Tom Binns is Ian D Montfort
I have seen a few psychics and several comedians, but Ian D Montfort is the first psychic/comedian I have seen, and what a funny, lively, entertaining and somewhat magical experience he presents. I will expand on his psychic and magical powers later.
One of the exciting aspects of the
Adelaide Fringe Festival is the
Garden of Unearthy Delights, with its myriad of weird and fascinating programs. One of these shows features Tom Binns, the creator of Ian D Montfort, the Sunderland Psychic. Binns has been twice nominated for Best Comedian at the Adelaide Fringe in 2010 and 2011.
For those of you who have witnessed a psychic connect with a dead person or persons, you will have varying opinions of how genuine those experiences can be. Some psychics will of course, for whatever reasons, appear more genuine than others. Montfort with his quick wit, endless clever retorts and ridiculous excuses which make a farce of people who pretend they can see dead people. In a very amusing manner, he demonstrates how obviously in-accurate being a psychic can be, and deliberately sets out to show audiences he is like no-other psychic they have encountered.
Montfort is an engaging raconteur with impressive skills as a master of crowd work. He demonstrated a seemingly endless supply of comical alternative answers for when he failed to connect with the spirit world. When the spirit incorrectly selected the wrong answer, Montfort with cheek and humour quickly adapted his reading to suit the situation. When he was obviously wrong, the applause and laughter from the audience indicated they were with him in spirit, mainly due to his quick banter.
Many comedians today, depend very much upon the use of "blue" language for favourable audience responses. Montfort only made a few suggestive comments, but in the main his use of humour was without any swearing.
There was one participant whose replies to Montfort's kidding showed he was less impressed with his word-play. Montfort obviously recognises how vital humour is to connect him with his audience and demonstrated his ability to handle possible touchy situations.
There were times when Montfort created some amazing magical surprises when his readings demonstrated either him identifying correctly personal details of couples in the audience, or his ability to reproduce similar drawings to what four audience members sketched and concealed from his view. This part of his performance was impressive and clearly impacted upon the audience leaving them puzzled.
This is definitely one of the Fringe acts to catch.
Tom Binns - as Ian D Montfort can be found in The Cupola in the
Garden of Unearthy Delights.
For ticket details, please
see here.
