Preparing for Edinburgh

We're three months away from the Edinburgh Festival 2023. Whilst there are still concerns about the costs for both audiences and performers, it looks set to be another busy year for the Fringe.

August is an interesting time of year for those who share a passion for two important facets of the British lifestyle business: sport and stand-up comedy. They don't always have a huge amount in common, in truth, but there are certain similarities in August. That's when several huge sporting events kick off - the Premier League, The Ashes - as indeed does the Edinburgh Fringe. You need a good regime to get through all of them in good spirits.

During June and July we often ask comedians about their plans for the forthcoming Fringe experience. Many will mention trying to cook more, rather than grabbing stuff from a takeaway on the way home, or trying to sleep more and drink less. And pretty much everyone would like to alleviate the stress that is part and parcel of putting on a Fringe show.

Ignoring all reviews is a popular - but arguably impossible - method. Others might incorporate something new into the daily routine: maybe even watching a bit of sport, and placing a bet on the outcome. Gambling can be stressful, but probably not so much as putting on a show in front of strangers. We quite like the idea of placing a bet via sportfogadasonline.com - it's not in English, so maybe even takes the thought out of whether you're about to make a clever prediction or not. Online stakes isn't for all - some comedians start a daily run around the Meadows park in August; or they just hide away in their rented flat all day avoiding everyone and playing computer games... different types of people!

Perspective is essential too, as the performance of that show takes over your life. As the greatest uplifting motivational anthem of all time - the theme from Cheers - suggested: "taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away?"

Maybe not to somewhere where everybody knows your name, though, as if you're famous and having a stinker of a Fringe run, then anonymity might seem a lot more appealing, at that point. A good support network is important, but if they're all comedians too and their shows are going better than yours, then their very presence might be slightly painful. Finding someone on a dating site to emotionally offload on is probably not a good idea either.

Thank the Gods of comedy, then, for the mid-Fringe break, the one day off many comedians get during their Fringe runs. The best thing you can do if you have a car, or have access to someone with one, and are fairly confident of reclaiming a parking space afterwards, is to drive north.

Keep going for a few hours and for long periods the only thing you'll see are sheep - and sheep are wonderfully uninterested in how many stars your show got in that newspaper; you can't pull the wool over their eyes - and then, majestically, actual mountains appear.

That's the great thing about Scotland. A lot of us only get round to going to Edinburgh, and only during Fringe time, and while there is an actual mountain in the middle of the city, Arthur's Seat is a bit too Fringe-linked. A good few shows have happened up there over the years.

But head up north to the real Three Sisters - not the pub on Cowgate where a bunch of free-entry gigs happen, but the range of mighty ridges in Glencoe - and perspective is absolutely everywhere. The peaks and troughs of your show will fall away.