Not too long ago, a cadre of niche Fringe comedians used PowerPoint presentations to bring their visual gags to life. It became a cliché. In Mr TikTok, Mat Ewins displays just how far things have come along since then with a spectacular hoard of inventive video sketches. At first, it’s hard to know where to look. Ewins is such an engaging presence that, more often than not, all eyes are on the comedian while an intricate, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it joke plays out on a TV beside him. It’s a shame when that happens given he’s evidently worked so hard on this stuff, and he half-jokingly laments each lost gag.

This is not just a host standing on stage and presenting material that he’s pre-prepared: there’s real depth to the show, particularly when he ingeniously subverts comedy conventions. Ewins mocks the way that modern comedy is shown on social media by ‘remastering’ The Two Ronnies’ ‘Four Candles’ routine, completely ruining it while, certainly, presenting it in a way that a young audience might now expect to ‘consume’ the sketch.

In a scene which understandably goes over the heads of most of tonight’s youthful crowd, he pays homage to Daniel Kitson’s 2015 play, Polyphony, using a speaking bumhole secreted beneath an unsuspecting audience member. Ewins is careful enough with his material that when he makes a joke about Auschwitz, it is so well-structured that it elicits one of the biggest laughs tonight with barely a hint of unease.

Kudos to his partner who acts as an unseen supporting player. From the back of the room she controls his ‘AI assistant’ and dutifully sends social-media commentary directly to the screen. This live interaction is a highlight, particularly when the multimedia communication inevitably breaks down. Mr TikTok rattles on, only occasionally stumbling when technology falters or when a participating audience member chooses to go off-script. Throughout it all, Ewins jokingly claims to be chasing numbers for his TikTok channel. Hopefully that won’t happen; he’s just too much fun in person.
Mat Ewins: Mr TikTok, Monkey Barrel, until 27 August, 9.15pm.