Philadelphia native comedian Todd Glass returns home to perform live and in person at Helium Comedy Club.
Ever since he started a life in stand-up comedy while still in high school, 1982 and Conestoga High to be exact, Philadelphia’s Todd Glass has been a gently innovative, wryly observational comedian whose best feature was that, even when monologue-ing, seemed as if he was creating a dialogue with his audience. Conversationally and convivially, his crowds whether on A&E or Comedy Central or in person, were always in on the joke. And the joke never seemed altogether too planned or pre-meditated, but rather more stream-of-conscious. With that, his podcast, The Todd Glass Show, is more personable than most interview-driven podcasts with fellow comedians, unrushed, as they breathe openly the air of friends at a dinner table chatting without aim or reason. “I used to rush until I realized that no one was in a hurry but me. So I slowed down and learned to enjoy the process and the conversation,” said Glass during a recent interview.
Audiences will most certainly catch Glass’s vibe of familiarity when he appears live and in-person for the first time in over 16 long pandemic months at Helium Comedy Club this week, May 20 to May 22.
“I did some work on Zoom, and wish I had actually taken part in some of those drive-in stand-up shows,” said Glass. “The Zoom thing? You begin to tailor your work to the art form itself. I have a comic friend who would smoke a little pot, get high, do three minutes and just Tweet that out. The pandemic was about adaptability. I tried to tell comedians this six months into the quarantine, I was doing my podcast with my stand-up sensibilities. You read the room without compromising our craft and move forward. Do what you think is funny. You don’t need an audience in front of you to know you are funny. A punching bag is better than nothing when it comes to staying loose and keeping the skill set up. And it’s not like I’m grading myself above the curve with an A+. The process was cathartic.”
Pent-up energy, then, must be key when it comes to returning to a live setting, and to Philadelphia, specifically. Glass’s evolution then, as a stand-up, envelops the current line of thought that points toward censorship. “Dropping words out of my lexicon onstage comes down to how you develop, and evolve, off stage. Comedy being more diverse, being able to say more as a person, makes your audience smarter and more intelligent. Not calling your children ‘stupid’ or ‘fat’, is a good thing, not something to be angry about. That’s better for your life, let alone your stand-up. Evolution as a person is great, a key, and makes me into a better fresher comedian.”
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