When the comedy duo Shelf were asked to perform a show for children, they balked. “We’re a queer, edgy double act,” explains Ruby Clyde. But they had a go, playing a short set at the long-running Comedy Club 4 Kids. What’s more, “we didn’t edit our material at all,” says Clyde. How did it go down? “They loved it so much!”
Shelf found that their physical comedy and sketches naturally appealed to a younger audience. For example, in one routine, Clyde plays a dog who sneaks up and eats a tissue out of the pocket of Rachel WD, Shelf’s other half. “Adults obviously laugh, but kids really enjoy that a whole lot more,” says WD.
Now the duo are performing their first dedicated set for children, The Kids’ Show, at the Edinburgh fringe, alongside their other show, Teenage Men, which is for adults. And they are not the only comedians taking separate family-friendly and grownup shows to the festival this year. They are spurred on by the joy they get from performing to children – alongside the other obvious benefit of doing two gigs a day. “It’s financially viable, but also very wonderful,” as Clyde puts it. After the lunchtime family show at Pleasance Courtyard, they have just over an hour before the next one, at the Voodoo Rooms, kicks off. In their last adult show, Shelf joked about being mistaken for teenage boys; their new set, Teenage Men, is about growing up, and also what the kids they perform for are like. It includes “several direct quotes from the children”.
The duo’s long-term friendship is put centre stage in The Kids’ Show, which was an award-winner at Leicester comedy festival and features sketches, a collaborative song and a large amount of hugging. “We really wanted to bring that childhood friendship into this show and make it accessible for everyone,” adds WD.
There is plenty of interaction, too, in Olaf Falafel’s Super Stupid Show (20% More Stupider) which he performs in the mornings, before doing an adult set, Look What Fell Out of My Head, in the afternoon. “There are videos, jokes, songs, and there is drawing,” says Falafel, who also writes and illustrates children’s books. His show is produced by fellow comedian Mark Watson’s company Impatient Productions; Watson approached Falafel after seeing a previous iteration of his kids’ comedy set last year with his own children last year. With that show having proved popular on the Free Fringe last year, Falafel says the experience gave him the confidence to revamp it “at a more professional venue, with the potential to make more money”. His adult show, billed as a gag-filled set “full of stuff he finds funny”, will remain on the Free Fringe.
Similarly to Shelf, Falafel found that his playful style of comedy – often involving audience participation – has lent itself to the kids’ circuit. “There’s just so much that is transferable,” he adds. “Most of us, we’ve still got that child pretty much close to the surface.” To help keep the grownups on board, he has also added a few references to Brexit, tax returns and MOT tests.
Kids can be a tough audience, so making them laugh does “count more”, Falafel says. “It’s a different kind of high to an adult show – it feels a lot more earned, and a lot more genuine. That’s the reason I do it, because it is so rewarding.” Clyde, meanwhile, attests to the energy of a young audience. “There does need to be a degree of crowd control. The parents need to not be completely switched off. They can’t leave!”
It was following conversations with his daughter that Jody Kamali devised Mr Sleepybum, which he has brought to the fringe, along with his adults’ show, Things We Do for Love. Mr Sleepybum is about a “man who awakens in a room full of people and then proceeds to recreate all of the dreams he had from Monday to Sunday”, he says. As such, much of the show is surreal: there is a pretend circus and parents get dressed up as sharks on stage.
“Children love the un-orderly,” says Kamali, “and they seem to just get tickled by it.” And it’s already proving a success. “I booked a modest 80-seater. I wish I’d booked into a larger venue – the kids’ show has sold more than my adult show!” Shelf’s kids’ shows are put on in larger venues as “they, and we, need space to run around”. They’ve generally made more money from them: “Children famously can’t go to stuff alone, so you sell more tickets by necessity.”
With two shows of highly physical comedy a day throughout most of August, Kamali admits he’s concerned about it all becoming too much. “I’m 43 … it’s exhausting! I’m forever getting injuries in both my shows.” Shelf’s WD, meanwhile, admits: “I just get so whipped up by the children and they start shrieking, so I start shrieking. It’s my voice I’m most worried about because we do the kids’ show without microphones.”
Shelf have another reason they’ve enjoyed performing these shows: it means that kids are getting to see two queer comedians simply having a laugh on stage. “For me, it’s that nice, fun and aspirational way of seeing queer people,” says Clyde. “Something we’ve both loved is that kids are so open-minded about who we are. It’s very heartwarming.”
Shelf: The Kids’ Show and Olaf Falafel’s Super Stupid Show (20% More Stupider) are at Pleasance Courtyard. Mr Sleepybum is at Assembly George Square, Edinburgh, all until 27 August
