Fringe Reviews: Dan Tiernan, Vittorio Angelone & Terence Hartnett

Dan Tiernan’s abrasive comedy style is at once hilarious and disconcerting, says Frankie Reason. 

★★★★

Dan opens his set with a scream, immediately turns to talk of ketamine, and then proceeds to riff on his divisive style. 

‘Not for everyone this, is it’ he reflects, before accusing the hot-chocolate-drinking Café Nero patrons of stumbling into the wrong venue. 

The audience is wary. And they’re right to be. The front row gets an absolute bollocking. Are you a musician, Tiernan demands of an unfortunate 16-year-old sporting Ziggy Stardust face paint, before unleashing the most obscene slander, taking even himself by surprise. I’m going to leave you guys alone, he promises, you’ve paid your service. 

The audience is simultaneously howling with laughter, and distinctly uncomfortable. 

Tiernan dives into drugs, relationships, and his own troubling mind with this newest material, and though at times we feel we might be following him into a dark dreamscape, his brutal honesty has the audience enthralled.

Dan Tiernan: All In runs until 24 August at Monkey Barrel 1 at Monkey Barrel Comedy.

Vittorio Angelone is producing excellent comedy at the Fringe this year, says Frankie Reason.

★★★★

Outside the Monkey Barrel, indignant protestors are campaigning against Vittorio Angelone. What’s the deal, someone standing behind me asks. Just take a look at his Instagram, returns the po-faced man. 

Angelone has been cancelled before and is eager to explain the concept of subtext. Subtext, he says, is when I say something I don’t mean, and mean something that I’m not saying – confusing for comedy reviewers, he observes. 

His soft-spoken, intelligent comedy is at odds with the picketers outside, and it’s hard to feel perturbed by his refrain of ‘up the Ra’ set to the tune of Hakuna Matata.  

Vittorio Blue. Credit: Rebecca Need-Menear.

As well as the Monkey Barrel, Angelone is performing to sold out crowds at one of the Underbelly’s largest venues, and rightly so. 

This is excellent comedy – if at times a little politically dogmatic – and the audience is raucous.

Vittorio Angelone: you can’t Say Nothing any more runs until 24 August at, Monkey Barrel 1 at Monkey Barrel Comedy, Gordon Aikman Theatre at Assembly George Square and McEwan Hall at Underbelly, Bristo Square.

Terence Hartnett delivers a charming, funny set, with lots to admire, says Frankie Reason.

★★★

Terence Hartnett jogs on to the stage to the tune of Springsteen’s Born to Run – an unlikely choice, medically speaking. 

The New York comedian recently beat cancer that began in his testicles and spread to his lungs – costing him one of each – and is thrilled to share that he has since completed a marathon in just three hours and 41 minutes, officially. 

He’s conscious that an hour-long set about running isn’t likely to be a comic masterpiece, but is nonetheless committed to the premise, and in the end it’s a moot point. 

This is not just a series of marathon gags, but a good-humoured, witty musing on illness, beginning a new life with someone despite adversity, and curiously, privilege. 

The latter was perhaps the weakest element. References to his own excellent physique and perfect white teeth – nary a brace – were met with only half-hearted approval from the crowd. 

Nevertheless, a charming, funny set, and lots to admire besides.

1 Lung Marathon runs until 22 August at Just Up The Stairs at Just the Tonic at The Caves. 

Read more Fringe Reviews here.

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