WE'REALLDOOMED! AREVIEW

song grows darker Each segment features a comedy set, often accompanied by games that allows Daniel to interact with his audience Throughout his show he uses humour to dive deep into serious subject matter, and as a way to cope with the terrors of the world.

Daniel states, “Every day when I wake up, I reach over to my phone, terrified to see what is happening in the world The doom scrolling begins.” Between sets, Daniel swipes through different videos projected behind him, initiating the act of scrolling mindlessly through TikTok’s For You Page The show’s structure builds upon this, as Daniel swipes through different topics like a dystopian slot machine It introduces a variety of topics, from the climate crisis, to the rise of the far-right in British media, to the death of privacy As we open our phones and are bombarded with horror story after horror story, the ordeal of going online can be emotionally draining Daniel continues, “In the face of all this unstoppable horror, it is tempting to give up but we can’t We are all so critically important to shaping the world around us You matter.” While the internet makes the world seem a terrifying place, Daniel reminds us of the brightness of the world.

One of my favourite moments from the show was Daniel going through his old tweets, building a silly conspiracy that he killed the Queen of England with a joke he made back in 2011 However, as he projected an image of Queen Elizabeth to the screen, the theatre was filled with two-minutes of Irish booing The tweet reads, “the queen is so nice, I want to put her in a box ” Daniel walked out of Vicar Street heralded as an Irish hero, avenging our ancestors

WRITES CLAIRE WATSON | FEATURES EDITOR

After ending his five year hiatus, Youtuber Daniel Howell prances onto stage, greeting Vicar Street through song and dance As he sings of happiness and how great the world is, an animated sun interjects with existential quips reminiscent of Dan’s usual sense of humour Before long, the opening number crumbles into a downward spiral as he’s no longer able to ignore the harsh, frightening reality we live in

Daniel has always been known as the sardonic youtuber who makes edgy, selfdeprecating jokes that separates him from the pastel positivity of ‘Brit-Tube’ He was the dark counterpart of lifestyle guru Zoe Sugg, artists PJ Liguori and Dodie Clark, and of course, blogger and skit writer Phil Lester 13 years ago Daniel posted a video titled Hello Internet to youtube, and built himself a career of content creation wherein he worked for BBC Radio, published 3 books, and has just wrapped up his 3rd world tour But after the end of his 2nd world tour, Interactive Introverts, his Youtube channel went quiet In the midst of his hiatus, Daniel announced his sexuality in a video titled Basically I’m Gay and explained being closeted as part of the reason for his absence

After 5 bitter years, where I finally made peace with the fact I’d never see Daniel upload again, he posts the video titled Why I Quit Youtube Published on May 4th 2022, Daniel discusses the real reason as to why he stopped uploading In his hiatus he begins a journey to better mental health, and publishes the book You Will Get Through This Night, guiding readers to survive through mental illness As part of his personal journey, he discovers his love for creation At the end of the video, Daniel announces his return to Youtube and a world tour titled We’re All Doomed

The official trailer to We’re All Doomed shows Daniel walking through an apocalyptic forest, as he jokes about the robot invasion of Amazon’s Alexas He brushes aside the body of a dead bee, which becomes a symbol of his tour, and sits down to watch a meteor crash into the Earth The tour coincides with a new series on Dan’s channel titled Dystopia Daily that calls back to Dan’s classic sardonic humour, but focuses on creativity, connecting with other people, and overall smiling in what might be the face of the apocalypse

The set design is simple, but effective A giant ring light set at the back of the stage evokes the ancient iconography of Danisnotonfire, while also referencing the staging of Dan’s Dystopia Daily The ring doubles as a screen that Daniel uses throughout the show, to engage with the audience, share memes, and to structure the show In the opening number an animated sun accompanies Daniel as he sings, inverting as the

Daniel uses the stand-up comedy model to highlight societal issues, making his arguments both enjoyable and engaging He draws attention to wealth inequality, using bubbles as a sensory-engaging way to illustrate the incomes of the average person, versus that of the 1% Despite the stark difference, watching Daniel run across the stage, screaming and filling Vicar’s Street with bubbles had everyone laughing and smiling While at once Daniel is playing upon our powerlessness in changing the world, he invites us to laugh anyways It's cathartic, but it’s also refreshing as his humour has evolved from the self-deprecating existentialism that he’s built his platform on

Act one of the show ends with a sudden return to Daniel’s usual bleakness however A h di th l f li t h th h ’ t i b ht b k t

A set change marks the beginning of act two, as a bunch of cubes lay strewn across the stage. Die-hard fans will recognise these cubes from the set of The Amazing Tour is Not on Fire Their placement lends to the dystopian tone that Daniel has been building since his return to youtube, as they resemble the undistinguishable ruins of an explosion Throughout the show Daniel references his history as Danisnotonfire, the community he built with his fans and also the toxicity of his fandom that invaded his personal life This tour concretely marks the end of that era of Youtube

The humour swiftly returns, however Act two presents us with a post-apocalyptic world The trailer’s meteor has hit, and now we’re left picking up the remains of the world He takes us through “Dan’s Declassified Apocalypse Survival Guide,” a humorous set that details how we might survive the apocalypse by riding around on scooters with cacti stuck to our bodies This set softly leads into a more serious discussion as Daniel wonders what we can do when all of the world’s problems seem beyond our control.

The show ends with a deep monologue as Daniel sits down with his audience and shares his journey with mental health He makes light of his depression, talking through his experience with logging his mental state through emojis Trying to stay positive during the different crises of the modern day can be a struggle, and Daniel doesn’t ignore this Instead he draws attention to what really matters He pulls up an old video of his, titled Existential Crisis, wherein he says “You decide what you want to achieve, what you love, what you dream and come up with your own meaning, embrace the void and have the courage to exist ” As he sits down on the stage with his audience, he celebrates their existence The world’s problems might make us feel small, but there is nothing more powerful than existing despite it

The show was both humorous and artistic, and it was quite emotional getting to see how much Daniel has grown, and how we’ve all grown with him As an anxious and depressed teen myself, I was drawn to Daniel’s channel because he made me feel less alone Seeing someone who was as weird as me flourish online, filled me with hope for the future After his final words, “You matter,” I felt emotional leaving the theatre, thinking how proud I was that he, myself, and the audience had made it this far