Chris Betts has a good plan for how to encourage punters to come and see his show...

1. Tell us about your career so far Are you happy with where you're at?

My first ever set was on Wednesday December 8th in 2010 at the Comedy Nest in Montreal. I gigged almost every night for the next couple of years in Montreal getting to do the odd festival here and there (Multiverse Playground in Brooklyn and SXSW in Austin, Texas)...

I moved to London in 2012 to be a part of a bigger and better scene. Since I've been here I've been lucky enough to be asked to do festivals in Norway and Denmark as well as sunny Leicester for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival. Last year I was one of the lucky four to be chosen to be in the Charlie Hartill Pleasance Comedy Reserve.

I'm happy with where I'm at. I'm a better comic than I was last year. What more could I ask for?

2. Describe your show in exactly 23 words.

People in bars act like no one's watching. I've been watching. Now I'm making sweeping, generalizing, hilarious jokes about humanity based on them.

3. Why are you putting yourself through this famously stressful experience?

Partly because I love it and partly because I know how much of a better comic I'll be at the end of it. The month's hard sure but it's also a lot of fun. I feel bad for my girlfriend who's going to be staying with me the whole month. While I'll at least be taking solace in my tough third week making me better at my job she just has to be near me while I become snarkier and start to only crave pizza and whisky. Poor thing.

4. Any cunning plans to get more punters in?

Yes. If I sell out my run I'll make an offering to Edinburgh of Justin Beiber's head on a stake. Tell your friends.

5. How much money do you think you'll lose/make this year?

Why? Are you going to ask me to lend you money? Cause I don't have any. That should answer your question.

6. What's your weirdest past Fringe experience?

Watching Kiwi comic Rhys Mathewson get naked during Spank just to spite an audience member who begged him not to. He just sat there, also wishing he wasn't naked, while drunks wooped and cheered. It was like watching an arthouse film at an American university frat house. Later in the show an audience member took a swing at a bouncer with a chair. It was a great night.

7. What other shows are you hoping to see?

John Hastings, Tim Renkow, Phil Jerrod, Pierre Novellie, Garrett Millerick, Paul Currie, Dane Baptiste, Abigoliah Schamaun, Bobby Mair, Mat Ewins, Gein's Family Giftshop... A bunch of them. There are a lot of great shows going up this year.

8. If you took over programming a venue, what would you perfect line-up of comedians be?

Anyone? Well Dave Chappelle for sure. Dave Attell as well. Maybe a show where Dave Attell heckles Dave Chappelle and then Gilbert Gottfried heckles Dave Attell heckling Dave Chappelle. Bill Hicks having a mental break down set. Richard Pryor. Maria Bamford. Vaudeville-era Marx Brothers, along with Chaplin and Keaton. Patrice O'Neal. Phil Kay. Dave Allen. Billy Connolly. Paul Currie. Marcel Lucont. Obviously all my friends. Mark Twain. And I'd have my Dad host the whole thing knowing full well I'd be the only one who found him funny.

9. Name the one person you'd rather not bump into during the festival.

My doppelganger. He's handsome as all get out but not very well meaning.

10. Why should audiences pick your show over the 1,700+ other comedy offerings at this year's festival?

Because I'm a pretty good old guy on the ole good time get up and go. For the prestige of saying "I saw him before you never heard of him" at parties.

'Chris Betts: Social Animal' is at 9:45pm at Pleasance Courtyard on 5-16, 18-30 August. Listing