Why ‘It’s Great to be Here’ with comedian Josh Glanc
Fresh from smash hit runs at London’s Soho Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, award-winning Aussie comedian Josh Glanc is finally returning to Fringe World this summer. Described as “his latest glittering display of impeccably well-crafted silliness,” Glanc’s new show It’s Great to be Here hits The Gold Digger at The Pleasure Garden from Friday, January 20 to Sunday, January 29 (get more info and tickets here). BRAYDEN EDWARDS spoke to Josh Glanc to find out why there’s nothing the former lawyer would rather be doing than taking his unique brand of silliness to the world.
Congrats on bringing your new show It’s Great to be Here to Fringe 2023! An obvious question…why is it great to be here?
I mean, where else would you want to be? Over there? No way man. The only place for me is right here, right now. You know, like the Slim Boy Fat song.
As someone who came to Fringe World regularly before COVID, what have you missed most about WA?
I’ve really missed all the moving walkways around Perth. No other State but WA has has had the foresight to take the travelator out of the airport and put them on the city streets.
And what have you not missed at all?
If I can take a break from being silly for just a moment, I haven’t not missed anything. I love Perth. I absolutely love playing in Perth. I was heartbroken not to be able to visit for the last few years because of COVID. Perth audiences are amazing and the City during Fringe ‘is a vibe’ (as the TikTokers say), so I can’t wait to come back and perform in Perth again.
In your stand-up show it seems like you enjoy always keeping the audience guessing what you are going to do next. What do you think inspired that in your humour?
I think it’s the funnest comedy to watch and to do. My shows are all about fun – and I think when an audience doesn’t quite know where something is going, it’s fun for them. It’s fun to be led in all sorts of directions. So much of comedy is about surprise, about subverting expectations – so I just love to constantly throw up ‘the unexpected.’ I think it gets the best laughs. And as stipulated on my website, if you can guess the end to one of my sketches, you win a cash prize of $2000.
And are there times the audience has kept you on your toes too?
Oh yes. There is a fair bit of audience interaction in my shows – but never in a mean way – always in a way that empowers them to play along with me. But sometimes people do things that are really unexpected. There are a few moments in this year’s show that puts a lot of trust in the audience and sometimes those parts go completely off the rails. I know that all sounds quite vague but I really can’t give away too much.
You have been popular here in Perth before, winning Best Comedy for Fringe in 2017. What’s something different about you now compared to when you last hit our stages?
Well, I’m a bit wiser now – still same amount of body hairy though – in fact, possibly more.
You weren’t always in the comedy game actually coming from a background in law…what would you say lawyers and comedians have in common? And does being good at one help with the other?
It’s funny isn’t it? There are quite a lot of lawyer/comedians. I think there are definitely similarities. For instance, being able to come up with a good legal argument is a bit like being able to write a good joke – you have to be succinct and be able to convey something complex in a simple way. Also, you need to be good at problem solving in both law and comedy. In the case of comedy, you need to be able to fix jokes that aren’t landing, and in the case of law, you need to be able to get your guilty client off the hook. Hmm, I suppose the stakes are a little different then aren’t they?
As a comedian you’re working with humour and jokes all the time, but what’s something that still makes you laugh today?
I mean, I know it’s a bit dated now, but I can watch Sacha Baron Cohen do Ali G, Borat or Bruno any day and still find it hilarious.