“Sketch comedy isn’t dead. It just grew to six-foot-seven and took its shoes off.”

At a time when sketch comedy has been mostly flattened into TikTok quick cuts and algorithm-chasing improv, Pear arrive like a weird, welcome glitch in the matrix — fully committed to the form, and still very, very funny.

Identical twins Patrick and Hugo McPherson return to the Fringe after last year’s breakout success. Same double act. Same tiny COVID cupboard of a venue. Same logistical challenge: performing in socks to avoid taking out the lights with their towering heads. But this time, they’ve levelled up the lunacy — and brought a loyal audience with them. Some returnees even drag their friends along, demanding to be entertained. Spoiler: they are.

The premise this year is deceptively simple: Phobia — a show about fear. But Pear don’t dwell in dread; instead, they use it as a launchpad for a parade of precisely delivered, surrealist sketches. German security guards, paranoid conspiracy theorists, group therapy gone off the rails, couples roleplaying their way into oblivion — it’s a gloriously bizarre carousel.

The standout? South African Ghost Hunters. Possibly one of the best skits on the Fringe this year — an idea so original and ridiculous it shouldn’t work. But it really does. Their crowd work is also pitch-perfect: gently interactive, never smug, always playful, and just the right side of chaotic.

But Pear’s biggest weapon is their rhythm. These are short, punchy sketches, stitched together with a drummer’s instinct for pacing. Nothing outstays its welcome. Everything lands with purpose. It feels instinctive, but there’s serious craft under the surface.

Pear 2.0 are still the real deal: inventive, tight, delightfully offbeat, and smart enough to know when to just be silly. They’re not chasing trends — they’re building a canon.

If the casting scouts for SNL London are actually doing their jobs (and they really should be), these two are your fulcrum for the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. They need a bigger boat for their lunacy.