Kicking off tonight’s double bill, mental psychic Ian D Montfort makes a welcome return to the Q Loft stage.  He’s had a few pies since a couple of years ago, and sports a vaguely Eastern-mystical sort of gown to supplement his laissez-faire demeanour as he systematically impresses, perplexes and insults us. 

The magical element is a very basic mind-reading trick “and potentially some relationship guidance”. He simply gets audience members to select random playing cards and guesses what they are.  Guaranteed to leave enough patrons scratching their heads that he could feasibly run a tidy trade in anti-dandruff shampoo on the side.

That’s almost sort of like a joke he might make along the way, except his would be much funnier and slightly more socially inappropriate.  The humour is, of course, the real entertainment, and Montfort delivers in spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts with his extensive repertoire of backhanded complements, subverted anecdotes and twisted turns of phrase.

Surprise extra guest, comedian Tom Binns bridges the two headliners, supposedly to give one time to change into the other: recently returned to stand-up following a hiatus caring for his ailing father, who joins him on stage for a chuckle-heavy ventriloquist act.  Covering a range of stroke, OCD, dyslexia and of course puppetry jokes, they conclude their brief set with a surprise rousing duet from a certain major musical drama.

The final act of the hour, DJ Ivan Brackenbury presents his landmark hospital radio show The Disease Hour – sponsored by KY Jelly! – live from on stage in front of us.  In his cap and glasses and hospital-radio branded t-shirt, Ivan’s wholesomely cheery ‘professional’ manner does little to belie the fact he’s clearly a bit slow, squirming and stammering like a four year-old. 

Dropping in a few celebrity soundbite-stings, some genuine I believe, among numerous dedications and requests from inpatients and their loved ones, his captivated listenership is also kept appraised of the latest in-house news.  Naturally the chief purpose of it all is the shameless exploitation of myriad pop lyrics, to demonstrate how their meaning can alter radically with a cheeky shift to a health-issues type context.

To summarise: Tom Binns’ one-man triple-header combines a healthy measure of mystical wonder with a generous dose of the best medicine.

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