Pete Firman: Scoundrel

As well as being an alliterative dream, Middlesbrough's mod magician Pete Firman is a consummate performer who has rightly been showered with praise over the last few years. A regular on TV even before his run of six consecutive Edinburgh shows, the 33-year-old's strapline of "the new poster-boy for British comedy magic", awarded to him by the Telegraph, will be consolidated by Scoundrel.

Blending cheeky chappie humour with fresh takes on old tricks, such as regurgitating needles, Firman's most impressive feat in this show is his balancing act between the two genres he represents. In one of his early tricks involving a chair (sorry, two chairs) he reveals the method for the sake of a gag – an important reminder that comedy is not an afterthought for him. Seemingly primed with a line for everything, Firman is in the business of joke toppers as well as trick toppers, though he doesn't quite have the set-piece building skills that Derren Brown does. But then Brown can't pull off scampish smut, so it all evens out.

That said, a sequence involving some footage of him performing magic as an eight-year-old yields a head-scratchingly implausible result. While Brown's punchline is wonder, Firman usually rounds off with a gag. Funny to think that it's his very skill with comedy that might undermine the full effect of Firman's magic skills, but there is little time to worry about this too much before both audience and performer are on to the next thing.