The Pajama Men: Just The Two of Each of Us

Who’d have thought something featuring two middle-aged American comics in nightwear would be one of the best things at the festival? Well, it is. This brilliantly imaginative show has all the joy of the dressing-up box and will leave you trying to catch your breath from laughing so much.

Regulars at the Fringe, comedy duo Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez’s latest lunatic show has a storyline that sprawls across 700 years and includes a king on a quest, a one-armed woman called Nadine and a mythical beast terrorising a medieval theme park and casino while a pair of vapid rich kids look on.

Allen and Chavez gleefully riff off each other in a series of interconnected sketches that bounce all over the place. Their deadpan demeanour frequently cracks beneath the nonsense of it all. They’re two grown men with the outlook of children and the skill of seasoned improv artists.

Their genius lies in their exceptional aptitude for cartoonish physical comedy and their keen ear for the absurd. They conjure hilarious scenarios and characters out of a combination of mime and their own sound effects. It’s all the fun of make-believe delivered with an adult playfulness.

Watching the Pajama Men at work is like tonic for the soul. It’s impossible not to be swept up in the joyful silliness of this tirelessly inventive show. And it’s a cathartic punch in the air for reluctant grown-ups like me, who still want to make the He-Man figures stowed away in their parents’ attic have a little fight.