Poetry and comedy quartet Stand Up & Slam - aka Oli Forsyth, Dan Simpson, Rob Carter and Rich Wilson - tell all about their tantalising new improvised format, complete with guest stars.

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

Yeah! We're all individual performers as well as working together on Stand Up & Slam!. Everyone's completely different, particularly because half of us are comedians and half are poets, but at the same time we've all done lots we're proud of. We think we complement each other well! Rich has recently had a sell out comedy tour around Australia, Rob is an award-winning musical comedian and has been seen in a bunch of TV shows including Fresh Meat and Peep Show. Oli's play Cornermen is up at the Fringe this year, which he's written and performs in; and Dan is a poet who has just come back from being this year's Glastonbury Slam Champion.

2. Describe your show in exactly 23 words.

Six acts go head to head for as poetry and comedy collide with unexpected and hilarious result! Totally unique! Who wins? You decide!

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

Ha! Yep, the Fringe is admittedly stressful and terrifying but it's also pretty amazing. There really is no other festival anything like it and we couldn't miss out on the experience of bringing our show here. It's also a great place to learn from the best, to make mistakes and to prove yourself. All in under one month! We think our show can hold its own alongside others so we're here to prove that!

4. Any cunning plans to get more punters in?

Maybe! We can't share all our secrets before we even get to the Fringe! We've had amazing audiences for our previews and, as far as we know, we're the only show of our kind so hopefully people will be excited to come and check us out. However we will be announcing special guest acts throughout the Fringe so people should keep checking in if there's anyone they're particularly hoping to see us put to the test!

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

Argh, you never ever know with the Fringe do you!? We've all taken shows up individually before and generally gotten away without bankrupting ourselves so fingers crossed!

6. What are you most looking forward to about your first Edinburgh Festival?

Although we've all had shows up here before this is our first as a team and we're so excited! It can be quite lonely to have a solo show up at the Fringe and we're quite excited to be sharing the experience together - the good and the bad! Plus, it means we each get days off so we can see more shows than usual!

7. What other shows are you hoping to see?

The programme is so massive this year! There's loads we fancy, particularly because we like a bit of everything: comedy, poetry, theatre! We'll all head on over to see each others' individual shows during the Fringe but we're also quite excited for Bryony Kimming's Fake It Until You Make It, Mischief Theatre's Lights! Camera! Improvise!, Mark Thomas's new work-in-progress Trespass, Richard Purnell's Bathtime, Harry Baker's The Sunshine Kid, great stand-ups like David Mills, Andrew Maxwell, Tommy Tiernan and way too much stuff so we should probably just stop listing them now!

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

This is already causing battle to break out because we've all got such different tastes. However there are people who we've all enjoyed so this would be pretty much our combined perfect line up:

We'd definitely want Mark Watson. Doc Brown would lend a bit of lyricism and keep those pesky poets happy! Then we'd have Phill Jupitus, Felicity Ward, Elf Lyons, Joe Lycett and finish it all off with Trevor Noah. We'd be happy with that.

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

Come on now, we like everyone! We'll save the battles for the stage!

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

Don't remind us how many shows there are! Seriously though, we're a completely unique show so there's nothing else we'd compare ourselves to that we'd expect to be competition. Obviously there are loads of shows and there will always be an element of trying to get people to notice your show over everything else. We offer quite a lot of things in one show. It's a brand new format hosted by two of the four of us each day, the audience decide the outcome of the show, we have guest acts every single day, you get comedy and poetry...what's not to like!? Also the Metro and the Evening Standard have both made us their comedy picks back in London so you should do! But here, in Edinburgh! P.S. We have badges.

'Stand Up & Slam! - Free' is at 7:15pm at Cowgatehead on 8-18, 20-29 August. Listing