Fringe veteran calls for squabbles to end as playwright is criticised over opening speech

Think comedy’s a man's world? You must be stuck in the 1980s, says Holly Williams

Comedy and booze go together, says stand-up Seann Walsh. Good gig? Celebrate with a drink. Bad gig? Consolation tipple. The trouble is stopping at just the one – he once drank so much he collapsed on stage. So when do the hangovers stop being funny?

Last year, Notaro contracted pneumonia, lost her beloved mother and broke up with her girlfriend. Then she was diagnosed with cancer. But she didn't let that stop her performing a gig in LA, which her friend Louis CK called a "truly great, masterful stand-up set"

I moved to England after having a gun held to my face I was in a situation with an old high-school buddy back in Georgia in the US, playing cards and gambling. He was on crack and he caught me cheating. That thing they say about your life flashing before your eyes – it's true. I'd always wanted to see England and I promised myself that, if I got out of that situation, I'd go. I was mad, too, that I'd got busted by a crackhead!

Hugh Montgomery profiles the faces to watch, from the sitcom star to the surrealist

Edinburgh guffaws from end to end as four fine acts return with some sparkling new material

'Most of what I write is really bad'

The political journalist takes his one-man show Rock N Roll Politics to the Fringe

Nick Clark meets a performer who wants to tell a different Arab story

Like an over-pampered pageant princess with underlying confidence issues, it seems that London can't quite leave Edinburgh alone to have its moment in the spotlight.

Sketch realignment is a feature of this year's Fringe with various groups combining or downsizing, splintering off into solo ventures and so forth. The scene has never been so varied and there is something for even the most sceptical observer of the genre.

Given that David Baddiel's first stand up show for 16 years apparently arose out of an educational talk, the George Square Theatre (a lecture hall for the rest of the year), is a venue match made in heaven. It's also a far cry from the comedian's Wembley Arena days of rock n' roll comedy.

"Who wishes they were dead?" As stand up's leading exponent of misanthropy and misery, Andrew Lawrence tends to go beyond the stock 'What's your name and where are you from?' audience interrogation. But fear not, if you cannot muster the requisite amount of depression and disappointment, the ginger ninja nihilist will supply it for you.

Alice Jones' Arts Diary