannual visit and sort of like really like Dutch uncle qualities of like, hey sport, but like my grandparents

were like serious parts of my upbringing. They were like very, very, which is what you literally just asked me word for word, but like my grandparents were like serious parts of my upbringing. They were like very, very, which is what you literally just asked me word for word, but yeah, they were. They were. Well, I think it's a, that's an interesting distinction you don't hear that much because I will say that I think Josh and I had grandparents

the way people classically say it, whereas I feel like my wife had exactly what you had. And you almost wanna call them great grandparents, but then that, that's a whole different thing grandparents, but then that's a whole different thing. Yeah, then that's a whole different, they've ruined it by stealing that for the other thing. Because we weren't allowed to say super old grandparents. Yeah.

But Seth, do you feel like your grandparents, I feel like this is like a nice cliche that happens to be true for like many, many, many people, which is that my grandparents were the vacation from the parenting rules that every kid kind of needs. We're like, you know, we weren't allowed TV after a certain hour, but when we were at my grandparents' house, that's when we could, you know, do that. Or we weren't allowed certain foods, but like my grandparents, my grandfather always had

a box of graham crackers in a specific place. And even when he was really really unwell Last couple I mean for him. He was sharp to the end. Thank God, but like Whenever we went into his house almost as a show of normalcy for him. We would go over to that place where he kept the graham crackers and Eat, you know and like open the cabinet and as we're saying like, how's it going, Papa?

Everyone would take a graham cracker and eat a graham cracker almost as like, sort of like very Ashkenazi communion wafer. It was like, we're like, we had to have this like, you know, sort of like entrance ritual to my grandparents' house. But yeah, they were on vacation, my grandma, my grandpa. I know this isn't like specific,

but I do think the one connection between like Alexi's grandparents and yours is like Judaism, because our grandmother was really waspy on our mom's side. Our grandmother on our dad's side was really Catholic. And you know, our Jewish grandfather, we barely knew because he passed away like when we were very young. So it is, but it does feel like that.

Everybody is a parent was definitely a part of her upbringing and it sounds like a part of yours as well. Well, she's a human rights attorney, yes, right? Yes, yes. Like Alexi's a very selfish woman. Very selfish. Take, take, take. Would she say that like,

would she like, I think I ascribe a lot of like my moral backbone to my grandparents. Do you know what I mean? 100%. Okay. Well also, you know, they were survivors. They were Holocaust survivors. Her grandparents.

And so, and then they were, you know, it seemed like especially her grandfather, like believed like one of his roles was like to educate and like to go speak about his story anywhere he was ever invited to tell it. And, you know, she grew up in New Mexico, but he was just this vital part of the New Mexican, you know, Jewish community.

And it just very, I mean, I sadly never met him, part of the New Mexican Jewish community. I mean, I sadly never met him, but he does seem like a person that, I don't feel like Alexi is trying to make him proud because I don't think he ever would have not been, but I do feel like she is very much trying to live on a path of the values that they had. You know what's so interesting is, I don't know that I've ever

talked about this, so I'm sure, actually, you know, I think my dad will be okay with me saying this, but, you know, my grandmother passed when I was, you know, like 12, 13 years old, and it was really my first sense of loss, which was a shame. But you know, that's what grandparents did, right? Grandparents sadly die, right? and it was really my first sort of sense of loss, which was a shame. But you know, that's what grandparents do, right?

Grandparents sadly die, right? They're not gonna like graduate like grandparents. Like the thing that they do, my friend Alfie always points that out, is like grandparents, they're supposed to die. Like you're supposed to lose your grandparents. Otherwise like something else is going, like it's a best case,

weirdly the best case scenario is that you meet your grandparents, you have some time with them and then they die. And it's sort of like, not stupid, but like it is almost like training wheels grief. Like it's not, you know, it's not grief. It's more hardcore than a gerbil. Right, but it matters.

It like is deeply felt and it's an important thing to happen to you. Someone told me, by the way, not to totally, it's just too good not to mention, my friend Liz was telling me that somebody in a friend of their friend group, they had a turtle and the turtle died and the kids are like nine, 10 years old and so they buried the turtle

as sort of like a training wheel for grief. And then they went back to, they wanted to visit, you know, Shelley's grave or whatever. Wonderful turtle name. Yeah, they go back like four days later and the turtle's alive. Oh, man. And they're like, that teaches you all the wrong lessons about death. But it teaches you all the right lessons about Christianity. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!

Oh my God. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! The turtle came back, and then the turtle comes back. And that's the most important thing, as long as you believe in the turtle. All hail Shelley. All hail Shelley.

Oh my God, I'm stealing that so much. Oh my God. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Family Trips is supported by Game Time. Hey Pashi. Yes Sufi. You love a concert.

I love concerts. And I buy a lot of tickets for a lot of concerts. And sometimes I buy those tickets just right when they come on sale and then the show rolls around and I'm not able to go because I'm not in town or whatever and that's kind of a bummer. But a smarter approach I found is using Game Time. You love a smarter approach. I love a smarter approach.

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Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code TRIPS for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last Minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. This episode of Family Trips is supported by the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder. From muddy jungle paths to snowy trails to rolling sand dunes, the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder has the capability

to take you to some of the most epic destinations on Earth. And we're excited to once again partner with Nissan because as our listeners know, this podcast, Family Trips, is occasionally a podcast about trips and about the joy of having adventures and exploring new places and making memories. And there's no better vehicle for chasing bigger, better and more exciting adventures than the 2024 Nissan Pathfinder.

