Sock Puppet[author-post-rating] 3/5 stars

One of the first things we must understand, according to John-Luke Roberts, is that ghosts are not light. They don’t float up flights of stairs or hover over beds, they skulk around on the floor, near skirting boards. He knows this because the occult has a habit of seeking him out.

Sock Puppet is a storytelling show primarily concerned with the life of Ralph Guiltless, a young artist who can’t really draw. Ralph discovers one day that a sock lying on his bedroom floor has been possessed by a small French boy. The sock speaks with a broad Yorkshire accent, but he is definitely the ghost of a French boy named Pierre – he promises. Pierre had a tragic life and he’d like Ralph to set things straight for him, by strangling several eminent figures in the art world to death; in return, he can make Ralph draw like he’s always dreamt of doing. This strikes Ralph as being a pretty okay deal. There’s also a second narrative thread pertaining to Roberts’s own father, who had the life sucked from him by a gigantic foam hand.

It’s wantonly silly stuff and plenty of fun to watch. Roberts, who performs much of the show with a red sock on his right hand and one bare foot, is an engaging speaker, though does seem a little uncomfortable with his material at times. With a background in comedy, he is naturally most at home during the show’s comedic sections, which are plentiful and very funny. One particular bit of fiddling with his tape recorder, beautifully timed, gets him a spontaneous round of applause.

But in the latter third, as the story starts to hold itself up, Roberts steadily siphons away the humour like a new cyclist removing his training wheels, and Sock Puppet really misses his silliness. The John-Luke Roberts character, the version of himself that Roberts is playing, is not quite well-defined enough to carry proceedings without it, although the hints at his childhood are nicely done – and the Ralph character is also not drawn out enough to allow for any real emotional investment.

It’s a pleasant, entertaining way to spend an hour, and Roberts is hugely likeable, but Sock Puppet doesn’t completely fulfil its potential, not least because there are no real surprises beyond the first 20 minutes. It will be interesting to see what Roberts comes up with next – but in the meantime, he also has a full comedy show up on the Free Fringe this year, which might be just a little bit more satisfying.

Sock Puppet can be seen at 14.10 at the Pleasance Courtyard, every day until 26 August. For more information and tickets, visit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.