The Kids Always Win
★★★☆☆ Winning streak
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 30): Wed 30 July – Sun 17 August
Review by Sophie Good
The Kids Always Win, a gameshow comedy for kids age 5 and over is onto, well, a winner with it’s fail-safe formula, at the Pleasance Courtyard until the end of the Edinburgh school holidays.
Tom Whiston and Max Prentice of Hooray Productions are your enthusiastic gameshow hosts for a fun hour of silliness in the intimate space of The Green, with a show that it very much aimed at the kind of kids who volunteer to take part.
Max Prentice and Tom Whiston. Pic Hooray Productions.
Volunteers then bring their reluctant grown ups on stage to compete with each other in a series of tasks. And it is absolutely no surprise at all to hear that the odds are stacked against the adults and all the points go to the kids.
Don’t get too excited though as some of the prizes are pretty niche (an elbow connector pipe? Some HB pencils?).
familiar, but appealing
But that’s not the point of course, Tom and Max build up a rapport with the audience and really win over the young people by skewing everything in their favour. From identifying rhyming puzzles, to building and knocking over towers, to making as much noise as possible (yes the kids of course won that one anyway), it’s all daft and engaging.
It’s a familiar, but appealing hour, which is not going to give you a big moral message to consider or a teaching moment. But for kids and their grown ups who want to be entertained and have some fun, it’s definitely one where no-one is a loser.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Pleasance Courtyard (The Green), 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ (Venue 30).
Wed 30 July – Sun 17 August 2025.
Daily: 1pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Instagram: @tomwhistom
TikTok: @itismaxhooray
Tom Whiston and Tom Whiston in action. Pic Sophie Good
ENDS