With seven drive modes, the Pathfinder is available. Intelligent four-wheel drive is built for even the most epic journeys. And it even has up to 6,000 pounds of towing capacity so you can bring the fun with you. But Nissan also knows that it's not just about where you go and a Pathfinder, the real fun comes from getting there. Very well said Pashi, whether getting there

is a new physical place or just the end of an amazing story told by one of our guests. That's why we're excited to partner with Nissan to celebrate adventurers everywhere. So thanks again Nissan for supporting family trips and for the reminder to chase bigger, better, more exciting adventures and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at NissanUSA.com. Intelligent four-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions.

Towing capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner's Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo. Here we go. Your brothers are two years and six years younger? Two and eight. Two and eight. And are you guys super close?

I'm closest with the youngest one, to be honest. The other brother and I are like, we're friendly and I respect him, but maybe we're so close in age that we just like disagree on everything, where it's like, I volunteered for Obama, he volunteered for Romney. Like I am like, you know,

I'm surprised that he's still a boy. Like, I think he just truly want to go in the other direction every single way. But, I mean, he's an athlete of great distinction. He made the Olympics for Israel, which no surprise, he and I don't completely agree on politically. Yeah, I'm actually raising money for Hezbollah. And we are going to put a link up. Hezbollah's Patreon.

Your special is so much more than just great jokes, because it is this incredible story. With that said, there are so many great jokes. So by asking you to burn this one great joke, I don't feel like I'm ruining this. You mentioned your brother is a athlete for the Israeli national team. He is a skeleton, what do you even call it?

A skeleton racer? Yeah, he does skeleton. He does skeleton. You have the most wonderful, yeah. It's one of the fights. It's the best chunk about skeleton. I mean, you didn't know you needed it, and it's so, I'm just jealous.

You know what? I'll say it. I'm so, I was watching, I was so fucking mad Josh wasn't in skeleton. I was watching you crush, and I'm like, what a gift that your brother did skeleton. Do you know, it's so, it's so, I'm, I'm, I'm blown away that you watch a special, honestly. Like I really can't believe that you did.

It's so good. I'm really, really thrilled. But like, holy moly, man, really. But like, but look, I also, I try to, people always go, how does your family feel about you doing material about them? And for the most part, my material is actually like, like extremely either loving or like almost humble braggy about like, I make fun of my Olympian brother,

which is, which all I do is like, like you'd have to be, people are like, how does he feel about you burning him? And I'm like, burning him by mentioning to a national television audience that he made the Olympics in a very difficult sport. I think he's chill, you know? Like it's a, you're like,

how do you feel about your dad telling that? There's a story in the special, which is my probably favorite story about having Christmas for a woman who had nowhere else to go for the holiday. My Jewish family had Christmas for this woman. And people were like, how do your parents feel about you making fun of them?

I'm like, for them doing this extremely outside the box, altruistic thing that is extremely high indication of character, I think they have managed to deal with it. But which isn't to say that comedy families don't, comedy families like they're tying a yellow ribbon around on my stand or something like that. Like comedy families don't deal with a lot, but I think that, and by the way,

I misrepresent them for humor's sake quite a bit. Of course, sure. Yeah, like I for humor's sake, quite a bit. Of course. Sure. Yeah, like I'm an only child, but I honestly, I'm not even Jewish. I get misrepresented in Seth's standup and I'm fine with it. But it's also like, you know, it's not, look, it's not making the Olympics,

but I have jokes about Josh being vegan. And I think you're very proud about being vegan. You don't hate that the word gets out, right? Me? No, I don't care. So they're what I mean. It's kind of the same, right? Like I get a few little burns in, but the main gist of it is a positive thing about you.

Yeah, a thousand percent. How often do your parents come, how many times did they see Just For Us? I think my parents have probably seen it like nine times or something like that. That's great. That's the part, that's all, that says everything, right? That they can come and see it nine times. They saw it nine times and also, you know, it was,

but the funny thing is each one they came to, it was a special one or it made it special for them. Maybe even more, but you know what's so great is I looked in the audience at the last show that they saw at the Kennedy Center in late March, and they were laughing. And I was like, you know, glad that they still, at least, you know, I had a director named Adam Brace,

who was my closest pal, and we worked together for a long time, and Adam probably saw the show 50 times. Much more, many more, or would listen to the show. Actually, I know 50 seems about right, but, and Adam listened to the show a bunch, and he was a great collaborator, and he would laugh, but he and I were laughing at a different,

he would laugh sometimes in the show, and hearing his laugh, which is very distinctive, would make me laugh, but the thing that I were laughing at a different... He would laugh sometimes in the show, and hearing his laugh, which is very distinctive, would make me laugh. But the thing that we were laughing at wasn't the joke. It was the difference in how I did the joke that revealed either our conversation about the way that the joke should be performed or, you know, like, something that we had worked on really hard

and I really had to nail and I messed up as soon as I got on stage, you know what I mean? He was laughing at me, whiffing at something. There was a line that I figured out only worked if I said it a specific volume. If I yelled it didn't work, if I muttered it didn't work, it didn't work, and I went on stage and I said the line, exactly the right volume,

but with the words all in the wrong order. And I had to stop for a minute because Adam was laughing so hard in this like 200 seat room. Everyone's like, that sentence made no sense. Why is this guy like losing his mind? He wasn't laughing at that. So my parents, sorry, sorry, my parents, they laugh, I think, at a different,

they laugh at a different, or they're watching a different show after like the fifth time. My producer, Mike Shoemaker, who will always say, can you tell when I'm laughing? And I'll always say, yeah, cause you're the only one. Like every time you laugh, no one else is laughing. But the one on our show, which is that same thing

where you're over-focused on one, is if there's a name that I'm nervous I'm gonna say wrong, I like blow the follow-up name. Like, so, you know, like, I'll be like, Chiwetel Ejiofor, get it right, and then I'll be like, and Ike Blernholtz. Like, meanwhile, like, we've known Ike Barinholtz for like a million years.

