In the very same studio he's faced the camera for Good News Week, Q&A, First Tuesday Book Club and the two-hour live variety show, Friday Night Crack Up, for the ABC's Mental As... initiative

On this particular day, however, he's armed with a toy frog and chicken, putting on voices for them like a pantomime puppetmaster as they visit Humpty Dumpty's clock shop called Time for Fun.

Yes, the man with the scathing satirical bent, who has brought us Shane Warne the Musical, played Offspring's affable Mick, and most recently brought some Perfect polish to the Strictly Ballroom show, is singing "I'm a clock, I'm a clock, I say tick-tock."

But while it's initially a surprising casting choice, Perfect in front of the camera makes, well, perfect sense. He is naturally comfortable, jovial and buoyant, flitting seamlessly between the demands of the day of singing, delivering lines and ad-hoc puppetry skills.

The range of programs he's undertaken in this studio alone emphasises how Perfect is one of the nation's most diverse performers. What does the actor, composer, musician and musical theatre star think it reflects about the spread of his work?

"I don't know, that I should maybe get some focus in my life and career," he says, jokingly.

But, he adds, as he continues to expand his career, narrowing things down has become less of an option. "The suggestion was always that you need to find one singular way for people to know about you, but I didn't really care about that. I just cared about ideas that I really liked.

"Yeah, it's all over the place, but I'm also really uniquely lucky - the spread of ideas means I pick the things I really like and what started off as a liability seems to be an advantage now."

Perfect, 37, grew up in the confines of suburban Melbourne and struggled to find a freeing place for his creative bent before studying music theatre at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, which kickstarted his broad path in entertainment.

He says he's had Play School in his sights for some time, and had been quietly sniffing around the casting process. "And no one knew anything," he says. "It was like trying to break into the Illuminati, this secret cell."

He was eventually invited to audition, and having won the job, he says it's "easily" the most iconic job of his life. "It's the gig that makes you feel like you have the most sense of responsibility."

The show, which reaches 80 per cent of children under age six weekly, has an incomparable legacy. Perfect, who grew up watching Benita Collings, John Hamblin, Noni Hazlehurst and John Waters, says the participation the show encourages, steering kids into music, singing, movement and engaging their imagination, is a "vital teaching tool" and that kids are invited into a "very safe, fun, direct, warm space".

Of huge importance in Perfect's skillset is his experience as dad to Kitty, 5, and Lottie, 3. "I have spent so long being an idiot in front of my kids that it's really nice to bring that idiocy to more kids," he says.

At home, along with wife Lucy Cochran, they are a big singing family and his girls have a vague understanding that he will appear on the beloved show. What if they turn out to be harsh critics and don't like him?

"Jeez, thanks!" he says, before going on to explain that children are the most amenable type of audience. "There's this paradox that a lot of adults who don't have kids are scared of kids because they're scared the kids are going to judge them and reject them, which is really weird because out of the two people in that transaction, it's kids that want to be included.

"Kids might be able to spot a fake, or be scared of something or not be into something but they don't block offers. They're real 'yes, and...' beings. In terms of improvisation, it's all about 'yes, and...' and if you commit to an idea and you go there, most of the time the kids will follow you."

He says his subversive edge is a very different beast to his Play School world, and it's too early to say whether he will make any contribution through writing songs. "I am literally still working out where the toilets are, so it's all very new".

As well as Play School he's working on the album launch of his suburban song cycle Songs From the Middle, and developing a TV script and a play. In the past he has spoken about his struggle when he was younger to break out of a stifling middle-class environment and beyond a straight career path or sport into creative pursuits. Now he has a job where he is actively encouraging kids to be creative and perform. He says kids should have freedom to express themselves, without pressure or criticism whatever their standard.

"What's great about Play School is it gets kids right at that age when they are free. They are completely free. They don't judge themselves. No one else judges them. They're allowed to play. That's a really pure stage and I just hope that for kids that creative scope stays open for as long as possible."

Eddie Perfect joins Play School (ABC) from Monday May 18, 9.30am.