Cloves and Fedoras: The Comedy, and Energy, of a Live Todd Glass Show

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture (or older pieces).  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

This past Saturday I had the great pleasure of seeing Todd Glass do standup here in Saint Louis.

I'm a big fan of Glass'. He is a very funny standup, and he is filled with energy. One of my favorite things about the show was Glass doing the rules before hand. He was given a mic in the back of the club and he laid out what he expected from the fans during his set. I like when comedians do this because then you know exactly how you should behave. He asked everyone to turn their phones off, not to heckle and to enjoy themselves during the set. Three simple requests. Of course some people didn't oblige, I still will never understand why you need to check your phone or talk loudly while a comic is doing comedy. But, for the most part, the crowd obliged Glass. He had our attention.

And it wasn't just him. For the life of me I cannot remember the opener's last name, I know his first name was Chris, and he was hilarious. He had a tight 15 minute set that was very, very funny, especially his closer about a stay in a hotel in Minnesota. I don't want to spoil anything, and I won't. But this story about his hotel bed was tremendous. And the way he told it made it that much more funny. He was great. Then Glass came on stage and proceeded to crush for 80 plus minutes.

Todd Glass has a band with him now, which I love. He has always talked about his love for music, especially drums. So, it was nice to see him have a drummer, keyboard player and a guy that played slide whistle and tambourine, among other things. Glass used them to perfection. Whenever he needed a punctuation on a joke, he looked to the drummer. When he wanted to tell a story, he used the keyboard player and told him what kind of music he wanted to accompany him. And when the band messed up, which they only did a few times, he gave them the business. It was all good-natured and hilarious. Glass is a master of that. He knows how to rib someone, how to push their buttons just to the edge, then pull back and become your best friend. He even showed this when the people who didn't follow his rules messed up and he caught them. A lady in the very front kept talking, and he would give her the business, but by the end of the show, she was reaching up to shake his hand, and he was smiling ear to ear.

What I love most about Glass, and this show in particular, was the energy. He is a ball of energy. He goes 1,000 miles a minute. even when he slows it down a bit, he talks fast. He did that all night, He jumped from bit to bit. Even when he forgot something he started, he would go into a mini rant that was filled with what seemed like a million words in one minute. It was tremendous. One of my favorite bits of the night was when he talked about old singers using the band to their advantage. He talked about how they would try and tell a joke, totally bomb, but be able to fall back on one of their hit songs. It is one of the most solid bits I have ever seen live. I also loved when he did Rodney Dangerfield doing Mitch Hedberg jokes. That was classic. But, I have to say that I loved the "crowd work" the most. It was so irreverent, and so funny. He is a master.

This is the second time I have seen Todd Glass, and he has delivered, and then some, both times. I highly recommend seeing him live if you can. He is one of he better standups out there right now. I had a blast, and I know everyone who saw him in Saint Louis last weekend did too. Todd Glass is awesome. He is a must see standup.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Todd Glass is a great up and coming comedian, but who are the 10 best ever. We did a podcast about that.

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