You're like, ah yes, Oscar nominees were Yuchi Sakamoto and Len B. Ben Lee, you know? That's it. So what, growing up, did you guys, were you a trip family? We were. We would go every, we were such a trip family.

And I had a joke about it that I haven't done on stage in a long time. Maybe only did it once or twice, but it makes me wonder. We were such a family trip family that it makes me wonder why people don't go to the, why America hasn't been back to the Moon more. Because every couple years my mom would be like, we should go to Fort Lauderdale. And I'd be like, why?

And she was like, to see if there are any new kosher restaurants. And I was like, that's why you go to Fort Lauderdale and I'd be like, why? And she was like, to see if there are any new kosher restaurants. And I was like, that's why you go to Fort Lauderdale. I'm like, why don't we go into the moon more? To be like, maybe there's a butterfly preserve now. We went back to Fort Lauderdale because they put in a butterfly preserve, like the moon, we should see what's going on.

See what's going on there, yeah. But we would, my mom isn't just a family, not just a family trip family, there was also the post-mortem photo album that nobody ever cracked open ever again, which is just like, hey, ah yes, this trip. My poor mom, because I travel for a living, so now the last thing I wanna do is like travel extraneously.

So what I do is I will try to wrap work around or like wrap a personal interest trip that I have to take around a family trip. Like I'll like route tour shows around my, and then they'll be like, oh great, we'll come. And I'm like, no, this is not for you to come to. This is like me working out like new material or like it'll be some weird corporate gig.

And my mom be like, oh no, I've always wanted to, you know. I've always wanted- Why don't you entertain the people at Deloitte and Touche. Exactly, my parents have come to like corporates. My parents have been like, my parents came to a corporate in Baltimore. Love having my parents at shows. Let me stress, I love having,

but if I try a new joke, there's no way to not get my dad to say, I don't think that worked. And I'm like, yeah, I also know now. It's a new joke. My parents- I found out at the same time as you that it didn't work. My parents, there's a show in Boston

that was the first comedy show I ever went to. It's called Comics Come Home. Dennis Lurie runs it. Oh yeah, of course. I got to do, Comics Come that was the first comedy show I went to, it's called Comics Come Home, Dennis Lurie runs it. Oh, yeah, of course. I got to do... Comics Come Home was the first show I ever saw, I was like 13 or 14. And maybe I want to be a comedian, because all of them seemed like they were having so much fun.

And I got to do it a couple of years ago. And I've done it the last two years, actually. And it's at the place where the Bruins play. My dad is a big hockey fan, and we all play hockey. And so, I brought my parents down and this past year they went, I don't think that went as well as the year before. And I was like, thanks, thanks dad.

Our parents did a really good job of bringing us to see comedy when we were little. Really? And I'm wondering if you managed to catch, I mean you were interested at a young age, so maybe do you remember Steve Sweeney? Did you ever see Steve Sweeney? Oh my God, I think I have the best Steve Sweeney story.

Steve Sweeney for those who have never heard is. We're gonna do this, yeah, all right. We're gonna do this Steve Sweeney story, then we're talking about family trips. This all counts. Josh, this is, our parents brought us to Barn us to. It's really, it's really. Barnstormers. Adam and Seth talking standup.

But it's, we were with our parents. My God, it wasn't like, this isn't even about performing. This is about being young people and having parents who support us. Anyway. I'm just saying, Steve Sweeney. Steve Sweeney is a sort of OG Boston standup. He's everything you think Boston people are

if you've never been to Boston. Jokes about Dunkin' Donuts and the Big Dig and I'll have a lodge, you know? The one time we saw him at a place called Barnstormers, and I just remember it was like five minutes about like, you know you made it big when you're playing Barnstormers. Just hard as my mom's maybe ever left. All right, so what's your Steve Sweeney story?

And then we'll get back to family trips. God forbid. No, no, no. I mean, I want to see it. Oh, do you not have enthusiasm for it after Josh just like crumbled? No, no, no. I want to go see him at the Kowloon off Route 1 in Saugus, not to brag.

And it's a... Although the Kowloon is the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world. I assume there are some restaurants in China that would really want to couple with that, but it is often reported as the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world, and they have a comedy club in the attic, which is huge, very sizable. And I run into Sweeney, and Sweeney goes, Alex, I got a new joke. And by the way, Steve is a brilliant comedian, one of the best to ever do it in the city of Boston,

but also has a bunch of tried and true material. And I'm in the back and he breaks into this new joke, which is to be fair, a great joke. And there's this guy sitting there in the back row, last row, and he's got his arm around his wife or his girlfriend or whatever. And big guy, and he looks at C. Sweeney, and he looks at his girlfriend, and he looks confused.

And after a minute, he just leaned in and went, I don't know this joke. He was furious that it was like, he wasn't there to see new stuff. I don't want new stuff. Yeah, play the hit. He't there to see new stuff. I don't want new stuff. Yeah, play the hits. He was there to see the opening five, which is always, you know you made it big

when you're playing the county, the attic of a Chinese restaurant. Yeah. It was such a funny, perfect thing. But yeah, I'm sorry. My parents never took me to see, actually, my parents took me to see Robert Klein when I was younger.

Right? Uh-huh. At the JCC in Newton, and it was exactly the right, I was the youngest person there by like 50 years, but it was because my parents knew that I loved comedy really early. But no, we were not, I don't know that my parents, my parents just sort of let me do my thing, comedy wise probably.

All right, so Fort Lauderdale, that was an annual? Would you guys go to Florida often? We would go somewhere, yeah, my grandparents lived there. And so we'd go to Cincinnati a lot until my grandparents moved to Pembroke Pines. It was called Century Village, but everyone called it Cemetery Village, which was not cute.

