Bo Burnham, Touring

Massachusetts-born Bo Burnham first performed in the UK at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe. The then teenage prodigy, who had come to fame as a YouTube sensation, took the festival by storm and was given the Edinburgh Comedy Awards' panel prize. He hasn't performed here again until this year's Fringe, when his second stage show, What, sold out in a matter of minutes and was again garlanded with rave reviews.

He's now doing a short tour of What, and it starts with one of the most astonishingly accomplished opening segments I have ever seen, a combination of rap, dance, magic and physical comedy performed to a backing track, a spot-on filleting of the superficiality of fame while at the same time being a hosannah to the benefits it brings.

Like comics such as Dara Ó Bríain, Russell Brand and Stewart Lee, Burnham is ferociously smart and in love with language, yet his cleverness never excludes the audience – he loves a knob gag, does a masturbation mime and flirts with bad taste in songs such as “I Fuck Sluts”. He also does his research, making a neat barb at Michael McIntyre's expense with that wanking joke; "It's observational comedy! Book me for the Roadshow now!"

But then he's on to the next funny – pay attention or you'll miss several gags – and the next delicious bit of wrong-footing the audience; “Andy the Frog” is anything but the children's story he introduces it as, while “Repeat” sounds like it could be a chart hit for Justin Bieber, but in fact is a superb filleting of how the music industry works in making young girls feel bad about themselves while telling them the Biebers and One Directions are attainable as boyfriends.

It may sound as if Burnham, still only 22, is cynical, but I get no real sense of that, rather that it's a stage persona that serves the jokes and allows him to play with the convention of the troubled clown - “You don't know me,” he says at one point, “you love the idea of me” - while giving nothing away about his inner life. Even when he mentions in passing his unsupportive dad or being bullied at school, they seem like set-ups to jokes rather than descriptions of reality.

He spends a lot of time at a keyboard (his songs, with expertly crafted hooks and rhymes, would give Tim Minchin a run for his money), but the pre-records are perhaps a little overused and the first half of the show occasionally needs variation in pace. My only gripe is that so many jokes, delivered at such a rapid pace, means that many can't be savoured. But hey, complaining there are too many jokes in a comedy show? My, is this man talented; the sheer wit and invention of What takes one's breath away.

• Bo Burnham is touring until 18 November