I’ve just been to Edinburgh for a flying visit (I didn’t fly though, I’m carbon conscious) ahead of my two week run which starts on Sat 9^th.

Dragging three people from a bar into a sweaty upstairs room to watch a comedy show is the kind of festival experience I always crave for. That was the story of a gig I did on Saturday, but it turned out well and I now have three new fans from Loch Lomond. Big up the posse from the bonny banks. There is a naturist colony on the island in the middle of Loch Lomond – just a wee fact for you there. I can’t imagine it being much fun when the midges come out. I once camped by Loch Lomond with a girlfriend when I was young and I can tell you there’s definitely not something in the air that makes you want to cast your garments aside. She kept hers firmly on the whole weekend. And who can blame her?

Apart from this funny gig I also got to work my way around PBH’s Free Fringe, a wonderful institution set up by a wonderful lunatic, Peter Buckley Hill, which I am, this year, a part of. It gives people the chance to perform at Edinburgh without incurring several thousands of pounds of debt and multifarious psychiatric problems. The cost to Britain’s economy of the wastage wrought upon some of the nation’s finest comedic minds probably runs into billions. Many very funny men and women are left broken and scarred, while Jimmy Carr scythes his way to stardom, although he did leave his soul in the gents’ toilets at The Pleasance.

There are some great shows at the Free Fringe from both known and unknown performers. Robin Ince and Josie Long are doing things, Andrew O’Neill is funny, so is Tom Bell and they are also doing things. I saw a preview of John Cooper’s show and it looked like it was going to be an excellent first fringe show – very funny and poignant. I was also impressed by an Australian comic, Alison Bice, who did a spot at the shambolic gig I sang at, she has a full hour. There are others and I’ll mention them when I’ve seen them.

I did go to see a load of shows elsewhere, so I should probably tell you about them, shouldn’t I? My favourite stand up show so far was Michael Fabbri’s Dumbing Up. Very, very funny all the way through with some proper can’t stop, jaw-aching laughter. His writing has always impressed me and there’s always been a shambolic edge that could occasionally tip the wrong way, but this is confidently performed while retaining that sensibility.

Ah Shit! It’s Mick Sergeant is a great character comedy show – properly funny, not just gently amusing or ‘well-observed.’ Mick also does press ups, which for a 48 year old man is impressive. Although Lee Fenwick who plays him is definitely younger than that. But if he’s in character then there’s the ‘truth’ that he is 48, because he’s a committed performer, so it must be very tiring. He’s never divulged his actual age, however.

Fellow Geordie Seymour Mace takes on The Bible in his show Testamental. Seymour is always funny, but I am biased because he plays a game where two members of the audience compete as God and the Devil and they have to make a new species of good and evil animal out of plasticine. The audience vote on the best animal. I was the Devil and I won. Yes, Evil triumphs over Good, which is ironic given the fact that my show is about doing good things. Maybe I was just venting my dark side. My creature did include a cheap knob gag played out through the malleable substance of a long lost innocent youth. I don’t feel good about beating God to a pulp artistically, but to be fair his animal was shit. I won a pair of furry cow hairgrips, which I’m hoping to offload as quickly as possible before anyone suspects that I am not of sound mind or… you know, it’s a paedophile gag coming, so can we just move on?

I was really impressed by Dave Longley. He sets up his cut through the bullshit shtick (in a very funny way) and then tells the story of how he told an ill-judged joke about Madeleine McCann and Rhys Jones… in Liverpool. Just Google it and you’ll find a Daily Mail article that makes it immediately apparent what a nonsense furore the whole thing was. Dave immediately apologised for the joke, but the story went round the world and was, basically, a bizarre nightmare. Challenging, on the edge in a very good way. I had one minor criticism which I passed on to Dave after the show and then felt bad, he has since called me a very bad thing and I am deeply offended. F*&k you Dave (that’s me being controversial). Go and see the show.

Bethany Black’s, Beth Becomes Her was a great story and an enjoyable hour. She’s relatively new to the scene but has an amazing story to tell, which more than makes up for that relative inexperience.

Dan Nightingale is lot of fun to spend an hour with. He’s a very enjoyable comic you can’t help but like. I also saw a theatre show – You Don’t Need To Know That which was well performed, brilliantly staged and funny.

I haven’t seen a bad show yet, which is odd. But then I’ve only been up for a few days. There’s still time to see plenty of broken and battered comedy bodies. And on that cheery note. Goodnight.