Alex Edelman won the Foster’s Best Newcomer award last year. The previous person to win the Best Newcomer award was John Kearns, who followed it up by winning the main Foster’s award the following year, the first time this double had ever been done. So no pressure on Edelman then. But if there is pressure I think he can handle it. This youthful American made an impact in Edinburgh last year with his debut show Millennial, a perfectly craftly hour setting out his wise-cracking worldview as an angsty mid-twentysomething struggling to make his mark on the world. There were gags, stories, social observations. He was, you could say, something of the full package. I’m pleased to see he is doing Edinburgh again and also that he is still working regularly in London. I seriously thought he might be quickly picked up and commissioned to write a big-shot pseudo-autobiographical sitcom for American TV by now. Instead he is doing a new show called Everything Handed To You about “about responsibility and being overwhelmed”. No pressure then. 

Alex Edelman is at the Sanctum Hotel tonight with Alexis Dubus, tickets here and at The Pleasance from August 5 - 30, tickets here.