Max Fulham's Monkey Business kids review: Dazzling puppetry skills
The ventriloquist demonstrates a superb rapport with the kids in this perfectly-choreographed show
Max Fulham’s Monkey Business almost belongs to a different era. Fulham is a ventriloquist, a skill that feels vanishingly, eccentrically rare these days. Impeccable at his craft, with a choreographic timing that is balletically precise, he whips through banter with a range of puppets, each with their own personalities and ways to cause mischief onstage. The setting is an office, a place of boring, inexplicable grown-up things like ties and LinkedIn. Fulham turns this on its head through daft presentations, audience interaction and a roster of misbehaving animal colleagues.
His jokes and puns are fabulously groan-worthy (think Olaf Falafel crossed with that guy from marketing) and his rapport with the kids in the audience is beautifully gentle, playful and empowering. Plus, as a bonus, he teaches the young ones how to make a puppet out of just about anything. Max Fulham may have an appetite for nonsense, but his skills are dazzling.
Max Fulham’s Monkey Business, Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 16 August, 11.50am; picture: Karla Gowlett.