The second installment in our digital two-show Saturday was Show Up, Kids!, a family friendly, Edinburgh Fringe hit which has migrated online as a result of the pandemic and now takes place from the NYC apartment of its creator, Peter Michael Marino. We tried to watch this once before, back in August, but Pete was so funny he broke our broadband. Thankfully he’s back online this October as part of Brighton Fringe, and was kind enough to invite us to watch the show again on Saturday.
Show Up, Kids! puts children from from all over the world at the heart of the action after Pete is left in the lurch by unseen star of the show ‘Sally the Silly Song Singer’. Either the kids are going to have to help Pete come up with 50 minutes of material or everyone is going to have an uncomfortably long staring contest over Zoom! Predictably, the online audience throw themselves into things with gusto, resulting in a totally bonkers story delivered against a backing track of uncontrollable laughter.
Part-improvised, but with some set-piece songs and silliness, it’s a fast paced, high energy show that will keep even those with short attention spans engaged and involved throughout. Although Pete attempts to keep order by asking individuals to hold up their names and wait to be chosen, it inevitably descends into a bunch of kids screaming suggestions and shrieking with joy. Staying just on the right side of chaos, this all adds to the frenzied fun and makes it feel (in the best way possible) like the kind of in-person family show where Mummy is very glad that she had the good sense to go to the bar beforehand!
With improvised shows, we like to summarise the plot to give you a flavour of the sort of silliness you can expect, with no risk of spoilers because nobody knows what’s going to happen from one show to the next….Despite writing notes, Mummy is still not entirely sure how to describe the nuttiness that unfolded in Show Up, Kids! but, broadly, it involved taking an adventure to America with the President of the Fez Club and surviving a rocket crash before hiking up a volcano (protected from lava by birthday cake obviously) and then becoming fully fledged members of the Fezzers. For reasons that were entirely unclear, there was also a cameo from Stephen Fry on a stick. So there you go.
We had a great time watching Show Up, Kids! and are very glad that our internet managed to survive Pete’s whirlwind of craziness this time round. You have one more chance to catch him at Brighton Fringe this Saturday, so make sure you Zoom in for 50 minutes of Halloween madness.
Show Up, Kids! is playing online at Brighton Fringe every Saturday (at 4.30pm UK time). We received a complimentary ticket for the performance on Saturday 24 October in return for a review.
Age guidance: 3-10 years
Tickets: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/show-up-kids-interactive-family-comedy-151355/
Show Website: www.showuptheshow.com