Dan Rath to Return to Edinburgh Fringe With HELP ME PLEASE

Multi-award winning Australian comedian Dan Rath will return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2026 with his brand-new show, Help Me Please.

'You probably already know me from reading the news. In 2018, I dressed up as a sewing needle and hid inside a strawberry.'

Following a breakout year, Rath brings his latest brain-breaking hour to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, fresh off international acclaim and a rapidly growing reputation as one of the most original comedic voices working today.

This new show follows the huge success of Tropical Depression, which earned the Director's Choice Award at Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2025 and Best of the Fest at Sydney Comedy Festival 2025. Rath was subsequently named a 'New Face of Comedy' at Just For Laughs Montreal and performed across the UK, Europe and Australia on his debut headline tour.

From the only comedian that claims to be 'so used to failure that success represents an existential threat', Help Me Please is a glimpse into the cracked, post-success mind of Dan Rath. A show about pressure, perception and the slow psychological erosion that comes with things going 'well', this latest hour sees Rath attempt to guide his equally unstable audience through a minefield of social, political and cultural confusion.

'In The Producers they say you can make more money with a flop than a success. I have a similar thing. The laundry service at my hotel is so expensive it's cheaper to buy new clothes than wash my old ones. It must be weird for housekeeping to empty a bin with a banana peel and four shirts covered in blood. I have an open wound.'

Rath's comedy continues to operate in the space between the absurd and the uncomfortably real.

'We treat A.I. with more dignity than the mentally ill. When A.I hallucinates they invest billions of dollars to train it to get smarter. But Steve gets on the bus and calls everyone a lizard and he gets tasered.'

Dan Rath is a multi-award winning, internationally touring Australian comedian with enough parking ticket debt to cripple a small European country. He has watched his car get cubed by the government. He has been disrespected by his colleagues and is bruised and battered with nothing to lose. His low status means he has heightened cortisol production and is not equipped to take a gentle ribbing. He has a diverse set of interests including prime numbers.

As well as the award winning Tropical Depression, his previous shows, All Quiet Carriage Along the Inner West Line was the Piece of Wood Award winner at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2023 and Bubble Bath earned him a Best Newcomer nominee at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2019.

In 2025, Rath was named a New Face of Comedy at Just For Laughs Montreal, where his set went viral, amassing over 270k views within 48 hours. He has since performed to packed rooms at Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre London, Club Haug Rotterdam and SOHO Zurich, as well as appearing at the Laugh Factory and Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

In 2026, Rath made his Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala debut, performing on the ABC broadcast MICF 40th Anniversary Oxfam Gala.

His debut special I'm Not Doing Well Folks, released by 800 Pound Gorilla in March 2024, has amassed over 120k views on YouTube. He is also co-host of the cult-hit comedy podcast Neurotic News alongside Damien Power.

For those new to his work, expect nothing but chaos. Help Me Please is a one-man existential spiral delivered with precision, paranoia and relentless punchlines.

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