Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – A pair of comics, JANINE HAROUNI and JOSH GLANC, idiosyncratically take the SoHo Playhouse stage

• By drediman
• December 18, 2024
• No Comments

This past weekend, I ventured downtown to catch a pair of London-based comics — both of whom had hits at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe — take on the SoHo Playhouse stage. Read on for my thoughts on their inspired and idiosyncratic performances.

JANINE HAROUNI: MAN’OUSHE
SoHo Playhouse
Through December 21

First up at SoHo Playhouse was Janine Harouni’s one woman show Man-oushe (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), a set that centers on the comedian’s experience as an expectant mother. Walking onto the stage, the vaguely unassuming Harouni — who is of Lebanese and Irish decent — comes across as immediately likeable. But despite her measured delivery and easygoing demeanor, Harouni’s account is laced with surprises and uncertainties (e.g., a silent miscarriage, her director’s death). Indeed, the show’s conversational, matter-of-fact quality ensured that — more than a few times — I was caught off guard by the poignancy, humanity, and hilarity of her story. Harouni earns her laughs through her winning personality and genuine wit, and not once did I feel like I was being bombarded with the darts of an inflated ego, as comics are wont to do. As with Harouni’s previous shows, Man-oushe was directed by the late Adam Brace — the same theater-maker who brought shape and startling depth to Liz Kinsman’s One Woman Show and Alex Edelman’s award-winning Just for Us — who brings a sly sense of structure to Harouni’s calm but engrossing storytelling.

JOSH GLANC: FAMILY MAN
SoHo Playhouse
Closed

Also at SoHo Playhouse, I was able to catch the final performance of Josh Glanc’s show Family Man(RECOMMENDED). Almost immediately after the lights went down, I could tell that the boisterous, crop top clad Glanc was a very different type of comedian than Harouni. Instead of Harouni’s meticulously laid out narrative, the Australian comic delivers a deliberately scatterbrained show that’s held together by his restless energy and amusingly aggressive, at times audacious interactions with audience members. The result is a loopy patchwork of musical ditties and seemingly random sketches that amount to a delirious fever dream experience. That being said, despite the seeming absurdity and haphazardness of it all, Family Man never disintegrates into frustrating nonsense. That’s because throughout the 55-minute show, Glanc consistently manages to be steps ahead of his audience, egging us on with the promise of even more delectably juvenile shenanigans. At the end of the day, Glanc is basically a quirky, overgrown kid at play, who wants other kids (ahem, us) to play with.