Tommy Tiernan has a reputation for giving energetic and loud performances and this year’s fringe offering is no different. According to Tiernan he wants Crooked Man to leave the audience “knowing less” than when they arrived, using an amazing nonsensical metaphor to describe the confusion he wants everyone to feel come the end of the performance. From the outset Tiernan provides constant laughs like this by always creating a twist at the punch line that leaves the crowd in stitches.
What makes Tiernan so funny is his style of irate and vigorous delivery, bouncing from one side of the stage to the other, expiring and perspiring heavily as he paints a picture of his boarding school where he had a friend so stupid “heroin would sharpen him up”. Crooked Man subscribes to all of Tiernan’s usual ports of call, anecdotes that give him the opportunity to showcase his impeccable observational comedy of Irish mannerisms and traditions.
Not that Tiernan is unable to throw in some pop culture references, with some clever jibes at Hollywood’s A-List and, naturally, the recession. Crooked Man has something for everyone and shows the audience just why Tiernan is a regular sell out at the festival.
4/5 
Emily Carson
(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
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