I did not like Florida. We would go off into where the grandparents were, but we took memorable trips to, as adults, the trips get better when you're adults, actually. I think the family trips get better and they become way less frequent. They become annual if you're lucky for me or biannual if you're really lucky. But but yeah, my family took a trip to Japan, Tokyo, which is right after I got staffed on a television show, my mom was like, I had

a week off and I mentioned to my mom the minute I found out I was getting this job, I was like, can we go somewhere? We would go to Israel a lot. And would you go, was that when it's once a year a lot? Like how often? We go to Israel probably once every year, year and a half. We have a lot of family there. But it almost doesn't count as vacation really.

That's the thing, do these family trips count if you're going to see a specific relative? Yeah, we still count it. Would you look forward to the Israel trips? Was that family that you had a good time hanging out with? They were so different for me in almost every way, almost. But yeah, I did. I think my love of strangeness was built by family trips. I really loved the weirdness. I remember once I was out on the street in Israel with a Gameboy. This is how long it was.

It was not even a Gameboy color. And there was talking to this Arab kid in his limited English and my very limited Arabic. I spoke a little bit. Kid didn't speak, spoke a couple words of Hebrew. I spoke a couple words of Hebrew. So we're mostly like conversing in Hebrew mixed with Arabic and English. And this kid was trying to trade me his key chain game, like a Tamagotchi style snake key chain game for my Game Boy.

And even at like 11 years old, I knew that it was such an unfair trade, but I couldn't immediately kibosh it. Right. I couldn't, like, and I also didn't want to like, Bob Kraft with Vladimir Putin style, like give it to him to play, and thinking that he was going to like.

So I held the Game Boy while he played on the Game Boy for a little bit. And like, I remember just like feeling that intense moment of connection with someone over something that was so completely not in either of our worlds. You know what I mean? Like, like just, I remember standing in the street in this like neighborhood in East Jerusalem,

like holding this Game Boy while like this, you know, while this like Israeli Arab kid played. And so like, I think that I've been chasing sort of that for a long time. Does that make any sort of sense? It does. Did your, when you were on trips like that, did your parents, were you the kind of kids

that had the freedom to like go out and do your own thing? My parents, it is a miracle I have not been murdered. Like I am, so even looking back at some of my formative memories in Boston, where my parents were like, hey yeah, go do whatever it is you need to do. I was like, whatever it is I need to do, I'm 13. You'd be like, letting me. I was the ball boy for the Boston College

men's basketball team. I would roller, I was like 12 years old, literally 12. I, there was a guy named Troy Ball who was on the team was very good. And I'd roller blade down there wearing like my own sweats and a Boston college t-shirt and like I would roller blade the like 45 minutes to BC. And then afterwards, sometimes like a stranger would take me home like a relative, like stranger worked for the program. But usually my dad picked me up.

But in retrospect, like I didn't have a cell phone. I was just like, go. But yeah, when we were on family trips, sometimes I'd say to my parents as like a teenager, I'd be like, I'm gonna go do my own thing. And my parents would be like, okay, try to be back for X, Y, Z. And when you did that, would the four of them

be hanging out together? Were you just a total outlier or were your brothers also? You know what? It actually is a point of guilt that you have. I have sometimes, even on our most recent adult family trip, sometimes I like go do my own thing and my parents and my brothers hang out together. I try to be there for highlights of the trip,

but sometimes, or I try to like drag them. Now your argument is when you're there, that's the highlight. So you're like, anytime I'm here. Hey everybody, it's Alex time. Listen, they're getting for free with the gentleman at Deloitte and Touche has to pay more, you know? That is a joke.

I don't really think that about. But like sometimes I will arrange for something on a family trip thinking that it's like a really cool thing and they'll be like, when we were, I was in Japan doing a pottery apprenticeship and my parents- Like you do? Yeah, of course, why not? My family was, it was one of those things that I had to go do.

And there was like a family trip wrapped around it, like a few days before my parents were there. And I had to go and I thought I'd go sometime in November, but my parents were gonna be there in December. So I delayed it a couple of weeks to go do this thing. And so my family was in Tokyo, but I was like, hey, just so you know, I'm gonna have to like split off for a few days to go to this like rural village

and like sleep on a floor and like, so did that. But when I got to Japan, the guy who is the ambassador to Japan now is Rahm Emanuel. So, so like, and I'm, and my, the person that like owns the agency that I'm at, who I've like met like one time in passing, his brother, is R.E. Emanuel, his Rahm Emanuel's brother. So I get to Japan and somehow like get invited

to the ambassador's residence, like I mentioned to my agent or someone that was going to Japan, I got like a DM from someone being like, come by the ambassador. So I say to my family, like, hey, we're gonna go to the ambassador's residence for like lunch at this hour.

And they were like, to my family's credit, they're like, we have plans. And I was like, could you move them? And they were like, no. We wanna see our friend Midori. And Midori is like, this is where Midori can meet. So we'll be there when we're there. And my parents showed up, like, I show up,

it's me and like the Emanuels of Japan. And like my family showed up like an hour and 15 minutes, like just sort of like, or like just breezed in. Just like- Now I will say I am enamored by your parents loyalty to Midori. an hour and 15 minutes, just sort of like, just breezed in. Now I will say, I am enamored by your parents' loyalty to Midori. I like that they did not break plans. Totally, totally. And they did move, like the lunch where they were eating

was close, but my dad texted me, being like, he was like, yeah, maybe we'll have a quick lunch. And as soon as he sat down, he texted me, he'd be like, this is like a ceremonial lunch where it's like 17 courses and stuff like that. And he's like. I like that's a nice heads up.

