Review – Ian D Montfort: “Britain’s Most Gifted Psychic?”
With a beatific beam, no shoes and a white linen suit, Ian D Montford looks every part a New Age guru. He comes onto stage to “Age of Aquarius,” and begins by telling us he will be contacting the dearly departed: but not our dearly departed. Montford, alter ego of comedian Tom Binns, pokes playful fun at the tropes of psychics and mediums, drawing on their often obtuse and vague statements and smooth demeanour: “I’ve got a lady here who wants to lose weight, has just lost weight, or has been talking to someone about losing weight,” he says with a soft and honeyed north-English accent.
Audience interaction plays a big role in his show, and having selected and handed over a sealed envelope to his sceptic, he goes to demonstrate his skills in tarot, numerology, doodleology, astrology and Nordic runes. He warns his victims invited to the stage to be careful of the step, then turns to the empty space to his right and converses with the lady who tripped the night before. And while he remains hilariously tongue-in-cheek in his delivery, continuing to good-humouredly mock mindreading and clairvoyance – “I predict things, especially the future. Don’t laugh, you try it!” – the sheer incredulity of his feats mount, until, despite the fits of laughter, believers and sceptics alike are left scratching their heads and wondering what in the physical or spiritual world just happened. Between gags, Montford is able to accurately guess the results of unseen dice, replicate an unseen drawing (doodled by yours truly, with no funny business that I could see) and then not only confirm unseen pictorial runes drawn at random by audience members, but also go on to state personal information about them, such as the names and locations of family members, and their ATM pin numbers.
Ian D Montford is brilliant, and if you want to have your cheeks hurt and your mind blown, he’s the guy to see.
