When comedian Josh Glanc was 12 years old he did something so unspeakably despicable, he'll only tell you about it if you come to his new show 'Glance You For Having Me'.
If you ask Josh, it's kinda-not-really his fault; he blames his mum – and the Jews.
“I'm the first-born Jewish boy in my family, and Judaism has a bit of a hard-on for first-born Jewish boys, and you end up being the golden child who can do no wrong,” Josh explains.
“The consequence of that – coupled with the fact I loved attention and I loved performing as a kid – is that I was able to get away with some pretty serious, intense stuff. I don't want to say because I don't want to give it away but there's something I did that comes out in the show, which is pretty serious. It's pretty f....d up.
“There are other things I got away with as well, not as extreme but similarly full-on, and it's like 'I shouldn't have been able to get away with that, why have I?'. So the show is about that, but there are things going on in the show that help to enlighten that theme in a way.”
'Glance You For Having Me', which makes its Australian debut this year, is a comedic sidestep for Josh towards a more story-driven performance.
“It's definitely a different type of show for me in terms of content and the things that I'm going to be talking about, and the things that are going to come up. It's going to be quite personal,” he says.
“On the other hand, it's still going to be very much my brand of surreal weird, surprising, physical stuff. So it's still me but it's definitely a step in a different direction from what I normally do.”
The title of the show is Josh's surreal twist on a common mispronunciation of his surname.
“The show is about me and about my life and about my upbringing and heritage. I talk about the last name, what it means and where it comes from, so it is apt that it's become the name [of the show].
“It's a terrible in-joke, the in-joke being my last name is spelt G-L-A-N-C, which ordinarily you'd say 'glank', but it's pronounced 'glance'. So if you were going to do a pun on my name you would say 'glank you for having me', and I made it 'glance you for having me', which is such a f...ing in-joke it's terrible. It's cringeworthingly [sic] bad.”
Josh presents 'Glance You For Having Me' after a recent run with other show 'Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian', which he describes as “more of a sketch show with characters”.
“All of my shows feel quite different,” he says.
“I really like comedy that's surprising, I really like to create shows where the audience is constantly thinking 'what the hell is about to happen?'. I'm always keen to push myself, try new things and keep growing because I've still got a lot of growing as a comedian to do.”
Josh Glanc Tour Dates
5-17 Mar - Adelaide Fringe Festival28 Mar-21 Apr - Melbourne International Comedy Festival
