Comic phenom Josh Glanc embarks on a glorious homecoming to Australia from the land of Shakespeare, bringing his show ‘Collections’ to Adelaide Fringe.
“I’m feeling excited,” Josh says of his impending Fringe run.
“I've had such great seasons in Adelaide. Adelaide audiences are always up for it – they've been coming to Fringe for such a long time and they're really ready to see something fun and exciting and that's the stuff I love to make.”
Josh is now based in the UK, living and working in London where he has been delivering his signature offbeat brand of humour to throngs of comedy-loving Brits, selling out esteemed venues like the Soho Theatre night after night.
“I’ve done so much performing already,” Josh says.
“I came over, I did Edinburgh [Festival Fringe], which was amazing. I’ve been doing a lot of theatre stuff – I did a theatre show at this festival in Leeds, I then did my Soho Theatre show. There are tonnes of opportunities to constantly do theatre.”
He returns to Australia with ‘Collections’, a retrospective comprising some of Josh’s best bits and characters from over the years, but it also includes completely new material. It's unlike anything Josh has done before.
“'Collections' is going to be different every night,” Josh reveals.
“I've got a handful of my best bits that I've done throughout the years that are there for me to bring out, but I've also got lots of new bits that I’m going to do. Every night I'm going to ‘vibe it’ and see what's happening in the room and what's happening with the audience and curate the show that we all want.”
No two shows will be the same, which makes for a unique experience each night. So far, Josh says this method says proven successful.
“I was doing it in the UK and it was just really great to be able to feel out in the moment what I wanted to be doing. I’d be performing a new song and then I’d do an older routine, because that’s what felt right in the moment. It's really freeing not to be locked into a structure but just to be following impulse.”
“The show also includes heavily improvised interactions. I'll do a lot of interacting with audience members and this will create moments that I’ll refer back to throughout the show, so the show really is this live thing that happens every night that's an alchemy of improvised interactions, older routines and new routines all curated together to create this really great experience for us all.”
Josh tells us about some of the older routines he’s been doing.
“I do a bit where I play the lead singer [René Dif] from Aqua and do a whole routine about Aqua, and over the years people have just loved that. Or there was a cyclist character I did, and I didn’t do him too often, but people have always said, ‘mate, I love that cyclist bit’. It’s bits that I think are my strongest but also bits that work for the show.”
Josh’s experiences in the UK have seen him take that prized vital step from emerging artist to established performer.
“It’s a very supportive industry so I take a lot of risks here [in the UK], so I think my comedy gets better and better over here because I’m willing to try different things,” he says.
“You’ve got to risk failing in order to get better and I feel quite safe to do that over here, so I think the people will probably see a more confident and risk-taking performer. Every year you want to get better and more confident, and you want to be able to hone in on what your voice is and how you want to do your comedy.”
Josh Glanc plays The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum (Adelaide Fringe) 5-17 March.
