Alison Thea-Skot: The Human Tuning Fork

It's not hard to see why Alison Thea-Skot made it to the finals of last year's Funny Women competition. She's clearly a funny woman. As a character comedian, she's very talented, inhabiting and nicely differentiating the personalities in this collection of linked skits. There is, however, a slight snag: quite simply, this isn't a funny show. Not at all, really.

There's a nice idea at the heart of The Human Tuning Fork: Tiff Mason, "Britain's number one human, canine and marine vocal coach" finds herself on the wrong side of the law, precipitating a crime story in which Thea-Skot plays all the parts. Some of the characters work: a CBBC presenter who finds herself first on the scene for a hostage drama works well to expose the vacuity of live news. But, more often than not, the characters feel shoehorned in. They're given the stage for far too long. They are ideas which go nowhere.

But, more significantly, these are characters with far too few funny lines. It's not that Thea-Skot can't write them: tucked away are some gems. But when the funniest line in half an hour comes from an audience member fessing up to having stabbed someone with the Edinburgh weapon of choice—a brolly—it's clear that there's fat to be viciously slashed. There's no way you can get away with a singalong finale unless you've brought the audience along throughout. The unusually lacklustre singing from punters suggests, not unreasonably, that they are miles away.