That's a very thoughtful heads up. It was very thoughtful. It was very thoughtful. But my dad was like, there might be a different ambassador in Japan by the time this lunch is over. You know, I don't know. Is your dad funny? Not intentionally, but every so often he lands on a joke

and lives in it for like five years. Do you know what I mean? He'll be like, he'll accidentally do something funny and so he knows it's funny. Like, my dad's favorite joke is SNU. No. What's SNU? I don't know, what's SNU with you, Seth?

Oh, Jesus. By the way, Josh and I almost made it without asking. Yeah. We kept waiting. By the way, no one's ever made you wait longer to have to... I was like, Southern New Hampshire University? Oh my God. I don't know if Seth would snooze with you.

I mean, like, they're... My father-in-law and my brother-in-law just walk around, like, quoting Ace Ventura. No, they do not. They do. And now my kids, like, the amount they're like, already then. And I'm like, God, damn it. Sucks so much. That's so funny. They're the best. But they really, like all their, literally their entire comedy touchstones

are like Jim Carrey movies from like 92 to 99. Do you have any weird, like, it's so funny, when I think of family trips now, I'm thinking of so many outlier memories. Like, I can tell you the exact date our family took a trip to Paris because I remember watching TV and Dale Earnhardt died. Like, that was like, I remember watching a TV in Paris

and Dale Earnhardt, they were like the news and I was like weirdly despondent at like 12 years old about like Dale Earnhardt's dying and that. And then all the restaurants were closed in Paris for like the week, right? Yeah, of course. On the Dale news. They lowered, Paris lowered its checkered flags

to half mass for that. They lowered their Breton stripes to half mass. But yeah, I think I could tell you about all of these trips based on one weird outlier memory with, you know, like, but gosh, even going to the Montreal Expos games, like I mentioned, we went on a Montreal, I remember it was like dog day at the Expos, and the Expos were so bad.

This is like two years before they moved or something like that. And there were more dogs than people at the ballpark. Because you were bringing multiple dogs. So there were like 10,000 people, but like 12,000 dogs, you know? And one lady brought eight of them, you know, like it was, it was like- That must be when you're playing in a game like that, you must be like, we gotta get out of here. Yeah. It's just like, imagine,

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for additional information. Always secure cargo. When you guys traveled, how would the boys split up? Did you all share a room? Two of us would share a room, and one of us would get a thing. Or it would be all three of us in a room, and the parents in the other, which feels fair.

And then as we got older, then it would be two boys shared a room with one. It was just a really, and the split would be weird, but AJ and I would fight apparently as children. So there's always someone there to keep the peace or we would, but I think we shared, I think the boys shared rooms, which I actually didn't mind sharing rooms with my brothers,

but, and also on family trips, I could convince my brothers to do a little more adventure. Like I'm the adventure brother, and they're more the sort of like stay and chill brother. So like when we were in Japan last, like AJ, my brother AJ knows Japan very well. Like he trained there for the Olympics and like is a real, like really loves Japan

and speaks like enough Japanese to order at a restaurant or get into a taxi somewhere and so AJ really knows his stuff Japan wise like we're able to convince him to come out with us and like go to different places but the problem is he's such a comfortable local that he was like, oh we're gonna have the best thing to eat and I was like, oh my God, amazing. Then we went into like a 7-Eleven and he buys such a comfortable local that he was like, oh, we're gonna have the best thing to eat. And I was like, oh my God, amazing.

Then we went into like a 7-Eleven and he buys like a ball of like tuna and rice. And I was like, AJ, no, like I don't. He's like, no, no, it's way better here than it is in America. And I'm like, no, but I'm in Japan. So I really wanna go to like some weird bar or something like that.

He's like, but the 7-Eleven stuff is like pretty much the same level of quality or higher than the 7-Eleven stuff is like pretty much the same level of quality or higher than the 7-Eleven stuff you get at home. And I was like, no, AJ, that's not the thing I wanna see in Japan. I definitely had 7-Eleven sushi when I was in Japan. Oh my God. And it's really good.

It's good for 7-Eleven. And it's good that, but like if anyone's ever like, it's the best sushi. I'm like, it's not the best sushi. You're gonna like find it better in some weird hole in the wall, like shut up. Yeah, everybody wants to come home. And by the way, nobody is impressed when you come home

and you're like, they're 7-Elevens. They are so. Because again, I'm not looking to go, I'm not like, my biggest problem with America is not like, I wish the 7-Elevens were a little better. I wish the 7-Elevens had better sushi. I wish the sushi selection at my 7-Eleven was just better. You know how you're at 7-Elevens were a little better. I wish the 7-Elevens had better sushi. I wish the sushi selection at my 7-Eleven was just better. You know how you're at 7-Eleven and you're craving sushi

and you're like, I'm not gonna get it here? Well, that's not a problem in Japan. Israel is, hey, here's my question. What's the weirdest outlier place that you guys have been like a load of times on family trips, like more than you'd think? I don't know. We don't, we didn't really double up.

Yeah, we didn't, we did not double up much. We didn't go to the same place very often. We went to Salt Lake City a lot. Wow, okay. Why? To ski at Alta. Oh yeah, that's good. And we'd stay at like the one okay hotel

in Salt Lake City at the time. Now I'm sure there are more, but like we've been to, and then my little brother moved there for work. And so I've been to Salt Lake City as a family trip quite a bit. Real quick, if 15 years ago, we'd seen the three Edelman boys on skis, would we all been able to pick

which one would be a Winter Olympian? Yes. Okay. And it wouldn't have been me. I ski, you know the funny thing is, I don't like, I think this says a lot about me, I am really good at the very difficult courses that go through the trees narrowly,

but I get really panicked on the big wide open mountain faces. I get intimidated by that choice in the scale of the mountain and the possibility that I'm not seeing. So if I can focus like this, I'm great, but if I have to look around and see if something, if I can see for a half mile in front of me,

I'm freaked out. It's probably a really good metaphor for creativity where if I can see the one task in front of me, it can absolutely do it, but if they're like, in 10 minutes you're gonna have to do that, I'm like, I don't wanna do that in 10 minutes, I wanna do this thing in 30 seconds, or if I do it wrong I might die.

