‘What’s your job?’ asks Phil Ellis, dressed as a pirate and sweating like he’s just woken up from a three-day bender, to a six-year-old boy called Ronnie. There’s always talk about the perfect kids show balancing jokes that both little ones and adults will love, but few relish speaking to children as though they actually were fully employed adults in their mid-20s. Ellis details his inability to conceive to a small boy in the front row, infers that he’s reviving this erstwhile hit because of financial difficulties, and flings sweets into the crowd with the vigour of someone praying they take a punter’s eye out. 

The show in question is Funz And Gamez, a barrage of silliness which was raking in awards a decade ago for its ramshackle energy, and received a pilot episode on BBC Three (at 3am which, as Ellis duly notes, probably isn’t the best time to showcase a kids show to a national audience). Let’s be thankful that it gets to remain an underground hit, because Ellis is never better than playing a down-at-heel loser to a group of happily baffled sprogs. In this updated edition (which, he claims, has been made more diverse after a slew of allegations against its previous incarnation), he’s joined by the stone-faced musical comic Huge Davies (playing Orphan Wizard Boy) and the ever-likeable Katie Pritchard (playing a Fairy Mother), both of whom have sordid stories about how they’ve ended up on team Funz and share a chemistry that more than matches their leader’s eccentricity. 

The Gamez of the title strike a similar balance of manic chaos for the kids and features grown-up quips about Ellis’ sad-sack life. At no point will the nefarious host learn a valuable lesson about cheating, but parents may have to explain why the excitably sarcastic man began discussing a woman who had cheated on him. Parents themselves are regularly invited to join in with the anarchy, called on-stage for rounds of dress-up and the irresistible chance to casually pelt their mean-spirited host with play balls. 

Despite (or, more likely, because of) his almost non-existent paternal instincts, children lap up the carnage of Ellis’ act, sugared-up on sweets and clapping along to jokes that they have no real hope of understanding. For the sheer number of laughs per minute, this is recommended for kids, parents, lone adults and anyone who loves the sight of a hungover pirate with a water gun. 

Funz And Gamez Rebootz, Monkey Barrel, until 10 August, 12.45pm.