Josh Glanc: Glance you for having me | The Gold Digger | Until 1 Feb | ★ ★ ★ ★
After winning the Best Comedy Show award at Fringe World 2017, Josh Glanc returns with revamped material from those three prior years, to give us what we see now, which is a lesson in comedic mastery.
A Glanc show is hysteria and hysterical mashed together; like a night out in Nana’s lounge room, when the crazy uncle shows up and performs.
It could be a hit-or-miss show with these antics, but in the hands of the Maestro of Mirth, it is pure gold!
Glanc fools us all by letting us believe that this is just random ramblings, ad-lib jokes, and all just part of his craziness. It’s only when you dig deep and peer inside the material, that you will conclude that this a creatively connected and well-crafted show that clearly deserved a resurrection.
A proud Jew from Melbourne’s Caulfield, Josh has plenty of fertile ground with his biographical material; from his mis-spent youth through to his mother’s antics, which provided plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.
A Paper Mache facsimile of Mother complete with black bob wig; a plastic pot plant and a table of props were curious statement pieces when we walked into the round circus tent structure.
Singing in a baritone voice, Glanc can certainly belt out a number, White Christmas was a highlight, campy and fun. Other numbers sang with a dead-pan face and stopping at the appropriate moment to morph into another gag was just silly high jinx, but somehow it all worked.
Dressed in a white suit with a black shirt, Josh was truly strutting a handsome figure and payed homage to John Travolta. Nothing Jewish about that one I might guess, but it wasn’t until the closer that his jibe made sense; dancing and singing his way through the soundtrack of the 70s, Saturday Night Fever.
I always try to stay back and to hear what other people are saying when they leave a performance and Glanc’s opening night audience were all positive, some even reliving the more familiar gags. He is in a class of his own, go see him. You’ll walk away after his performance with a happy smile.
See Josh Glanc: Glance you for having me until Saturday 1st February.
Terry Larder is the founder of Club West (1989-2015) and in this role over those years was the director/producer/compere/drag performer. He is keen to foster goodwill and nurture new and emerging artists both on-stage and off. He has been a writer for OIP since 2007, and has reviewed numerous shows as well as interviewed and written about Debbie Reynolds, Anthony Callea, James Morrison, Elaine Paige to name but a few. Terry also writes history articles for OIP and university publications.
