Brothers And Sisters... It's The Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III

Comedy chat shows are a difficult format to make work at the best of times. It requires the host to be as adept an interviewer as he or she is a comedian, and for both them and their guests to commit to the concept, overriding their instinct to go for the quick laugh.

Forgoing any actual interview technique, Steppenwolf (Jim Muir) immediately forces his guests down the seediest of alleys, despite both having plenty of interesting material in the bank. Former children's TV presenter Des Clarke is forced—obviously with some discomfort—to name people he worked with so that the audience can shout "Paedo!" after each. Coraled by Steppenwolf, Kai Humphries spends almost all of his time talking about how his ladykilling exploits end up with him getting overly intimate with men. Exotic and therefore funny only if you have the sexual horizons of Mary Berry.

It's not clear either why the audience should be interested in what the guests have to say given that—despite being an engaging interviewee—Clarke doesn't even have a Fringe show this year, and Humphries ends his interview with the caveat that none of the material he's just done is in his standup act.

Steppenwolf is supposed to be an American televangelist and while punters who have done their homework will know his alter-ego is Glasgow born and bred, his love of Bucky and his tales of having sex with Dundonians still feel as hokey as when comedians mine local topics they know nothing about for cheap laughs. He could have dropped the accent, torn off the wig and done a much better job.