James Campbell's Comedy 4 Kids joins the Brighton Fringe

He has been performing his ground-breaking kids' comedy for about 25 years, doing shows around the world and publishing multiple books.

His new live show “may include exploding penguins, seventeen ways to eat jam and songs to sing to the worms in your dog’s bottom.”

Since first starting to perform back in 2001, James has been travelling the world, bringing laughter to children in thousands of schools, libraries, theatres and festivals as well as teaching kids’ comedy workshops, writing a series of books (including Boyface, the Funny Life books, Daphne and the Marmalade Cow) and parenting his own children.

James said: “This show is twice as funny as anything you’ve seen before so cover yourself in glue, roll around in glitter for five minutes and then come to the show shouting ‘I’m a massive disco maggot!’ until someone asks you to leave”.

Tickets on www.brightonfringe.org/events/james-campbells-comedy-4-kids-redux

James recalls: “When I was 20 or so, I did some voluntary work in an infants school. It was there that I learned I had a talent for making up stories and telling them to small-sized people. One of the teachers' husbands was the head of a nearby school and he asked how much I would charge to visit his school and tell them some stories. I realised I might have just invented my own job. I spent that summer holiday hand-writing 100 letters to my closest 100 schools and then it all began. Soon I was visiting schools and my stories were growing and improving.

“In the year 2000 I did my first show at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was called James Campbell Is Not Made of Cheese – which is true. I'm not. It did very well and the following year I returned. Not knowing what to call the show though, I came up with Comedy 4 Kids because, hey, that's what it is!

“The show had sold out before I had even started the run and soon agents and producers were falling over themselves to work with me. The next thing I knew I'd been booked to perform at international fringe and comedy festivals. I played Adelaide, Melbourne, Singapore, Malaysia, Florida, Winnipeg and Vancouver. I even did a month in New York City in an off-broadway theatre right next to the Lion King.

“Back at home I was also extremely privileged to perform my Comedy 4 Kids show at the Southbank Centre, the Hay Festival and so many other theatres and festivals. Next, of course, came the books. First it was Boyface and then The Funny Life books published by Bloomsbury. These days I try to manage a balance between looking after my children, visiting schools and theatres and creating a food forest at Thistle Doo. My latest book was Don't Panic: We CAN Save the Planet and Daphne and the Marmalade Cow.”