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What were doing 10 years ago? Glenn Moore didn’t even consider himself a comedian a decade ago, and certainly didn’t have the self-esteem to be the barnburner of a stand-up he is today.
But the comedian takes us back time and again to a road trip gone awry with his cousin Benji through the hot California desert of Death Valley as a way to explain and explore his insecurities. He claims he long felt second fiddle to Benji, the emotional wound cutting deeper because Glenn believed Benji to be a bit of an idiot who always got by on his looks and confidence, no matter how misplaced. All of which made Glenn feel like a bee looking at a honey jar shaped like a bear. He mocks himself for charging too little for Cameos, and even his three-year-old child often gets the best of him. Of course, the most desperate symbolism of Moore’s own misplaced insecurities are the two joke books he places on chairs on either side of the stage, telling us one is filled with tried-and-true bits he has successfully delivered on the telly, while the other contains thoughts of his so dark he might never work again.
“It’s the only profession where the professional can tell you off,” Moore says of stand-up. Truth is, Moore is fully confident and assured onstage. He could tell us off but doesn’t. Perhaps he’s too self-centered for it. Or perhaps he simply has too many gags to deliver, and the joke books, the conceits, the tangents, the tummy time, all of it is just a way to give us a brief respite from the relentless rhythm of solid laughs so we can enjoy them even Moore.
Glenn Moore: Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore? plays Pleasance Forth through Aug. 24, 2025.
