Paddy Young and Dan Tiernan on Success in Comedy

Paddy Young and Dan Tiernan have talked before about how if they were comedians with their level of success in the nineties, they’d be raking it in. Both received nominations for the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Best Newcomer Award at last year’s Fringe, both sold out their Soho Theatre runs this month and both are touring their respective shows. So how is it that they’re both scraping by? The two northern Englishmen ("You're no longer northern in Scotland. You're an English person," says Young) moved to London to pursue comedy full-time, yet their best efforts are only proving so lucrative.

It seems only right that clothes-horses creep into each one of our pixelated rectangles every now and again, suggesting a chaos barely out of frame, as we discuss how the goalposts seem to have moved for our generation. Young calls it a never-ending horizon: one that gets further away as the industry recognition and views online continue to not turn into actual money. 

“The similar theme [between our shows] is that we're kind of both struggling,” says Tiernan. “[But] I think both our shows are punchline-driven. I have loads of jokes about dyspraxia and being gay but the throughline is just, ‘This is who I am.’ I did have a really lonely, tough year before I started writing the show because of achieving all of these dreams and incredible things [like winning the BBC New Comedy Award] and them really not fulfilling me. But I don't think either of us wants to change the way anyone thinks.”

Young agrees. 

“You write the jokes and then you have all these people tell you what the show is. I never wanted to make a show that's the flat share show or the generation rent show but I am now a decade into flat shares and, just before I went up to The Fringe, I got kicked out of one. That’s the reality for a lot of us. Pretty much everyone [in comedy] earns £21,000 a year. I forget that people assume that we still make loads of money. I went to some costume thing and I had a job where I wore a tuxedo so I decided to wear it to a gig. And I completely bombed. Maybe coming on and talking about flat shares didn't seem ironic enough.”

“I think if you were bombing anyway, a suit is only gonna make it worse. He's put literally his best outfit on and he's RUBBISH,” howls Tiernan, having already been set off by his showbiz mate giving away exactly how much they earn to anyone who wants to know. Not to mention that the number gets smaller each time. While Tiernan catches his breath, it’s striking how contrary to the subject matter the mood is. 

The pair clearly love doing comedy and admit they’re standing on the shoulders of giants. They might have been rich in Stewart Lee’s day, but they wouldn’t be anywhere near as good. “In terms of being the best comic possible, I [still] think we're in the best time,” says Tiernan. “You can build your own audience and put stuff out there [digitally]. But it's quite frustrating because I really struggle with making online content and it's just so necessary these days.”

“It is a bit frustrating that just being really good at standup isn't enough anymore,” seconds Young. “But yeah, Dan and I could both list off brilliant comedians that we know who were never going to be given a chance to do the standard king-makers of comedy [like Live at the Apollo or, more recently, Taskmaster] but they've now found their crowd [online].”

Tiernan is at pains to stress the gulf between Young’s output and his own. Young’s surrealist sketches with on-screen flatmate and comedian Ed Night are full of nifty edits and camera tricks, and are released with a consistency that makes them both fairly ubiquitous faces on Instagram. They serve almost as an unofficial, continual showreel for their acting chops. “[Whereas] I made a video once for TikTok and then spent six months trying to work out how to delete it," Tiernan says.

Young is quick to build him up. 

“Dan, that video that you shot on your iPhone of you smashing a beer can over your head was amazing.” 

Tiernan rubs his face. 

“I wish that was a joke.”

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Paddy Young: Hungry, Horny, Scared, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 17 Feb, The Old Hairdresser’s, Glasgow, 22 Mar
Dan Tiernan: Going Under, Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 29 Feb, The Stand, Glasgow, 3 Mar
@paddyisyoung, @paddyyoungcomedy
@tiernancomedian