In last year’s hilarious show Manful, Josh Glanc took us on an emotional rollercoaster with his muscle suit wearing trainer character. For this year’s Comedy Festival, he’s stripped away the muscle suit and the outrageous characters to bring us his unique surreal style of comedy in the form of new devilishly bizarre one man show, Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian.
The show is a madcap array of individual bits and moments, jumping chaotically from one to the next under the guise of being Josh’s first “proper” stand up show, despite the fact that he hasn’t written any original material. What follows is a sequence of brilliantly off-kilter and hilarious moments ranging from mime, lip-sync, prop humour, even song and dance. One second you’ll see a group of audience members up on stage miming along to a Smash Mouth song when suddenly you’re presented the tale of a frustrated cyclist. The loose structure and insanity of the material makes the whole thing feel like you’re watching one of the weirdest and funniest sketch shows you’ve ever seen, all performed by one creative madman.
What makes Josh such a wonderful performer is his ability to fully commit to whatever he’s throwing at the audience. The utter confidence he shows in all his exploits is what makes his comedy truly transcend. He allows moments to become awkward, uncomfortable and downright absurd, all the while exuding an energy that is captivating and hysterical.
The show, in its own strange way, seems to attempt to deconstruct comedy performances. As we follow Josh further down the rabbit hole of ludicrous bits, we can’t help but begin to examine what constitutes performance. This is emphasized by Glanc taking the form of a exasperated French mime sick of lying to his audiences in one of the show’s best moments.
Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian and Glanc’s chaotic style of comedy may not be everybody’s cup of tea, however if you’re willing to let the waves of silliness crash over you’ll find your sides hurting from laughter as you become swept up in the hilarious and creative madness that is Josh Glanc.
