REVIEW: Dan Tiernan: All In, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

Dan Tiernan enters the stage with an intimidating energy, screaming at his audience, but a room full of ammusement can tell no lie, this man is one to be laughed at.

This hour of comedy goes through Dan’s history of drug abuse, and the adjacent effect it has had on his mental health. He recounts his experiences starting drugs at 14 years old, smuggling drugs into Glastonbury and the many moments where his high has led to a personal low.

The topics covered in this show are intense, with extended references to internalised homophobia, severe drug abuse and extreme mental health conditions, however this is never done out of a place of offence. Dan reccounts his real life experiences through all of this and is hillarious, while never placing the audience in a position of pity or disrespect towards these issues.

Throughout the piece Dan makes reference to a man called Alex, a bucket hatted man at Glastonbury who was invited onto the stage to rap alongside Dave. He speaks about how he wishes that he could invite somebody onto the stage to do his comedy for him, before inviting an audience plant up to do exactly that, and taking delight in watching a bucket-hatted man named Alex bomb on his stage.

Dan also spoke about his experience on Omegle as a teenager, and his first time coming out as gay, in a beautifully comedic moment of queer solidarity.

If I had one criticism for Dan, it would be that he was loud, aggressively so, which fed into his style of comedy but occasionally left me feeling on edge.

His set concluded with a story of how his drug abuse led to a psychotic break and the recovery journey he took as a result, this show is a whole lot of fun and definitely worth a watch if you’re looking for some late night comedy in Edinburgh this year.

Recommended Drink: Pair this with lighter fluid fumes on the night bus.

You can catch Dan Tiernan: All In until August 24th at Monkey Barrel Comedy – Monkey Barrel 1 from 22:25 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.