Do believe the hype (but only very occasionally)

It’s Monday morning and Edinburgh Fringe Festival frenzy has started to kick in. I think the unseasonal Scottish sun has sent people madder than usual. Everyone has a slightly crazed look in their eyes like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

As well as seeing my favourite shows my main leisure activity is avoiding press officers trying to coax me into their clients' shows. On Saturday afternoon I bought myself a rickety old bike to be able to escape them quicker when I see them coming. I’m tempted to tell them that the less they push their acts on me the more I am likely to go and see them, but I worry that this kind of response might not compute and make them explode and I couldn’t have that on my conscience, so instead if they corner me I politely scribble their gig details and hope they will go away.

Everyone in the industry is focussed on selling more tickets. There is one comedy manager who is partially sighted – when he was telling me about his acts I was sorely tempted to doodle funny faces in my notebook, but I decided that would be downright mean. He does have a sense of humour about his vision though – he has just paid for the largest-ever comedy poster in Edinburgh of his star performer Omid Djalili in Cowgate so that it is unmissable, even to him. As a PR stunt it clearly works as here I am telling you to go and see classy Anglo-Iranian stand-up Djalili at The Pleasance Courtyard.

As for my Supersize Me comedy experiment, four days into the Festival I’m still laughing, though on Saturday comic legend Richard Pryor’s daughter Rain tried my patience with an icky sentimental set just about redeemed by some comic robot dancing.

Last night, however, life was good again as I saw three great shows. Character comic Joanna Neary (Underbelly) is like the Victoria Wood from Mars, specialising in bizarre women and talking deer. Scrawny Irishman Andrew Maxwell (Pleasance Courtyard), generally regarded as the comedian’s comedian, is back with a storming stand-up set and a great description of the Edinburgh Fringe as “exams for clowns”. Geeky Alex Horne (Pleasance Courtyard), the Eugene of the Fringe, attempts to teach his audience Latin in an hour and does it without one gag about Russell Crowe in Gladiator. A unique show – not just hilarious, it even lives up to the PR hype.

Full gig details on www.edfringe.com