David Ephgrave: 10 Edinburgh Fringe questions

David Ephgrave answers 10 questions about his 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show.

Give us a quick overview of your comedy career so far. Are you happy with where you're at?

I first dipped my comedy toe in the water in 2005 when I joined the writers group The Comedy Project for the first of eleven consecutive seasons at Soho Theatre (show-off). A year later, my best friend and eventual double-act partner Glyn Doggett joined the group, and we performed our first sitcom script.

In [y]2008, we ventured to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time with The Balloon Debate; a three-hander comic play set in the basket of a hot air balloon that we performed at the Gilded Balloon - so many balloons - foolishly making the other guy in it the funniest character. We've returned a few times since on the Free Fringe, while setting up our Hertfordshire and for a while Leicester Square Theatre-based monthly comedy club Mostly Comedy, playing host to Stewart Lee, Phill Jupitus, Josh Widdicombe and - memorably last year - our childhood hero Paul Daniels.

In 2015, I took my first solo stand-up show to the Brighton Fringe. This year, I've decided to do the 'biggie', bringing my second solo show Mostly David Ephgrave to Just the Tonic at the Edinburgh Fringe.

In 2004, I fronted an advertising campaign for SpongeBob SquarePants in which I appeared almost completely naked, but we don't want to talk about that.

Tell us two truths and one lie about yourself.

1. I used to think babies came from women's bottoms.
2. Paul McCartney has called me "man" on two separate occasions
3. My dad is half Alsatian.

Describe your new show in exactly 23 words.

I use a projector, a screen, a mic and my larynx to get angry about the minutiae of life, then praise Dale Winton.

Any cunning plans to get more punters in?

Bribery, coercion and the promise of an Ephgrave-funded pension.

What's your plan for trying to eat - and drink - healthily during the Fringe?

I'm pescatarian, which helps, as it makes me think a little more carefully about what I eat. My wife's set up a shared folder on Evernote (because we live in the future) full of recipes to keep me well. I'll also do my best to avoid one of Scotland's biggest culinary monstrosities: the battered burger.

What will you miss most while you're away from home?

Keeping up with The X-Files Complete Collection, which they're currently showing on the Freeview channel Spike. I'm a good twenty years behind everyone else; I'll get to Game of Thrones by 2036.

Aside from performing, what else are you looking forward to doing in Scotland's fine capital?

Visiting the Camera Obscura, staring at the castle in awe from Princes Street and eating a battered burger.

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

Phil Kay would be there - the man has a beautiful mind - along with Rowan Atkinson, John Thomson, Norman Lovett and Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and Tony Ferrino. If I could go in a time machine, I'd pull together the original cast of Hancock's Half Hour, followed by a question and answer session with Galton and Simpson; I was born in the wrong era.

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

Death. I'm not ready to be confronted by the man with the scythe just yet.

Why should audiences pick your show over the 1,800+ other Fringe offerings listed on BCG this year?

Because if they do, I promise them a substantial pension.

'Mostly David Ephgrave' is at Just The Tonic at the Caves at 12pm on 4-14, 16-28 Aug. Listing