Wozniak’s Family Fable Fills the Corn Hall

Posted on 1st March 2024

Unique is one of the most overworked words in comedy, but Mike Wozniak really is one of a kind. Impeccably well mannered, dressed in his signature suit and tie, and with a moustache that would give Tom Selleck a run for his money, Wozniak gives off the distracted charm of a man standing in for the best man at a wedding who hasn’t had time to prepare a speech.

This is all show, of course – it’s a safe bet that every faltering word, every blind alley digression, and every flight of fancy is meticulously rehearsed in a performance that is all about artifice and storytelling. The likes of Billy Connelly, James Ancaster and Stewart Lee all blur the line between anecdote and joke, and no one has surpassed Ronnie Corbett’s tales from the big chair, but all those comedians make the telling of tall tales part, not all, of their act. Mike Wozniak’s ambiguous narratives are more akin to those of Andrew J. Lederer or Daniel Kitson, his single, rambling anecdote occupying the full ninety minutes of his set. I don’t know how much of his great-aunt Zusa’s wartime adventures are true, and neither do I want to know . It’s enough to be seduced by stories of guinea pig murder, short relatives, large bladders, and t-shirts celebrating Kylie Minogue.

Anyone who came to Mike Wozniak’s Corn Hall show expecting quick fire punch lines may well have left somewhat bewildered. I doubt they would have left disappointed, though, as he delivered something altogether more engaging and genuinely different. At the start of his performance, he had reassured a packed out Corn Hall that he had a reserve of jokes in the case of an emergency. By the end of the evening I’m pleased to report they remained unnecessary and unused.