Josh Glanc: Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian

Surrealism triumphs over convention in Josh Glanc's compelling new show

★★★★
comedy review (adelaide) | Read in About 1 minute
33329 large
102793 original
Published 08 Mar 2018
33328 large
100487 original

If you’re familiar with Josh Glanc you’ll know what to expect from one of his shows. Absurd, dynamic sketch comedy, furnished with props, costumes and musical cues, and infused with warmth and care. In Karma... Chamedian, Glanc tackles sketches about existentially-wracked cyclists, questionable sports personalities and curiously-informed cologne salespeople. He justly receives peels of laughter from the tightly packed audience.

It's in two later sketches that Glanc really makes an impression. In one, he is a fed up mime, raging against imagination, discarding the conventions of art, and repudiating the creative pursuit. In the other, bizarre circumstances spur him to earnestly detail the reasons he gave up a stable career to pursue his love of comedy.

Between the two sketches exists a paradoxical space, in which art is mere nonsense that is nevertheless worthy of a life’s dedication. Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian exists in that space: varied sketches, all sound and noise, but crafted to appeal to all comers and bring an audience together.