Ian D Montfort: Spiritual Comedium

For the sheer number of gags, Tom Binns is hard to beat. He proved this with his hospital radio DJ character Ivan Brackenbury, a creation who earned him a nomination for the 2007 if.comedy award, as the big Fringe gong was known back then. Last year, he replaced Brackenbury with Sunderland pyschic Ian D Montfort, a character who merged bona fide mentalist skills learnt from Philip Escoffey with bulletproof gags.

This year's outing has the same tidal wave of jokes, but is somehow a bit more distant. Montfort's backstory was always pretty light but it has receded into the spirit world altogether now, and even some lovely quirks from last year have been sacrificed. Meanwhile, the addition of a lame assistant does not add enough of a dimension to the show to compensate.

This relatively safe follow-up lacks variety and emotion and any acknowledgement to Binns' training and multidisciplinary skill. The staple of the show is the juxtaposition between Montfort's comic groping for a handle on the subject's life, covering himself if he guesses incorrectly, before proffering statements that turn out to be eerily accurate. For anyone new to the character, this in itself will prove value for money.