Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Ventriloquist Lachlan Werner has had quite the makeover. In his last show, in 2023, he was a white-faced choirboy with a pudding-bowl haircut and very much subservient to the wicked witch on his arm.

Today, he cuts the unlikely figure of a circus strongman called Jack Hammer. He’s described as a ‘twunk’: head of twink, body of a hunk. You might have to use your imagination for that second part…

With his wiry frame, painted face, period leotard and mop of strawberry blond hair carefully positioned to look unruly, he cuts quite the figure, looking as if he stepped straight out of a kids’ comic strip. And that’s just the tip of the visually stunning look of Wondertwunk.

The puppet design, by fellow clown Freddie Hayes, is outstanding, with the ringmaster – Hammer’s father – in dark glasses and a black-and-white suit, which owes a lot to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice aesthetic. Meanwhile, Slippy the performing sea lion looks cheekily adorable in his conical hat and Elizabethan ruff. Both are actual size, more or less, as well.

Far from being a traditional vent act, Werner uses his formidable skills to create a gothic comedy-horror tale with him voicing all the characters, switching between them so seamlessly you could be convinced there’s more than one person doing it. 

The story is that Jack has spent his entire life in the circus, growing up without a mother after she died in childbirth because of the baby’s superhuman strength (a very dark part of the mock-horror narrative, this).  Nor has he ever touched another person, lest his power crush them. But is all quite what it seems? Can Jack break through the narrative imposed on him (subtext alert!) and find out the truth about himself and the circus?

Wondertwunk is probably more a theatrical experience than a comic one, although there is a twisted wit in the camp Gothic ethos of the piece. Not to mention some very bad puns.

The pacing of the narrative, which Werner co-wrote with his director Laurie Luxe, seems slightly off, however, slightly sluggish   in places. But the plotting is rewarding with the pieces falling neatly into place as the unexpected truth emerges.

This is all executed with Werner’s compelling performance, knowing and puckish, that further draws the audience into the seductive but sinister alternative reality so artfully conjured up the stage.

Review date: 12 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome