Doug Segal - I Can Make You a Mentalist *****

A bit of disclosure before we start... I've met Doug Segal a few times since I first saw his show in 2011 and he is a thoroughly nice bloke. I met him at the Pleasance and he invited me along to his show and although I don't like to see one performer too many times, I have been following his progress and I was interested to see how his act had evolved.

He's got five stars from me in 2011 and he has improved his show since, so as I can't give him six or seven, it has to be five again.

The 2011 show was in a small room in the Three Sisters. He's now got himself a decent sized room in the Gilded Balloon. He's also got a giant projection screen and more elaborate props, generally adding to the slickness and professional appearance of the show (although on day one he didn't know exactly where to put them all - an endearing and forgiveable problem on the first day of the Fringe).

Last time he was trying to make predictions and read people's minds... this time he managed to get an audience member to do the whole thing adding a whole new level of difficulty! He really does turn THEM into a mind reader.

I don't have a huge amount more to add to the previous review that I linked to above. I still have literally no idea how he did any of his tricks. He's still fantastic at what he does.

When I spoke to him before the show and he was worried because he got so much press coverage last year that the same people don't want to feature him again... But he managed to create queues out the door in his first year through word of mouth alone so I have no doubt that he'll do the same again this year!

He was also worried during the show because he randomly picked an audience member and it happened to be another performer - comedian Bec Hill. I can confirm that she was picked totally at random by another audience member.

He worries far too much. The rest of the audience loved the show as much as me... the chatter has already started and once again he'll be the name on the lips of all the punters who want a fun packed hour of comedy mind reading.