MIKE WOZNIAK: The Bench ★★★★

Mike Wozniak is so loved that his opening line “First off, let’s manage expectations” seemed particularly apt in such a vast late-evening mausoleum with acoustics conspiring against audience response. In a more intimate venue, he would not have needed to work quite so hard to make us laugh.

Nevertheless, we soon settle into Wozniak’s wonderfully distracted world as he ambles, poses and skilfully derails his own dialogue while investigating the overnight burning of a local memorial bench in Exeter, his home town.

With "the rozzers" showing little interest, he embraces his inner sleuth, examining theories, alibis, and DNA evidence that might identify the culprit as the only Norwegian locally. His own alibi involves an IRA re-enactment society. Naturally.

Then comes a replacement bench, still sticky with varnish, attracting local youths intent on enhancing it, because in Mike's world everything could be possible. The audience were clearly enjoying themselves, but the Q&A simply doesn’t work in this room, and perhaps should be consigned to the same fate as the original bench. 

Assembly Hall, at the Edinburgh Fringe: August 2026 ©RoxyReviews