Jon Bennett: Playing With Men

Fringe 2026

Jon Bennett: Playing With Men

From the internationally acclaimed Jon Bennett (winner of over 50 awards and nominations worldwide) comes the critically celebrated hit show Playing With Men.

Before becoming an award-winning comedic storyteller, Bennett was a promising junior footballer in rural South Australia, destined to “MAKE IT” until playing alongside grown men and a devastating community tragedy changed the course of his life forever.

Nominated for the Just For Laughs Best Comedy Award at the Montreal Fringe and winner of the Outstanding Storytelling Award at the Victoria Fringe, Playing With Men is a hilarious and heartbreaking exploration of masculinity, mateship, grief, community and Australian Rules football.

Creator of international festival favourites Fire in the Meth Lab, Pretending Things Are a Cock, How I Learned to Hug and My Dad’s Deaths, Bennett delivers another masterclass in storytelling that is equal parts side-splittingly funny and emotionally devastating.

“★★★★★ A tour de force who will make you laugh — to tears.” — Otakuno Culture

“★★★★★ He doesn’t just make you laugh or cry, he makes you think.” — London Free Press

“Side-splittingly funny and scathingly self-critical... a valuable work that probes toxic masculinity and machismo.” — CVTV

Awards:

7 X Just for Laughs Award nominee (Montreal Fringe, 2011-2017)

12 X Selection - The Moth Main Stage (NYC, London, Boston, LA, Austin)

2 X Best Comedy Award nominee (Sydney Fringe, 2023)

Best Storytelling Award Winner (Sydney Fringe, 2023)

National Artist of the Year Winner (St. Louis Fringe, 2022)

Inspiration Award Winner (Minnesota Fringe, 2022)

2 X NY Times Best Seller (The Moth Occasional Magic, 2019; How to Tell a Story, 2022)

Selected Off Broadway - Soho Theatre (New York, 2019)

2 X The Moth Story Slam Winner (New York, 2014; LA, 2019)

Best Storyteller Award Winner (Victoria Fringe, 2019)

Outstanding Storytelling Award Winner (London Fringe, 2018)

5 X Best Comedy Award nominee (Perth Fringe, 2012-2015, 2018)

Plain Language Description

Jon Bennett grew up in rural South Australia dreaming of becoming a professional football player. As a teenager, he was talented, ambitious, and convinced he was going to “make it.” But after starting to play alongside grown men — and experiencing a tragic event in his local community — his life took a completely different direction.

Now an internationally touring comedian and storyteller, Bennett looks back on those years in a funny, honest and deeply personal show about friendship, masculinity, grief, growing up, and the strange culture surrounding Australian Rules football.

Playing With Men mixes big laughs with heartfelt storytelling and explores what it means to be a boy trying to become a man.