“I didn’t realise you’d taken me to a children’s comedy show” said my friend as we left ventriloquist Max Fulham’s Edinburgh Fringe show. They were joking, but take out a few swears and a minor subtext about mental health and intrusive thoughts and you’ve got a fantastic kids show. There were some small faces in the front row at this performances and as well as learning a few new words I think they had a great time. As did the rest of the audience.

Fulham certainly passes the first test of ventriloquism – you can’t see his lips move (you couldn’t see old school vent act Arthur Brough’s lips move, either, but then he did his act on the radio). Fulham has been doing this since he was a child and he’s still only in his mid-twenties. I’m not sure if it is possible for him to get technically better. 

The challenge is to do something different with voice-throwing and Fulham has some pretty ingenious ideas. Sometimes he doesn’t use any puppet at all, sometimes he throws his voice into a box where he keeps his intrusive thoughts (“when does the comedy start?”), sometimes he uses a slice of ham as a puppet – and if they answer back he eats them. He also does sound effects, such as supermarket checkout beeps. It must be a hoot going shopping with him. 

The benchmark for this kind of modern vent act is Nina Conti. Fulham gets someone up from the audience and does a similar routine to her ‘mask’ routine but without his volunteer even wearing a mask, which works very well. And Like Conti Fulham indulges in a bit of bickering banter with his dolls answering back. He has a great grumpy grandad which has shades of Jeff Dunham’s old man. He really brings the figure to life, teasing the crowd, it’s as much muppetry as puppetry.

The nearest we get to anything subversive is an appearance from Jesus and a spot of turning water into wine. But the dial here is very much set to playful and crowdpleasing rather than blasphemous and nightmarish. If you want to see ventriloquism that takes things in a darker direction there’s Lachlan Werner at the Fringe, who mixes witchcraft, goth and queer politics. Fulham is very much more in the light entertainment tradition and I'm sure some shiny floored TV show will snap him up. I can’t believe he hasn’t been approached by Britain’s Got Talent.

Although the adverts say that the show is 12+ if you don't mind a bit of swearing slightly younger children will probably enjoy this a lot. And adults certainly will too. 

Until August 24. Buy tickets here.

****