Review: Glob, Fringe 2026

Family-friendly comedy circus show Glob at the McEwan Hall is a fun hour from French-Canadian company Les Foutoukours, starring two wordless (but not entirely mute) fluffy clowns as they get acquainted firstly with each other, and then their abstract, wintery, slightly magical environment.

Vibe

The vibe for this show is silly, lighthearted fun, combined with circus/physical theatre, and a little slapstick – oh, and some tap dancing! There’s a definite family vibe, with lots of kids in the audience quite willing to join in with the ‘boos’ and the ‘WOWs’.

The clown-like characters (it’s not really explained what they are) possess red noises and communicate mainly by gesturing and making noises – and this is done well, even though at times it’s really verging on absurdity for the laughs. It’s still easy enough to follow what they’re trying to say.

Performance

It feels like quite a light, fun show full of character, from the way the clowns move, to how they vocalise their feelings and intentions.

However, there are also sections of serious physical theatre/circus where you can tell these two guys really know their stuff – which is even more impressive considering the bulky white fluffy costumes they spent the entirety of the show in.

The characters’ reactions first to meeting each other (fear, then love), then tackling the giant ladder (again, fear, and a bit of teamwork) before working out the giant balls change colour and how to change them back is an engaging, meandering dialogue of ‘uh!’ and ‘buh?!’ and ‘Woooow’. That’s the best way I can explain it.

Did either of them say the word Glob? Disappointingly, I don’t think they did.

As we begin to learn more about the environment, and are introduced to the tappy-tap-tap shoes, we get onboard with a bit of tap dancing – but beware! These particularly fluffy clowns are quite sensitive, and feelings can easily be hurt.

Something that stood out the me was the way the performers react to the audience. For instance, someone’s phone went off during the performance – they both made out like they wanted to answer the phone, with a sound that was close enough to ‘hello’ to make us all laugh.

A loud noise later on also got their attention, and after checking everyone was still okay – without breaking character, mind you – they continued with the show.

Overall

I found this double act entertaining, a little captivating, and original enough to be a good fit for kids (who may otherwise get bored in an hour-long show).

My favourites parts of Glob were the physical theatre/circus sections, where both clowns – I’ll refer to them as Big Glob and Smol Glob – performed impressively.

Smol Glob was stunning when doing a solo performance on the giant ladder.

You also don’t see that many diablo displays these days, so I appreciated that particular addition from Big Glob (who I also felt more of an affinity for emotionally).

It’s a nice variety to watch, whilst telling a bit of a narrative as we go along – it also seemed like a definite hit with young audiences.

I hope this duo do well for Fringe 2026.