Review: JOSH GLANC: COLLECTIONS 2023, Soho Theatre

“This is going to be an interesting night”

From the first five minutes of Josh Glanc being on stage, you can tell that Josh Glanc: Collections 2023 is a comedy show that is heavy on audience participation.

After some “technical issues” that lead to the microphone crackling, Glanc decides to take matters into his own hands, pulling audience members on stage and having them mimic playing the drums, bass, guitar and vocals for his entrance music, Smash Mouth’s “Walkin’ on the Sun.” It’s a surprisingly wholesome moment for a late-night comedy show, but it does go on for quite a while, foreshadowing an issue that will continue throughout the performance.

After a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Josh Glanc has brought Collections 2023 to Soho Theatre, showing off a collection of characters and silly sketches. It was quite a relief to be going to a show with no plot line where I could simply sit and watch a comedian play a range of roles without the stereotypical “dark ending” found in Fringe shows.

Some of the characters Glanc plays throughout the show are a cyclist without a bike, the hype man for the Danish pop band Aqua and even two truckers, one masculine and one flamboyant, singing a song about driving trucks with surprising results. Glanc has some fantastic facial expressions and is great with physical comedy, particularly miming. 

One of the highlights of the show for me was a reference to Glanc’s Stamptown Comedy Night character, Spanish Fuck Boi, as he dances on stage to his entrance music for a television show called “Breakfast With Juan.” Of course, there is audience participation in this bit as well, including the return of Tom, an audience member who had been brought up during the entrance music bit, who quickly became the favourite audience member 

While there were quite a few amusing bits, most of them tended to go on for a bit too long, making the show as a whole a little less enjoyable. One example of this is when Glanc talked about “Lifetime Music Christmas Classics” using nonsense words instead of the actual lyrics to a range of Christmas songs. Moments like these would have been a bit more enjoyable if there was some variety, as the original concept was quite funny. 

Ultimately, Josh Glanc: Collections 2023 is a fun show that allows Glanc to show off a range of characters, but it struggles to know when to end sketches, leading to moments that go on for longer than needed. I love Glanc’s silliness and look forward to seeing more of his characters in the future. 

Josh Glanc: Collections 2023 ran from 30 November to 2 December at Soho Theatre.