Review by Steve Bennett

And that comedian is Richard Herring.

The similarities are uncanny: they share a cadence of pausing after crucial words as they determinedly push and prod the same point from different angles; they share a precise use of repetition and formal language in a tightly-scripted set; and they share a subtly underplayed sarcasm.

Despite the inescapable influence, Wozniak does offer a remarkably assured debut. The structure is rigid, with plenty of satisfying callbacks, and his delivery is effortlessly fluid, More importantly the quality of the writing is consistently high, no lulls or obviously weaker material to pad out the hour; a refreshing surprise for an act who has seemingly emerged from nowhere.

Actually, he’s come from Portsmouth and is of Polish stock. His family take an important role in the set, with his father an amateur scientist conducting all manner of unlikely experiments and his grandmother imparting folk wisdom she swears is true. A surprisingly high number of his antecedents seem to have met untimely deaths.

He’s lucky not to have suffered the same fate, given how accident-prone he professes to be, describing his misfortunes in entertaining detail. Many of these seem to involve his penis, but he mostly avoids being too ikky or offensive, thanks to his use of the exact medical terms.

His use of English is impeccable; this is not an act that feels like a conversation, you know every word has been fretted over. And surely there can’t be another show on the Fringe mentioning ‘perianal’, ‘medectophobia’ and ‘penisy’ in the same ten minutes.

Aside from his own misadventures, Wosniak likes enjoys the metaphorical literally – shades of Herring again – but is rather good at it. Even without his award nod, it probably wouldn’t be long until Wosniak made waves on the circuit (he already won the Amused Moose contest earlier this festival), for it’s rare that an act emerges fully-formed from the ether like this. But the style does need to be tweaked to be more his own.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett