Hot on the heels of Tropical Depression, Dan’s latest show tumbles shambolically into Monkey Barrel…
Dan Rath has described himself as “just a string of non sequiturs held together by mental illness” and it’s a pretty accurate read. There’s no bouncing on stage geeing up the crowd – quite the opposite, as Dan shuffles on awkwardly before launching into a deadpan, detached set that meanders between topics with no obvious goal.
It’s anti-comedy, and if you’re on Rath’s wavelength it works perfectly. We leap from ordering ‘scamby egg’ due to menu typos, to buying dips at the supermarket to pretend he has friends and winding up his anti-woke uncle with lies about non-binary people getting Disney Plus discounts. Some of the material lands, some doesn’t, and he says as much; it feels like the self-awareness is all part of the schtick.
Audience interaction is also intentionally awkward, asking one poor man how many toothbrushes he buys and comparing another to Salman Rushdie. There’s several Dan veterans in the crowd who loved every gag, but for the others it was a confusing set. The parts that worked for me were the most ‘neurodivergent’ ramblings, like country flag aesthetics and the genie’s wishes going awry, but it stumbled at the edgier material. Indeed, the final joke prompted more stony faces and boos, which was a shame as there was much to like earlier in the show.
Dan Rath is a Marmite kind of stand-up, so come prepared for anything.
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Dan Rath: Help Me Please is at Monkey Barrel Cabaret Voltaire from Aug 7-30 at 18:40