Interview: Josh Glanc

Josh Glanc has been a familiar face at the Adelaide Fringe since 2016, when he left his career in corporate law to debut his Sacha-Baron Cohen tribute show 99 Schnitzels (But a Veal Ain’t One). Subsequent shows have seen Glanc dabble in lounge-music autobiography (Glance You For Having Me), thrumming original music (Vroom Vroom), and inventive, durable sketch (Kharma Chamedian). This year, Glanc returns with Collections 2024, which promises to be “like nothing he’s done before”. 

In particular, Glanc is leaning further into the spontaneity of his craft. “Something I’ve been experimenting with for the last two years is improvised stream-of-consciousness. I’ve got this sound bank, which was given to me by Abandoman, and I improvise with different sounds. I might have an interaction with an audience member, which might trigger me to play a particular underscore, and then I start monologuing or acting out a character in that underscore, and then there might be a moment in the show where I decide to bring that back. It's really live, which I think is really great and something I love about comedy.

“It’s about having material but it's also about creating something from nothing.”

Glanc has also been branching out with songwriting in recent years. “I really enjoy writing original songs. Vroom Vroom was my first foray into that. There’s a song that I wrote which people don't quite know how to take because it's not ostensibly funny. It's just me in costume as a tree, singing a song about being a tree and it's quite sweet and sombre. I’m leaning more into songs with this new show."

Glanc brings Collections from London, where he’s moved for a second time after a first abortive attempt was frustrated by the pandemic. “I first moved at the end of 2019 and basically spent the entire of 2020 locked down in London, in winter, not performing. And I said fuck this and I came back to Australia in February 2021. I was just gigging, having a great time, doing Melbourne Comedy Festival, a bit of touring in Queensland and Tassie, but then we got locked down again in Melbourne.

“I chased lockdowns around the world. Only this year have things become normal again, in terms of being a live performer in the comedy industry.”

But the moves to London have brought lots of opportunities, from an appearance in Paloma Faith’s video for her 2020 single 'Gold' to an upcoming Barrbicuue short with Alex Hines (Juniper Wilde) and Patrick Durnan Silva (Hot Department). “I just continually get pulled over to this part of the world because the work is so good. They love what I do so much and there are just so many opportunities. I’m making something with Channel 4 this year, I can do five nights at the Soho Theatre in a big room and sell it out. And if this is what I want to do with my life, to be a comedian-performer-actor, you’ve got to go where the love and the work is.”

But the Australian festival run has its own draw for Glanc. “That run is a beautiful run. I'll have a great time in Perth this month. My season just got extended in Adelaide, so I’ll be there for two weeks in March, just a little bit longer to play with different things in the new show. And it’s not confirmed yet, but it looks like I’ll be doing a full run for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

“So having just moved to London I’m spending a stupid amount of time in Australia.”

 

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Josh Glanc: Collections 2024, The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum, until 17 March