James Campbell, dressed in black, sporting a goatee beard and a mane of unruly hair, looks harmless enough but he has a little mischievous, nay evil, glint in his eye as he leads children through the comic delights of his imagination. Like theirs, it is vast, illogical, fantastical and a bit rude and as a result he is the ideal person to communicate the funny side of life to kids.
I took along a five year old, a seven year old and a nine year old in the hope that comedy would span this age gap nicely without babying the eldest or baffling the youngest. Thankfully, I was right.
The nine year old chuckled particularly at the more devilish of Campbell’s comic scenarios, wherein he questioned the lyrics of a Christmas classic. Therefore “ tiny tots with their eyes all aglow…” became possessed demons at the altar of Santa who were “having some trouble sleeping.” The two younger girls liked the more ridiculous description of a pet cow in your bath or Campbell’s manic shouting as he re-enacted a Primary school fire drill.
With no props, background music or video footage one has to admire Campbell’s ability to keep an audience of three to thirteen year olds completely absorbed for a whole hour (except for one poor mother whose children were too hot). Importantly, the children themselves were hardly a reticent bunch and much of the humour came from Campbell’s ad-libbed retorts to various random remarks fired at him from an unrelentingly enthusiastic audience. My nine year old nephew was highly impressed and he noted as we left – “ He can’t have rehearsed that!”
Personally the highlight of the show was Campbell’s rendition of the Monkees’ classic “I’m a retriever” – a simple song about a dog fetching a stick. That and the fact that all three children thoroughly enjoyed the show, laughed throughout and argued over who would get to listen to the CD that night as they went to sleep.
4/5
Emma Flatman