But AJ's a really good skier. Austin's an amazing skier, like a really, really incredible. And then by the way, when AJ was qualifying for the Olympics, we took a family trip to St. Moritz, which was really like, really funny, really fun. And my parents were so happy to be there for a purpose that we weirdly like, I remember, this sounds like my parents so well,

I have a bunch of pictures on my phone of my mom and dad in the back of a fish restaurant they enjoyed in St. Moritz, they're like, they hit it off with a Maeder D and he took them to the back to like see where they keep all the fish and stuff. And so I have all these like photos of like Sheryl and Elazer Edelman,

like standing in the back of like a Swiss fish restaurant just with like their arm around, you know, like Gabor. You know, like just like. No, I wouldn't have thought, you know, am I ignorant to think like you gotta, when you go to Switzerland, you gotta get the fish? Like am I? We gotta get the fish everywhere because my parents, here's what makes family trips complicated.

My parents are kosher. Got it. So like, there's gotta be fish options or vegetarian options or vegetarian options or vegan options, Josh, or kosher options. And if not, no bueno. Like, my parents can't just like go anywhere. They've gotta go to a place where there's like

stuff they can eat. So if they're going to a place for a reason other than we picked the kosher restaurant, like it's gotta be a fish place. Because fish, you can get kosher pretty much anywhere. As long as they're serving tuna, salmon, there's a way to get fish kosher. But if you're in St. Moritz,

I don't know how many kosher restaurants there are in St. Moritz. They can't just walk into a little place that looks nice. Yeah, I would guess zero, I would say. Probably. Was there any expectation when you were young that you and your siblings would eat kosher? Oh yeah, we didn't eat.

I didn't eat a non-kosher place until I was working on the Red Sox. And did you cop to that? You were like, hey, it was hot dog city today at the ballpark. I wouldn't rub it in their face. I wouldn't come home smelling of bacon. It is really funny if you like kept kosher

and you were like, and then it was a Fenway Frank. Like I broke it. I broke kosher for a middle of the road, if not below the road. It was the 7-Eleven sushi of, no, I, by the way, I still have never had bacon. I've never had shellfish. All right.

I'm like, I still keep like a modicum of kosher, but being a touring comedian, even more than that, I was like, this is not going to work. You know, like I can't like only eat fish for six months or something like that where I'm like on the road in Scotland. And it's like, yeah, my parents are still like, they always find the place. And I've gone through big stretches

where I only eat like kosher and strictly kosher too for like a little while. And it's like, it's a very possible dream, but like, it does suck to go to like Paris and they're like on a family trip. And even as a kid, I'm walking around being like, that place looks pretty good. That place looks pretty good, that place looks pretty good, that place looks pretty good and they're like,

no, no, we're going to this place. And you walk in and it's got the feel of a Scottsdale Marriott restaurant and you're like, god damn it. It's such a shame because wherever you go, there's still the same food that tastes the same as the chicken you have in Brookline, Massachusetts. And your parents were like, no, no, this is really great. And you're like, this isn't great, this is average.

Yeah, greats right down the street. Yeah, greats down the, there was literally, we walked by, I remember when I was 10 years old or 11 years old, like walking by some French bistro in like Paris and like, there was a like woman outside who literally looked like she'd been pulled out of like a cartoon. She was just like in her sixties,

but she had like one of those cigarettes and the long holders and she was like smoking while she ate her steak and there was a wine in front of her. And I was like, oh man, I want to do that. And my parents took us into like a kosher restaurant and everybody in there was like from New Jersey. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna literally die if this is like, if this is my upbringing,

if like, but that's the thing. Like I always wanted to, I wanted non-homogeneous environments. And so like trips, family trips were like really amazing for that in some respects, but every so often you get invited to be like, all right, kids, time to go to the place where all the other American kosher tourists are, you know?

Yeah. But then the rest of the trip, I mean, I guess it's ultimately it only just hamstrings you at meal time. Like it seemed like your parents were incredibly adventurous and wanted their kids to see the world. Totally. We did, by the way, a kosher cruise to Alaska.

That's a really memorable family trip. It's also where I think had one of my first kisses with another girl. I don't know, how embarrassing should we get on this? How embarrassing is your first kiss? I had a full relationship with this girl who is also the same age on this like boat. How old are we?

I want to say we're 16, but the truth is we're like 18, I think. You can say 16, but we all know. Say 16, but we'll all know 18. Sam, can you take out where he said 18? But then leave in where I said 18. Oh my God. It was, and I was really into this girl and we became convinced that any of us ever losing either of our clothes. That she somehow could conceivably be pregnant. Yeah. Oh my God. There's different rules on a pregnant. Yeah. Oh my God. Different rules on a boat.

Yeah. What an indictment of the Brookline High School's sex ed department. Oh, the Brookline Yeshiva High School's. Oh well there you go. During sex ed at our Yeshiva High School, Ariel Diamond leaned back in a way that got a laugh. It's not embarrassing that he said it.

