Self-billed as the tallest, most identical comedians at the Fringe, twins Patrick and Hugo McPherson certainly do their best to live up to that description. At 6’ 7” tall (that’s just over two metres, metric fans), the helpful addition of a pair of specs and slightly different hairdos are essential to tell them apart as they appear over a joint Zoom link. Identity-swapping twin-style japery is off the menu though. ‘We went on Pointless a few years ago and thought it would be great to switch name tags,’ recalls Patrick. ‘But no one found it funny, because only we knew,’ 

It’s the third year out for self-penned sketch-show-with-music Pear. ‘Patrick first performed at the Fringe in 2017,’ says Hugo. ‘I was in the wings gently knocking at the door, wondering when we could have a go at it together. We planned to come up in 2020, and obviously covid happened, but that allowed us a lot of time to work on the script. We had our first crack in 2022 and went from there.’ 

McPherson fans (and there are many given they regularly sold-out last year) shouldn’t expect a repeat: Pear has been completely rewritten. ‘This is our freest, loosest, silliest hour yet,’ says Patrick. ‘Over the last couple of years we tried to structure a lot of stuff, but this year we’ve taken the shackles off and are trying to have as much fun as possible.’ 

Everyone knows the twin-based clichés: finishing each other’s sentences, secret languages, even telepathy, but what’s it really like to be the McPherson twins? ‘It’s more like editing each other’s sentences,’ explains Patrick. ‘Hugo might say something and I’ll pick it up and improve it. We’ve done that for ages. It can be a lot, but for writing comedy it’s great; not so much twin telepathy as two streams of consciousness constantly trying to improve the other... it’s a dynamic that’s immensely enjoyable, though at times frustrating for others.’ 

It’s safe to say that comedy is currently in its silly era; both put this down to a post-covid impetus to get back to bare bones humour and unashamedly daft characters. ‘We hope we’re on a wave of people wanting escapism, where they walk out and say “that was really fun,”’ explains Patrick. Has that meant changing their schtick? ‘We’re leaning into our USP, which is twins,’ he adds. ‘We are, in some ways, a walking freak show, so we lean into that and don’t think “hey, the people are coming for our intellectual satire.”’

Naturally, Hugo agrees. ‘Hopefully everyone wants to see two massively overly tall twins doing silly stuff. But even if they don’t, that’s what we do best. This year, it’s about throwing it back to what we want to do.’  

Pear, Underbelly Cowgate, 1–25 August, 7.20pm.