Josh Glanc: Manful (MICF)

Dicky Rosenthal used to be just like you. He was a little Jewish dweeb bag, a mamma's boy, a pansy, a schnitzel-scoffing, brown corduroy-wearing, Fiddler On The Roof-watching joke. But not anymore. Now he's a real man. And you can be one too, thanks to the power of Manful.

That's the spiel anyway, but what makes a 'real man'? Is it the size of his muscles? His moist, protein-rich coiffure? Having a good, weighty cock? In the guise of muscle-bound supplement sipper Dicky, Josh Glanc manages to dispel these ideas real quick - especially the last one. Cocks are weird. Dicky's done the surveys and it's hard to disagree with the very visual evidence. If you measure your self-worth in inches it might be time to toss the yardstick.

There's plenty of chuckles to be pulled from confused machismo and someone else might have filled an hour from that well alone, but not Glanc. Manful (pronounced man-fuel) might begin as a comment on dumb masculinity but it quickly progresses into something so much weirder and more poignant. Somewhere along the way Dicky's been warped. External pressures have leant on all his little anxieties until psychic hairline fractures have become dark, deep chasms. Hidden behind his muscles, Dicky thinks he's found refuge from the weight. He hasn't, and, don't judge me, but watching him find out is really, really funny.

Glanc's delivery is spectacular, from the stuttery lisp and slipping, teeth-don't-touch sales smile to the insane level of eye contact, and he isn’t scared of silence. He has a rare talent for letting a moment take as long as it needs to and he uses it mercilessly. He's 100% committed to his character. Glanc lives Dicky, and it's impossible not to root for him as his panic grows and the facade begins to crack. On one side of the room he's got a chicken snitty wrap to remind him what he was. On the other side, he has a weight he can't actually lift, to show him where he's going. When he tries to lift the latter in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to prove his true manliness the crowd sincerely cheers for him to make it. When he fails and surrenders to the schnitzel people beg him not to. "It's not worth it Dicky," whispers a guy one row forward.

In the end, Manful has a lot more to do with what it means to be human. We see Dicky stripped - physically, mentally, emotionally - which still has people laughing convulsively. Stood before us bare, he finally gives up all his protective fabrications, and the small, hopeful grin on his face when the room stands up and applauds him is dangerously heartwarming.

While a lot of comedians seem to have spliced some harrowing personal truths into their work this season, Glanc has done something that's genuinely awesome. He's tackled modern times' strange amour propre with absurdist, rib-cracking humour and a smidge of musical theatre. Take note dweeb bags, this is how it's done.

Josh Glanc presents Manful till 23 Apr at ACMI, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.