Dan Skinner on wonderful, glorious, unholy Fringe mess

The Edinburgh festival is like the Death Star. You can try and escape, but you are eventually, inevitably, dragged back in by its powerful magnetic force.

This week's new live comedy

Previews of Paul Chowdhry, Ahir Shah, Dan Skinner and Oram & Meeten.

There was general and justifiable outrage when BBC2 pulled the plug on Shooting Stars. But how did Vic and Bob react? By the looks of this new show, they shrugged their shoulders and went off to C4 to do something incredibly similar. Is that enough? Well, there's no Jack Dee to have his face compared to things. No Ulrika. And Dan Skinner has reconstituted himself as John Meringue, a sort of Viking real ale enthusiast. There are skits, absurd live performances, non-sequiteurial questions and baffled guests (tonight; Eddie Izzard, Chelsee Healey and Thomas Turgoose). The resulting show will have you sniggering along, even as you contemplate the duo's bare-faced cheek. Vic and Bob truly couldn't be boring if they tried but, assuming it gets a series, this could go either way.

You'd expect this show to be shambolic - that's partly the point. But this is a real dog's breakfast. The skits are too many and the laughs too few, while Angelos lacks either the venom to demolish a guest or the variety of approach to deconstruct one. Tonight's star, Amy Childs, makes for a self-evidently soft target and she's a good sport, but the 'vajazzle' phenomenon is venerable enough to be beyond satire. Best mate Gupta outstays his welcome and the Gabby Logan skits are already looking tired (although a cameo from old flame Ulrika is a nice touch), while Professor Green's contribution is minimal. Dan Skinner is a great comic performer, but this doesn't feel like the best vehicle for his talents: more than ever, Angelos seems more like a brilliant comic foil than convincing leading man.

Shooting Stars fans will no doubt be keen on seeing at least one vestige of the surreal panel game live on in this Comedy Showcase pilot - which has already been commissioned for a full series in 2012.

Dan Skinner plays the award-winning burger van owner Angelos, making his own somewhat shambolic show alongside his friends Gupta (Adeel Akhtar), Kenny (Seymour Mace) and Margaret (Hannah Walters). The show features sketches, interviews, songs and audience participation.

As with any sketch show, these are always measured on their "hit and miss ratio". I would say that it's certainly more on the hit side, especially with it's range of physical and visual humour.

Yes, I know it's not the most sophisticated, but it's just pleasing to see.

Everything from the opening silhouette of Angelos at a mike, which turns out to be a chicken drumstick, to him taking a bath in the house of an unsuspecting audience member, is just... pleasing. And no doubt the more troublesome sketches will be ironed out in the forthcoming series, which should be well worth a watch.

The socially awkward Angelos Epithemiou, who replaced score-keeper George Dawes on Shooting Stars, gets his own show here.

Written by and starring Dan Skinner, the man behind the carrier bag-loving oddball, this is... well, we're not entirely sure. It claims to be a studio-based entertainment show.

And it is indeed a show. Filmed in a studio. But the entertainment part will depend on whether or not your ribs are tickled by the creation of Angelos.

If you found him the funniest thing since the last funny thing on Shooting Stars, you're in for a treat. But for the rest of us, it's a case of scratching our heads and wondering: "What the heck was that all about?!"

Created by Dan Skinner, comic character Angelos Epithemiou is an anorak-clad, bespectacled, burger van-owning misfit who permanently lugs round a Sainsbury's carrier bag. He found cult fame as a panellist on recently axed BBC gameshow Shooting Stars and now moves to Channel 4 for this solo vehicle, executively produced by Bob Mortimer. Rather reminiscent of Vic Reeves or Harry Hill's early offerings, it's a surreal, cartoonish show packed with slapstick, music, magic and celebrity send-ups.

There was a sharp intake of breath among fans when it emerged that Matt Lucas would not be reprising his role of score master George Dawes on Shooting Stars. But in shambled Angelos Epithemiou with his carrier bags, rave interludes, bottle-bottom glasses and misplaced arrogance. He was, perhaps, even better than Dawes, and easily as arbitrary. Here comedian Dan Skinner gets a whole half-hour of his own to show off Angelos in all his shabby glory.

This series of the madcap quiz show may not have struck the same irreverent chords as it did in its Nineties heyday, but it's been entertaining all the same. Concluding the current run, this episode sees The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding, DJ Tony Blackburn and presenter Zoe Salmon join team captains Jack Dee and Ulrika Jonsson and regular guest Angelos Epithemiou - the curmudgeonly alter-ego of comedian Dan Skinner - for more surreal tomfoolery.

Even if you don't happen to enjoy the surreal exuberance of this wacky game show, there are consolations. Principal among them is the mournful presence of Jack Dee. With a face like a doomed horse he does nothing other than pretend to look miserable. It's a classic example of "less is more" - whenever the camera focuses on his gloom, it's like an ice-pack applied to a migraine. Matt Lucas continues to give a magnificent panto performance as the drum-playing baby. But once again, the show stopper is the new regular guest Dan Skinner as a burger-bar owner. You can almost smell the rancid fat clinging to his clothes.