It's embarrassing that he said it all cool. He went, when are we gonna need any of this stuff? Think that, and everyone was like, yeah, I mean, like he's right. Like, when are we ever gonna need sex, you know? Yeah. I need sex ed. All of us are gonna be like virgins,

like cool virgins, the rest of our lives. In what world, in which timeline does this come into play? Yeah, what, sex? We're 17, why would we need sex ed, Jesus? That is crazy. So you, how, and so you both, but you both felt this panic, you and your boat wife. She started the panic.

I bought into it so enthusiastically, and I told my physician father, who has worked in Boston hospitals for a very long time, that I was like, I may have gotten so impregnant, and my dad was like, okay. And I was like, and he's like, I didn't know you were having sex. I was like, no, we didn't have sex. And my dad was like, okay. And I was like, and he's like, I didn't know you were like having sex. I was like, no, we didn't have sex.

And my dad was like, what? And I was like. Then you're good. Well, and my dad was like, Alex, I can see him laughing at me. And I was like, but what? And he was like, we'd have to call this kid Houdini. Like if this, he's like like if you got this girl pregnant,

like that kid needs to be born. You know, like it's like, it's truly an immaculate. Do you feel like he was more relieved that you hadn't got her pregnant or more disappointed that you didn't know how it worked? I think he was more disappointed in my anxiety that refused to abate. Yeah.

But it was a, by the way, I think this is a weird and funny CODA now, but at the time I was furious, the girl... didn't tell me she had her period for a couple of months because she was worried we would stop speaking after that. So we left the boat and I was like... It was like really weird, insane. It's something that only happens to a teenager.

And you're still with her, right? Yeah, that's my wife. We have no children. We've never had sex. We have no children. We never... We shoot... Our sexual activity is limited to dry humping on boats. Or whatever. She will only do it on a boat, and we still keep her clothes on.

But she's the best. She's my angel. She loves the lonely island, but yeah. All right, so we, first of all, this is the, I want you to know this sincerely. I feel like we've really only scratched the surface of your family trip, so you might be the first guest we're gonna ask to come back on.

And you know what? I'm gonna own it. I'm gonna own it, Josh. I blew it talking about Steve Sweeney. Wait, did we, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. No, no, no, it's my fault and I just, like you are, like the depth and wealth

of these family trips are wonderful. But we are gonna let you go and Josh is gonna ask you some questions before we do. Okay. Okay. Okay. I feel like I should have been more focused on my ADHD. No, you did great. And let me say, you know what you did

that my mom is really gonna appreciate? What? You said family trips a lot. I think she really likes that. Yeah, because that's what we need. We need recognition of, yeah, the title. I really liked, I listened to the, I listened to the Pamela Atlan episode, like last week,

and she was so focused and like Patton, when I read his, not read, when I listened to his episode, he was really good. So now I'm just like, no, this is, I'm telling you. No regrets. I mostly just say, like, I just feel like you've got this is, I'm telling you. No regrets, no regrets. I mostly just say like, I just feel like you've got another hour of family trips in you and this has been such a delight. You should be honored that we're talking

about having you back, like we've never done it. I so want to come back, I would so love that. But I feel bad for my lack of focus and I feel. Oh geez, no, you're great, you're great. We got some quick questions. Please. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous,

or educational? Adventurous. Yeah, adventurous. What's your favorite means of transportation, train, plane, automobile, boat, bike, walking, et cetera? It depends on the city. Okay. Right? Amsterdam's a bike city, Venice is a boat city.

Mm-hmm. Right, but generally- Boston rollerblades, or East- Boston's a rollerblade city, but- Duck boat, rollerblades, it's one or the other. But generally train. I think trains, like amazing train cities or train countries, like the best family trip

we ever took was to Peru. We did Machu Picchu and we took the train from Urubamba to Machu Picchu, and just like taking this like old school train through the rainforest, it's just like one of the coolest things, like I'll never forget it as long as I live. I'm glad we didn't talk about it. Um.

You know what, these things come back to in spurts. Yeah, I get it. Yeah, that's fair. Look, I'm never gonna hear the end of this one from Josh. It was really incredible, full of lavish detail and. Really, you know, and the thing I remember about it made all the other family trips we ever took uninteresting. If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, fictional or real,

other than your own family, what family would you like to take a family vacation with? The Swiss family Robinson, I'm sure, gets mentioned a good amount, don't they? Not a ton, but they have been mentioned. Yeah. People love the Swiss family Robinson, but it does feel like they made it work,

this like huge, amazing tropical thing. They were so industrious. They like were able to like, they totally nailed this assignment to being like shipwrecked on this island. And they put together this like weird little island paradise. So the Swiss Family Robinson seems pretty sick. And in terms of like a real life family,

I think, imagine being on like, imagine being on a vacation with like the early Rockefellers or like the early Rothschilds. With like the grand tour was still a thing. And like people were going to like Egypt from Europe for the first time or like had the ability to like go from Europe for the first time or like had the ability to like go to Italy. Like, I think a lot of these ideas come from fiction,

but like, and I have such crazy fiction wanderlust, but like the idea of being like with a rich person, like that's my love of trains. Like, like whenever you watch the Porra movies, like the Branagh movies or the earlier ones, like you're like, oh my God, to be rich in the 1800s Whenever you watch the Porra movies, like the Branagh movies or the earlier ones, you're like, oh my God, to be rich in the 1800s or the early 1900s and traveling by rail through Europe.

With trunks, with trunks of new clothes. Trunks that you don't have to carry. More touch, you never even touch a trunk. No, you get four hour breakfasts in your private car with handmade hot chocolate, that's the fricking life. You know, like that's what you want. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be?

Well, I could say my brother AJ for endless debate. If I'm gonna be stranded on my, you know what? I never get tired of talking to my dad. I really, and by the way, when I say that, I don't talk to him enough, he always reminds me. Whenever I call him, one of his jokes will be like, who's this? I'll be like, Alex?

