Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky is a renowned storyteller, musician, songwriter and author, with a CV that speaks of adventure rather than a conventional career.
 
But he does have more than his fair share of credits to his name, including his acclaimed and popular one-man show The First White Man; the deeply moving Turkish-Australian Gallipoli story Lest We Forget- Hic Unutmaya Cagiz; the best-selling biography of Tommy Woodcock and the award winning documentary Aeroplane Dance.
 
But as often as not Jan simply takes the stage to tell stories, play characters, and sing songs that intertwine yarns, poetry and music – played on claw-hammer style banjo, mouth organ, spoons, bones and bodhran.
 
He can be poignant and personal, sometimes hilarious and scarcely believable, often political, and always deeply Australian. But be warned! If your mouthful is sausage sizzle music (you know, that ‘G’day G’day’ rubbish) or prosaic bush yarns, then Jan is definitely not the man for you. 
 
Rather, he tells the local Dja Dja Wurrung story of Central Victorian volcanoes and talks about problems of cultural appropriation; sings personal tales of mid-life crashes and of good mates who’ve lost their lives to grog, and many other folk songs of this singing land, in English and Indigenous languages; he spins yarns about how he inveigled his way into Kerry Packer (God’s) house, then smuggled taipans out of Australia. Also mythology, like the story of the Greek Godess Demeter and her place in Jan’s home town, Castlemaine …and that’s only the beginning.
 
On special occasions he will play Australia’s greatest ever yarn-spinner, WE (Bill) Harney (1895-1962), whose life was a profound, personal journey through sixty years of black-white relations in Australia.
 
Jan’s career began in 1971, as a founder of the The Bushwackers Band. Thirty-seven eight later he’s still having fun, always doing something new. And no matter where Jan takes you, it’s always entertaining.
 
    
FROM THE NEWSPAPERS
 
‘..the ultimate yarnspinner: a singer, musician and writer who can hold audiences spellbound.’          
 (The Australian)
 
‘Ripping yarns and vibrant music..’
 (The Age)
 
‘A very fine yarn. The end is the funniest thing I’ve heard in years…a thoroughly engaging and really whacky entertaining evening.’    
(Sunday Arts. ABC Radio on ‘Whitefella’)
 
‘Theatre restaurant patrons are in for a treat
when Jan Wositzky transforms and captures Bill Harney’s unique manner, a blend of the worldy-wise with the naive and innocent.’
(Melbourne Herald)
 
 
‘The First White Man  is a breezy and brilliant piece of troubadour theatre about the colonisation of Port Phillip, tip to tip. As with the very best theatre in education, it covers its tracks so well its agenda remains a secret – buried beneath layers of entertainment, comedy, story and song. The only way it could be improved would be to perform it on a beach in front of a traditional roaring fire.
 
(Melbourne Herald-Sun)