My Edinburgh: Bridget Christie, Comedian

Bridget Christie

The Edinburgh Fringe is the best arts festival in the world. Performers from all over the globe stage over 2,000 shows every day for a month. But my favourite thing to do is to eat four pickled eggs in a row and some chips on a bench on The Royal Mile. Not when the fourth one has gone off though, like last year.

I nearly got sick on a mime artist. I said to my husband [Stewart Lee], “Smell that! Is that alright do you think? I can’t tell anymore." And he said “Yes, eggs smell eggy. Tuck in!”. I think he’s trying to kill me.

I have my four pickled eggs on the same bench every year now, and this is my eighth year in a row. If someone is already sat on the bench, I stand in front of them, with my eggs, until they leave. In all those eight years, only one egg has been rotten.

Whereas most of the 300 shows I have seen in that time have been awful. A lot of people think that the Fringe has been spoiled by over-commercialisation, and I agree. It should be replaced the Edinburgh Pickled Egg Festival. I’d like to see what the award for the best pickled egg looked like. Do you think it would be a massive plastic egg? Can you imagine all the funny egg yolk/joke puns it would inspire? I can think of one already. But you’ll have to wait three minutes to hear it.

Bridget Christie: War Donkey, The Assembly Rooms, to 26 (0844 693 3008)

Must see

Apart from the eggs, my favourite Edinburgh thing is Nick Pynn (Inlingua, 9.45pm). He conjures beautiful sounds from a variety of often home-made stringed instruments in a tiny candlelit room. I love taking friends and family along to be amazed and inspired. My Edinburghs wouldn’t be the same without Nick Pynn.