REVIEW: Bryan Safi: Are You Mad At Me??, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

Bryan Safi has it all: a successful career, a fun personality, a…wild desire to people please, all the time. So what if returning a crewneck has him in a anxiety spiral in front of the store? So what if he’s the kind of person who finds themselves agreeing to 5am lifts to the airport even though he’d love nothing more than to stay in bed? Brian Safi is absolutely, completely, fine…as long as you’re not mad at him. You’re not mad at him, though, so everything is all right. Because you’re not mad. Right? Right?? Join Safi as he takes us on a whirlwind tour of his anxieties, gripes, fears and loves in this solo comedy spiral full of eccentric twists and bittersweet songs. 

Are You Mad At Me?? starts with a brilliant centre stage spotlight, Safi striding into view in a gorgeously tailored outfit – “handpicked by two of my meanest gay friends” – and immediately taking control of the stage by way of a caustically hilarious musical performance.

He tells us early in the show that singing has always been his way of distracting people from “everything else going on”, a way to combat anxiety and control the way he’s perceived. This motif is revisited multiple times throughout the show, often with hilarious results – one anecdote involving a romantic night out and the song Poor Unfortunate Souls is particularly funny – but although these musical interludes invite plenty of laughs those laughs turn increasingly bittersweet.  Safi flashes us a slightly too bright smile, or looks out into the dark theatre for just a little too long, and all of a sudden we feel complicit in his spiralling anxieties, active participants in this panic-tinged attempt to cover up real feelings with bright lights and fast paced jokes. It’s a tour-de-force in slick, perfectly-timed wise cracking, all with that vague sense of underlying unease just visible underneath the surreal singalongs and the physical comedy. 

Audience members who like a participatory element to their stand-up will particularly enjoy this show. Safi takes the concept of crowd work and condenses that concept down to giving randomly chosen people control of the mic for just a few seconds at regular intervals throughout the performance, often hilariously taking back the mic right at the point where the participant was just about to get to the point of their story, or get to their own punchline. This element of constant real-time feedback with the room helps give Are You Mad At Me?? an organic feel, every performance a little different depending on the audience, and combined with an unexpected sing-a-long and Safi’s engaging style this is no ‘sit back and switch off’ style comedy routine. 

Are You Mad At Me?? sits very comfortably in Safi’s wheelhouse. As good as it is in its current form it also feels as though there’s a more experimental show trying to push to the surface, visible in the comically sporadic use of coloured spotlights, a PowerPoint presentation, and those sing-a-long moments which slowly start to be not quite so funny as they first appear. Not every comedy special needs to do a Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette and suddenly become a one-person autobiographical drama, but Safi has the skills and the quick wit to lean into these more dramatic aspects of his writing more than is currently realised. 

Bryan Safi is a gloriously melodramatic onstage presence with the perfect amount of mean gay guy energy, the ideal amount of silliness and a god-given talent for comedic timing. Are You Mad At Me?? isn’t just an entertaining hour: it’s a chance to see a comedian at the top of their game, and it’s one of the best comedy shows on offer at Edinburgh Fringe 2025.

Recommended Drink: A New York Sour would be the perfect pairing for this fast-paced, smart talking show with just the right amount of bite.

.You can see Are You Mad At Me?? at Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square at 17:20 (60 mins), playing from now until 25th August. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.