Comedian Dan Tiernan is on a meteoric rise, from winning the BBC New Comedy Award and British Comedian of the Year in 2022, being nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe and even making his acting debut on our TV screens in Doctors last year. This year, Dan is performing his first-ever debut UK tour as well as making his first appearances on popular panel shows QI and 8 out of 10 Cats.
Alongside all of this, the Stockport-born star had a sold-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe and is currently on tour with his show, Going Under, with just several dates remaining. Revealing what fans can expect, he joked: "Going Under is everything I've written in the past seven years I've been doing stand-up and then also personal stuff in there, it's all punchline led.
"It's all about the jokes, but some of the topics that I cover might be considered a bit edgy, like my sister having cancer and that kind of thing. In general, it's high energy, very unpredictable. Someone once described me as 'it's not like being trapped in a basement with a lunatic, it's exactly what it is'. I think that's a good summary of what you could expect from one of my shows."
Comedy has long been a passion for Dan, who cited Johnny Vegas and Lee Evans as his comedy heroes. Reflecting on a difficult educational background, the former school dinners server explained: "I've always wanted to perform, that was the one thing I could do as a kid, I was massively far behind in education, but when I was able to get on stage, I felt like that was something I could do on my own.
"When I found out what stand-up was when I was a kid, I was just obsessed. I loved watching them and I admired people who did it so much. I was just fascinated with that."
The comedian's first gig came following a course at the Frog and Bucket, and the Manchester leg of his tour pays homage to his background, as he will perform at the club.
Outside of his comedy, Dan also recently made his acting debut, appearing as Logan Padmore on Doctors. However, just weeks after his episode aired, the BBC announced that it was axing the long-time show.
"I broke Doctors," he joked. "It's weird because all I do is comedy, so it's weird doing something safe. You have to be a bit more of an all-rounder as a comedian these days, you have to be prepared to do a few different things whether that's podcasting or writing or producing or acting."
And when pressed on what his dream role would be, Dan mused that he could be the perfect James Bond or could potentially be cast in Ridley Scott's upcoming sequel to Gladiator.
Outside of his professional career, Dan is busy navigating the dating scene as a gay man and someone living with dyspraxia, a disorder that affects movement and coordination.
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"I think being gay is just hard, smaller dating pool and a lot of things are really direct," he admitted. "There's loads of things about me that are much weirder and unique than me being gay. Navigating the world as specifically me and everything that embodies is an experience. Some of those things make it difficult for me to navigate life and one is because I'm gay. Honestly I think sometimes people think it's easy for gay people these days and cool to be gay, you're lucky if you're gay and even though society has come so far on, it is difficult."