Katherine Jakeways Lost in Bank Station, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh

Punters sold short by a cast of losers

It's hard not to feel sorry for Katherine Jakeways tonight: there's the drunk in the front row, the sporadic walkouts and the feeling that things aren't quite hanging together.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Katherine Jakeways tonight: there's the drunk in the front row, the sporadic walkouts and the feeling that things aren't quite hanging together.

The format of her show is the same as her debut last year, video footage interspersed with monologues, but she has brought fewer characters with her, either intending to exploit them more fully or to avoid the accusations of a showcase.

The three characters are Sylvia, a hopeless and hapless celebrity impersonator; Faye, a driving instructor who tries too hard to be down with the kids in all senses and who is basically a cross between Waynetta Slob and Dorien from Birds of a Feather; and Elaine, a hospital volunteer who gets her kicks looking after her terminally ill "boyfriends" and relieving them of the pain even though they'd prefer it if she didn't.

With Sylvia and Faye, as with some creations of Steve Coogan or Chris Morris, the pathos gets in the way of the laughs but with Elaine the black humour is fully exploited and rescues the show from being a complete flatliner. Two out of three ain't bad; one out of three won't cut it.