Paul Zerdin is certainly one of the more accomplished of the new generation of ventriloquists to have emerged in recent years.

His show, Sponge Fest, provides you with an hour-long mystery tour through a world that many have perceived to be dead for well over a decade.

But Zerdin is in no rush to bring on the puppets. Instead his first act of the evening is to embark on some Butlins style audience banter, splitting the crown into smaller and smaller segments, getting each new section to clap as he does until he is left with a single person named Steve.

Unfortunately for Steve, he is set to become Zerdin’s fall guy for most of the evening, with the first of the ventriloquist’s creations instantly using him as a target for a thorough degrading.

But apart from finding an early scapegoat, Zerdin also exposes the mechanics of his brand of ventriloquism from the start.

Never allowing too much time to pass before either he or Sam alludes to the fact that most of the audience is focusing its attention on what is, at best, a temporarily animate object.

However, instead of destroying the illusion, Zerdin manages to bring the audience closer to his creations while almost mocking them for being lured into feeling some empathy for a puppet.

‘It’s me you fucking idiots!’ Zerdin shouts after a rather emotional moment with Sam.

I have a suspicious feeling that Zerdin wants people to know just how good he is – and he is good – which is why you can forgive the small incidences when he comes across as too eager for you to swoon at the vast ventriloquism range he has developed.

But the most interesting part of the act is when Zerdin puts down the puppets and takes ventriloquism out of context.

Anecdotes of how he uses his skills to confuse his wife while she is driving or providing bemusement in an elevator provide a highly amusing take on ventriloquism in everyday life.

Finishing up with a human puppet finale Zerdin confirms my thoughts that if Nina Conti was responsible for making ventriloquism engaging again, Zerdin is the one who can make it look cool, leaving many of his contemporaries in the genre behind.

Tim Clark

Paul Zerdin is appearing at the Underbelly, White Belly at 7:15 until 30th August

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