How would you describe your show to someone discovering it for the first time at the Fringe? Well-Balanced Dads is a high-energy, family-friendly physical comedy about Dick and Dale, two acrobatic dads and best friends, navigating life after the kids have left the nest. To cope with their newfound freedom, they take the audience on a camping trip full of dad jokes, dance moves, acrobatics, movie references and unthreatening audience participation. This hilarious duo balances levity with deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity and navigating a changing parent/kid relationship. What moment, idea or frustration first sparked this show into existence? It was midnight in the small town of Petersburg, Illinois in 2023. We were there as part of Broken Planet Show by Callum Grant, but only 3 of 7 cast members could make the performance. We sat there at the mayor’s son’s restored Victorian home around the kitchen counter, heads in hands, asking: WHAT ELSE ARE WE GOING TO DO FOR THE SHOW?!” Then Callum said, “You two do partner acrobatics. How about acro and dad jokes?” We put on shorts and mustaches, and the characters were born. How has the show evolved from its earliest idea to what audiences will see now? The 3-minute bit turned into a full cabaret act, which toured Chicago monthly for two years with Broken Planet and played at the 2024 Fringe and 2025 Edinburgh Fringes. We extended the sketch by adding 70s rock music and a fight with string cheese, and we started performing at other cabarets and fringe festivals. Audiences loved it, so we entered a residency in Chicago (Body Passages with Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble) and developed the bits into a full show, debuting at Chicago’s international Physical Theatre Festival. These characters now have a lot more depth and specificity than when we first created them. Since we aren’t parents ourselves, we dove into our relationships with our own fathers to find common experiences. We found a lot of empathy with the empty nester experience – how do fathers cope when their roles shift into the backseat? It’s a really vulnerable experience for a group of people that are stereotypically discouraged from showing emotions. For us, the push and pull of navigating this stage of life is heartfelt, challenging, and hilarious. Audiences will definitely laugh, but they will probably get a little teary-eyed too. What makes Edinburgh Fringe the right place for this show right now? This show was built through fringe festivals for fringe audiences in mind! It’s comedic, interactive, and really utilizes our clown training. Clown is having a big moment right now, and we are here for it! We like to create experiences for our audiences, and Fringe audiences are so game to play. We offer a unique blend of circus, character, comedy, and interactive theater, which we believe fringe audiences are hungry for. What does bringing this particular show to the Fringe represent for you personally? This will be our third Fringe in a row. In 2024, we came with Broken Planet Show, but we were only performing a small part so the stakes felt low. In 2025, we each brought a solo show to the Fringe (Arachne and The Mothman Cometh), and the stakes felt REALLY high. This year feels like the stakes are just right because we’re bringing a duo show that we wrote together. We get to share the highs and lows as romantic and artistic partners. (We’re also bringing our solo shows back too, but it’ll be the second time so it feels less scary!) It represents a culmination of our experience and growth at the Fringe, and we hope this show resonates with audiences, industry folk, and future opportunities alike! What has been the most unexpectedly challenging part of getting this show to Edinburgh? The most challenging part was finding an appropriately sized venue (under 100 seats) that had enough stage space and ceiling height without breaking the bank! A bigger stage often equals more seats which equals a higher rental fee. We’re excited to have found the Alba at BRAW Venues. If audiences leave the venue holding onto one thing, what do you hope it is? We hope audiences leave with a cathartic desire for connection; thinking, “I want to call the father figure in my life” or “I want to call my kid.” How do you think performing this show during a Fringe run will shape it? This show is highly interactive, and we are excited to perform it with 23 different international audiences. These are the riskiest parts of the show because we give up a bit of control, but it’s also thrilling. We will gain a lot of experience and information about how to set up different audience members for success. We are also excited to let the show settle in and find more opportunities to play and riff on each other; by the end, we may replace content with funnier moments that we discover through the run! Who do you hope this show finds at the Fringe? Anyone who has a dad, is a dad, or wants a dad; parents and families; millennials; people watching their parents age; moms who have had to be the dad; parents and grandparents that love classic rock from the 70s and 80s; cat dads, plant dads; people with dad energy that have nowhere to put it. Finally, if this show came with a warning label, what would it say? “May cause the overwhelming desire to grow a mustache” Well-Balanced Dads runs at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 7th-30th August 2026 (except 18th).
Next in our Edinburgh Fringe interview series, we speak again to Whisper Theatre Collective who are bringing another show to the fringe titled Well-Balanced Dads. ”Grab your finger-guns, comb your ‘stache and brace yourselves for the Well-Balanced Dads! Dick and Dale are taking the audience on a camping trip full of dad jokes, dance moves, acrobatics, movie references and unthreatening audience participation. This hilarious duo balances levity with deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity and navigating life after the kids have flown the nest.”
