4.5 stars
Josh Glanc is a man who can elicit peals of laughter from a crowd with no more than a faint raising of his eyebrows.
Image courtesy of Josh Glanc
As he enters the performance space, clad in the finest of white disco suits, the opening night audience goes nuts. Glanc personifies and parodies the crooner persona so very well, even down to subtle mannerisms.
He’s a crowd favourite at FRINGE WORLD for a very good reason; he’s an absolute gem of a comedian. A superb sketch artist, polished prop comedian, and all-round entertainer, Glanc at any moment is liable to bring forth that which his audience least expects.
It’s no different with Glance you for having me, returning to Perth after last year’s test run when it was very much a work in progress. It’s been a year and, in that time, Glanc has polished and refined the show—shaping it into the fully-fledged work of comedy we’re blessed to experience. This piece has changed so much as to be almost an entirely new show, so if you caught it last year and liked it don’t miss the chance to see the beautiful final form.
Glance you for having me is an almost-hour of unsettling comedy. That’s not to say it’s crude, or that it pushes the boundaries of good taste, or that it's reliant on shock and awe; although it’s fair to say that Glanc gets away with all of those. Rather, it’s an example of a master of misdirection working his magic.
Glanc isn’t afraid to go meta with his material. He’ll set up a joke, deliver the punchline and then break that illusion at the end of each bit. Somehow—undoubtedly due to his comedic skill—this never stops his audience from being sucked in the next time.
He drops threads of humour abruptly, sets up and tears down his own callbacks, and makes good use of sound queues before again beating them down to craft his next switcheroo.
Perhaps it was just because we desperately didn’t want it to end, or perhaps a result of the frenetic pace with which he ran the show, but when Glanc thanked us for having him and wished us goodbye, we presumed it was another misdirect and waited patiently for him to come back to the stage.
Leaving the audience wanting more is a great indication of the ability of a performer, and Glanc is clearly a skilled comedy craftsman. In his career as in this show, audiences will be thrilled to see what happens next.
Tickets available from the FRINGE WORLD website.
GLEN SEABROOK-BENSON