Review: Josh Glanc ‘It’s Great To Be Here’ at The Pleasure Garden

Josh Glanc: It’s Great To Be Here at The Gold Digger @ The Pleasure Garden
Friday, January 20, 2023

10/10

Returning to Perth for the first time in three years, Josh Glanc wowed audiences with wall-to-wall laughs in his show It’s Great To Be Here. The show, having first seen the light of day in Perth as a work in progress all the way back in 2020, was now completely unrecognisable, with Glanc having fine-tuned his performance to absolute perfection allowing him to demonstrate his mastery of the comedic art. 

The show whirs along at a tremendous pace, with Glanc jumping all over the place, sometimes quite literally, introducing a variety of characters and sketches to the audience that includes a wildlife expert that lacks expertise, a singing tree, and what is potentially Milo Kerrigan’s cousin trying his best to sell his Christmas Carols LP on late-night TV.

With this high level of dynamism in the show, it is literally impossible to tell if the show is fully-scripted or not. Glanc masterfully plays with his lines, sometimes even seemingly restarting a sketch, just to make the whole thing even funnier. Given the show’s successful runs around the world at the London Soho Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and Melbourne ICF, it is quite possible such things are now deliberate inclusions, but of course only Glanc truly knows.

Similarly, Glanc’s ability to adjust his next actions based entirely on the audience’s reactions is absolutely remarkable. One of the highlights of the show was a doll that came to life issuing orders to nearby audience members. Glanc expertly worked with this unknown live element, and seemingly welcomed such elements of potential chaos into his show. The true magic of these moments is seeing both audience and performer thinking “it’s great to be here!”

MICHAEL HOLLICK