It’s a thing, comedy for kids, but still a fairly marginal thing: it’s hard to be both “the new rock’n’roll” and wholesome infant entertainment. Chapeau to the double-act Shelf, then, now piloting a children’s sketch show alongside their grownup set elsewhere on the fringe. It’s a success, too, an hour that touches on shyness, sadness and self-expression, but lightly, joyfully – and very much secondary to pranks, scampering around and administering custard pies to each other’s faces.
Key to its effectiveness is the sense that the duo (Rachel WD and Ruby Clyde) enjoy their juvenile audience’s company, and the opportunity it affords for a playful, open and uncynical performance. They don’t labour to flog the show to the kids; they let the kids come to them – to their daft physical comedy sketch about wrestling, their capering airport security skit, or their hide-and-seek number about Rachel being shadowed by a – well, I’ll let you find that out for yourself. The disparate parts are held together by running jokes and motifs, like the one about their sketches all tending to the same cheesy conclusion. Or there’s Rachel’s inability to play anyone but herself, and Ruby’s immunity to practical jokes, all of which (mayonnaise on an Oreo; water squirted to the face) are catnip for their kiddie crowd.
I saw the show with a smaller audience, the Scottish schools holidays having ended – which perhaps reduces the impact of one or two more antic moments. And might explain why some of the interactive material (Rachel being clobbered by imaginary basketballs, say) slightly overstays its welcome. But the pair aren’t fazed, and neither are their audience, who join in cheerfully when invited to participate in a yoga class, or soundtrack a shy shrew’s adventures in a forest of silly noises. Sketch comedy for kids with a side order of mental-health messaging? It sounds unlikely, but Shelf pull it off with brio.
• At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 27 August.
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