If you grew up watching sitcoms, as most Americans did, you’re probably familiar with the ancient cultural tradition of the crossover episode. That’s when characters from one show would appear on another, usually on the same network and often on the same night. (We won’t get into the Tommy Westfall Universe hypothesis.)

Usually these episodes were inconsequential filler during sweeps month, designed to get the curious sampling other fare. When they worked well, however, they had a kind of electricity to them as favorite characters sparked off each other.

There’s something of the sweeps month crossover to the double feature of John Stamos Is My Baby Daddy / Rainbow Brite Power Naps — two short, immersively staged comedies that share a few characters and a venue at the northern end of the Fringe zone.

While it’s Stamos that gets top billing, the order of the production puts writer-director Kara Christensen’s Rainbow Brite first, as the audience is cast in the role of a marketing focus group for the struggling Misha’s (Rebecca Massek) ad firm. From the outset nothing is going right for Misha and, truth be told, we’re not even supposed to be there that day. But wrong place, wrong time doesn’t deter Misha from putting us all to work as the backdrop for her meeting with a feckless CEO who proves to be… familiar in some of his mannerisms.

Whether the audience is really present or not tends to blur during the Rainbow Brite half of the show, where we occasionally find ourselves directly addressed, and at other times seem to be barely registered by the performers. It actually works better than it sounds on paper, because of the brisk pacing and the broad comic shape of the work.

At one point the audience is split up, and half the crew gets an entirely different story — call it the “B plot” in a sitcom — from the mainline. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time, and there was something to having notes to trade afterwards without getting a severe case of FOMO.

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Sharon McKay’s John Stamos runs second, after a short walk around the bend at the venue to the second location at the site. Once there we’re invited into a 4th of July party being thrown by Audrey (Miranda Skerman) with the help of her friends Katharine (Jaclyn Kulchinsky) and Brady (La’Vel Stacy). Brady invited us all at the start of the Rainbow Brite to the party, mistaking us for Audrey’s co-workers.

In John Stamos the audience is more grounded into the space, cast as we are as party goers, and the antics that spool out feel at less of a distance than they do in Rainbow Brite. It’s the ease of the scenario, to some extent: it’s a lot easier to lightly acknowledge party-goers than it is to wedge an accidental focus group into a sitcom scenario.

Like it’s partner on the bill, John Stamos Is My Baby Daddy moves briskly and is carried along by the comic chops of its cast. Again it was fun to look around and see everyone having a good time, and in a flashback moment I got pulled in to play someone… probably because of the strength of my hair game these days.

I’ve been yearning for more comedy in our collective immersive diet, and this double bill delivers.

That said, there’s some fine tuning to be done.

At the start we were all invited to choose our level of participation by wearing name tags or not, yet the demands of the play caused a few actors to ignore tagged or not status during the course of the preview. If participation is truly optional, that boundary should be respected. Some people are deeply afraid of being called up, while others are hams who will gladly step into the spotlight when given the slightest opportunity. (coughLike you.cough-ed.)

Christensen and McKay are both sitcom writers by trade, and that experience shows in the mechanics of the plotting and comic timing. The twofer runs a hell of a lot smoother than the vast majority of Fringe shows I’ve seen over the years, and would be a comic standout even without the immersive staging. Put those two together, and Awkward Hug Productions has leapt into being ones to watch in the months and years ahead.

John Stamos Is My Baby Daddy / Rainbow Brite Power Naps is part of the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival and plays through June 21st. Tickets are $15.

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