Musical comedy can be a tough one to crack.

Sure, you occasionally chance across hilarity such as Chris Morris's spot-on pastiches, but more often than not you're going to be lumbered with the likes of Weird Al Yankovic (whose new album Pop Songs That Are Essentially Beyond Satire Anyway Altered To Include Star Wars References And Jokes About Willies: Volume Three Hundred And Thirty-Seven is available now).

It's hecklerspray's pleasure to report, then, that young British comic Tom Basden is a different matter altogether.

You may recognise Basden from Channel 4's Star Stories - cack-awful 'satire' of the lowest bar that's strangely getting decent reviews from otherwise sane TV critics. Don't let that put you off, though – Basden is ten times better than the lame-duck material that show has lumbered him with.

His new show Tom Basden Won't Say Anything is certainly a novel idea. To all extents and purposes, Basden isn't actually doing stand-up. Unless he's singing, Basden simply ain't making a sound. He performs a number of songs – guitar and keyboard based – between which his sole communication is through a projector, reeling off little snippets of written dialogue and great hand-drawn visual gags.

It's a gimmick that threatens to get boring very quickly – and yet Basden manages to pull it off, making the whole hour fly by with his exceptionally well-written selection of comedy tunes (a particular hecklerspray favourite being You Haven't Got Diabetes, You Just Want To Eat My Mars Bar) and inventive slide show.

Weaving simple platitudes like 'thank you' with wonderfully twisted illustrations (such as Edward Scissorhands trying out contact lenses or the sublime Where's Wally's Grandad?), it's almost too much to take in over one sitting. Indeed, it's the kind of show that's crying out for a DVD release, something which is unlikely to happen until Basden begins to obtain a higher profile.

In the meantime, if you're bored of the more conventional side of stand-up performance, this is certainly a refreshing, genuinely innovative alternative.

Tom Basden Won't Say Anything runs until the 26th August at The Underbelly, Edinburgh.