I’ve seen two prominent comedians on this year’s fringe argue that your belief system is something you choose. Sign of the strange times, or just a way to justify some far-out comedy? Dan Tiernan’s show is certainly an extreme experience, as he discusses his interest – his faith, supposedly – in healing crystals. Rose quartz for calm, black tourmaline for grounding. Hard not to remark that neither seems to be doing its job well. Tiernan is the least calm and grounded comedian imaginable.
You have to strap in for the ride at the Mancunian’s shows, and Quartz and All is no less so than its predecessors. It opens with Tiernan seething with his usual self-loathing, and cracking a fantastic gag about getting glasses. Now 30, he’s still ambivalent, bordering on hostile, about his sexuality and appearance: the healing crystals are a last resort, he argues, because only magic can redeem a man as freakish and unlovable as he. Such arguments are his prerogative, and he brings his woebegone plight (so lonely, he’s “getting on boats just so someone will wave at me”) to often hilarious, blood-vessel-busting life. But in the shadow of Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, that brand of internalised-bully comedy can be uneasy viewing.
