Emmy Winner Reveals Why Barack Obama Was ‘Concerned’ About Him

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters Barack Obama is very worried about comedian Alex Edelman, the stand-up comic and star of Peacock’s The Paper revealed on Obsessed: The Podcast .

In his 2024 HBO stand-up special Just for Us , Edelman, 37, detailed his experience attending a meeting of neo-Nazis as a Jewish person (he was undercover at the meeting).

Several months later, at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, a friend introduced Edelman to the former president.

“I was introduced to him in a dark room, Edelman told host Kevin Fallon.

“He said, ‘Young man, if I was your mother, I’d be really concerned about how you make your living.’ I said, ‘Comedy?’ And he went, ‘Neo-Nazis,’ because the show’s about me going to this meeting and neo-Nazis.

And I went, ‘You saw my special?’” In response, Obama quoted the show back to Edelman.

“He was like, ‘Can you believe it?’ Which is a line from the special,” Edelman said.

“I don’t know if he’s just an avid TV watcher, or if he enjoys it, but I had such a lovely conversation with him about empathy before he was whisked away to speak to the people that he should be speaking to at the DNC.

But it was a really gorgeous moment and probably the most gratifying one.” Edelman won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for Just for Us , which also ran on Broadway in summer 2023 and received a Special Tony Award.

He currently stars as Adam Cooper in the sitcom The Paper , a mockumentary set in the same world as The Office .

The Paper follows the staff of a small Midwestern newspaper as they struggle to keep the newsroom afloat; Edelman also writes on the show.

Season 2 began streaming on Sept.

9 on Peacock.

Edelman turned 18 in 2008, making Obama the first president he voted for.