He'll be like, hmm, Alex. And he'll be like, yes, your son. He's like, oh, my son, I know I have several sons, but this one so rarely goes. Or like, the other day. And then he tells you what's new. Oh, my God. I know I have several sons, but this one so rarely goes. And then he tells you what's new. Oh my God. By the way, I fall for it intentionally

every couple of years just to give him a thrill. I'll be like, dad, how's it going? He'll be like, you know, new. And I'll be like, today's not your day, dad. You don't get it. But yeah, my father, my father's a real, and he's an engineer, so he builds things. Great. You don't get it. But yeah, my father, my father's a real, and he's an engineer, so he builds things. Great.

You're from Brookline. Would you recommend Brookline as a vacation destination? You know what? Not joking, like a thousand percent. Great. Like genuinely, you know what's so funny? Mark Kates, who's a really great guy. Oh yeah.

Fenway Recordings. Fenway Recordings. Mark Kates is a music manager. He manages MGMT. He's a really good buddy of mine from Brookline and lived in LA and moved back to Brookline with his family because he wanted to raise his kids there instead of making them LA pukes. And he wanted to be able to walk to Fenway, which he does. And Mark was on a tour of Japan with MGMT and went all over Japan for a month

and then came home and found a new ramen place that had opened in this arcade in Brookline underneath his office, directly underneath his office at the time, and went to the ramen place, which was opened by a couple from Hokkaido and said, I ate ramen every day in Japan for a month at the most authentic Japanese places. I came home to Brookline, went downstairs,

and had the best bowl of ramen I'd had in years. Which is like such a- There we go, points Brookline. Brookline's become weirdly like a place to open, like there are new businesses, it's like, it's close to Boston, there's like stuff to do, but like, I mean, it's not Paris. And I'm, but yeah, I, I, I make it, I make an effort to get home to Brookline

just to hang out sometimes when I'm feeling a little fatigued. I'll just like go home. BJ Novak's got the same approach. He'll just like head back a couple of days. But yeah, you know, we're close to the most famous person in Brookline. No, he's really close. BJ's Newton. So I got a little bit of grace.

Okay, yeah, that's right, that's right. But yeah, the other one who's famous from Brookline is John F. Kennedy. Oh, yeah. Right, right, right. So even Conan, even Conan's looking up, yeah. Seth has our final two questions. Alex, you've been to the Grand Canyon.

Do you not remember if you've been to the Grand Canyon? I have driven by it, but not enough if you've been to the Grand Canyon? I have driven by it, but not enough to like, you know what I mean? Yeah, so we're not gonna count it. Do you wanna go? Desperately. Okay, great.

I felt based on your love of adventure, you would say that. A secret trip that people know about, but don't really do is Slot Canyon Country. Like again, like these big wide open canyons, everybody knows about, like the Grand Canyon's amazing, but there's a place called Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona, which is the coolest place

I have ever been. And it's this gorgeous, like, it's this gorgeous kaleidoscope of like different colored stone and the canyon's very narrow, some places only big. And so like I've always preferred slot canyons to huge ones. So like Utah, Arizona, those places only big. And so like I've always preferred slot canyons to huge ones. So like Utah, Arizona, those places are lousy with them. But like everyone knows about the Grand Canyon,

but I highly recommend, highly recommend Antelope Canyon, which is on Native American land in Page, Arizona. Such an incredible place. I mean, on top of everything else, the fact that Alex sort of finished up with the best answer about canyons we've ever had Yeah, I don't know when it's gonna happen But for everybody listening like we hope you enjoyed this and do stick around maybe a year from now

Maybe sooner for Alex Edelman part Just for us right just for us is so a wonder and I'm. I'm sorry, I am gonna prompt you into the hardest. I laugh very hard, but you, again, talking about your brother, talking about him doing the skeleton, national team, Israel, you had a nickname for him, and then your mom told you to stop, and you came up with a better nickname. That's right, we used to call him the Frozen Chosen.

But eventually, my mom was like, stop calling him that. And so then I switched over to Shool Runnings. Which is really one of my faves. But guys, this is such a pleasure. And Seth, not to embarrass you here, but I would be remiss if I didn't say what a huge influence you were on me as a young person, comedically. And so if you watch a special, there are a few people like this. But if you watch a special, I really hope you can see your fingerprints on it

in terms of like writing wise and even a little bit, as I lovingly teased for by others performance-wise, but yeah, really big. Well, that is an incredibly high compliment because it is the kind of special, and I mean this as the highest compliment, it makes me jealous. Oh, that's so nice.

There you go, that's all you can ask for. That's so nice. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much. It makes me jealous. Oh, that's so nice. There you go. That's all you can ask for. That's so nice. Thank you, Alex. It has just been wonderful. Alex Edelman. Hey, hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey! Had his first kiss On a kosher cruisin' He was eighteen Not even drinkin' boozin' That's where he met her

Thought that they met her Although the humpin' was dry When he was just a boy He brought his dad to Fenway. Baseball brought Alex Joy. His daddy brought Tom Clancy. The curse of the Bambino. He chatted with Lukino. I screamed with Tom Maneeno. In Israel he had a Gameboy. Language was foreign I'll trade you for it For that weak bullshit He said no way I'm on a keep it I fricking need it He's not from Needham He's from Brookline

So close to Boston It's wicked awesome Great place to come from He He's got a special. If you're relaxing, watch it all maxin'. You'll get some laughs in. Talk about some stand up. Poshi puts his hand up. Tries to tell the boys to Talk about family trips.

Like the time he flew Right down to Peru. Saw Machu Picchu on a train Guess we're gonna have to hear that one next time Hey hey hey, hey hey hey