Scottish comedian Daniel Sloss brings his new stand-up show Bitter to Melbourne in April 2026.
People complain that you can’t say anything anymore. Scotland’s global comedy superstar Daniel Sloss begs to differ.
“I’ve never not been confident doing stand-up,” says Sloss, who has been performing stand-up since he was a teenager. The Scottish comic debuted at Edinburgh Fringe when he was just 17. At 19, he became the youngest comedian to do a solo season at London’s Soho Theatre. In his early 20s, Sloss released his first live DVD through the BBC’s 2entertain distributor.
In other words, Sloss went all-in at a young age and found the sort of success that most comics can only dream about. Such a favourable start to one’s career could easily intimidate a performer, but Sloss has held onto two essential qualities: a firm belief in his skills as a comedian, and a commitment to expanding the thematic terrain of his shows.
Daniel Sloss: Bitter
- 12 – 18 April 2026
- Hamer Hall
- Tickets here
Check out our gig guide here.
He claims that at least 250,000 couples have broken up as a result of watching his special Jigsaw, in which he discusses how the fear of loneliness causes many unhappily coupled people to persist with less-than-ideal arrangements.
Sloss is perhaps best known for his 2019 special X – filmed at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre – which focuses on themes of consent and accountability, and specifically addresses the rape of one of Sloss’ female friends by one of his male friends.
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But after such a prolific beginning, Sloss’ career has slowed down in recent years. First there was Covid, which interrupted his international touring schedule, and then Sloss got married to his partner, Kara, and became the father of two children.
Sloss returned to work shortly after the birth of his son, in 2022, bringing the show CAN’T to Australia in 2023. But following the birth of his daughter last July, he decided to take a longer rest.
“I’ve always said I want to take a break when I do absolutely fuck all, apart from be at home and live my life,” Sloss says, speaking to Beat from his home in Edinburgh. “I was like, I’ll take a year off and do that.”
The break ultimately lasted just eight months, with Sloss returning to the stage at the start of this year. “After eight months of me being home, my wife was like, ‘You need to go back to work, man,’” he laughs.
By August, Sloss was back at Edinburgh Fringe for a run of 16 work-in-progress shows, where he trialled material for his new show, Bitter. When he first got back on stage, Sloss experienced something completely foreign: a crisis of confidence.
“New material is hard, but when you’ve come off of a tour, you’re very excited to be doing new material. You’re doing new material, that’s a bit difficult, but you’re game ready – you’ve been on the stage every night for the past fucking year and a half,” he says. “So, to come in with new material and no sea legs, just straight back into it, was hard.”
It wasn’t just the lack of match fitness that Sloss found challenging. During the time off, he started to feel a sense of fulfilment away from comedy, which produced its own kind of dilemma.
“For 15 years of my life, stand-up was the most important thing in my life,” Sloss says. “And now that I have children and a wife, I realise how fucking stupid that was. Not that it wasn’t fulfilling – I don’t regret any of my career – but being a dad and a husband is way more than that. And with that contentment comes a fucking fear: am I funny if I’m happy?”
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Given Sloss’ purported happiness, there’s some irony in the title of his new show, which comes to Melbourne’s Hamer Hall next April. But there’s a simple explanation for this, he says.
“I’m a bitter person. Or at least, I’m a person and I experience bitterness. When I worked out what the show was about this year, I was like, well I’m not going to fucking sugarcoat this. I’m not going to fucking pretend.”
Bitterness might be under the spotlight, but Sloss emphasises that the show is still funny – even if it’s often at his expense.
“I think bitterness is a bad fucking trait. Mature people aren’t bitter. People who meditate aren’t bitter. Petulant man-children get bitter,” he says.
“How many wise men have to live to the age of fucking 90 and say how important forgiveness and forgetting is? Like, it’s in all the fucking books that have been written for thousands of years. And me, as a 35-year-old man, can look all that wisdom and go, no, fuck off, not interested – I’m gonna hold this grudge for fucking ages.”
Get tickets to see Daniel Sloss at Hamer Hall here.
This article was made in partnership with Century.
