So I took a quiet Ottawa Fringe night to myself and the otter the other night, only booking one review show with the media pass. That was Snafu’s INTERSTELLAR ELDER, and I’m all written up on it and so, that’s that. Time to rest until the next day! Except then I noticed a cool sounding show with half-price tickets available for right afterwards, in the same theatre no less! I figured what the Hell. Long story short, I bought the ticket, saw the show, and loved the silly thing so much that now I HAVE to write a review for it. God DAMMIT, Fringe, you always do this to me.

I actually bumped into good guy Josh Glanc on the opening night of Fringe, and had a brief chat. The Australian gent noted this was his first Canadian Fringe, and I gushed about how great his timing was, missing all the construction of the last few years and what-not. And I also quietly told myself I’d have to see his show. So I actually am very glad I got that ticket to KARMA KARMA KARMA KARMA KARMA CHAMEDIAN last night, and not just because I was nearly doubled over laughing for the entire runtime. But in retrospect, mostly that. Powered by the seemingly inexhaustible humour and enthusiasm of funnyman Josh Glanc, CHAMEDIAN whips the audience along at a breakneck pace as Glanc pulls every trick out of his considerable comedic toolkit to wrench every last laugh be can out of us. And as it turns out that’s a whole lot of laughs. The blender gag alone..!

Starting off with one of my fav’rit pieces of audience participation EVER (it’s solid gold magic, please trust me), swinging into some sweet prop action, beautifully non-sequitur sketches galore, and a nearly 10-minute piece on a 90’s pop band that can only be called a masterpiece. It’s hard to think of any performer who’s ever tried harder in a one hour show than this beautiful madman,. Yes, he’s loud, he’s brash, he’s extremely, unapologetically silly, he likes to dance, and he prefers it if the audience does too. This is shamelessly over-the-top solo sketch nonsense and I loved every second of it. And okay, this is a slightly shorter than usual review, but whaddaya want for half price? Peace, love and soul,

Kevin R (and Baby G)

PS check out the rest of Josh’s showtimes and ticket info HERE!