Why I Love: Avoiding overuse of the word 'love'

Often when people say "I love this," they mean they've experienced something and it wasn't entirely unpleasant. You often get people saying, "I love chips" or T-shirts saying, "I love Faliraki." So when you want to express how you feel, saying "I love you" isn't adequate any more.

And people who say, "My life's good, I'm really happy," it feels a pretence, that they're blocking out the mundanity that is the greater part of our existence. My agent says to me, "Everybody is having a hard time, so we want upbeat comedy to help them forget," but that's crazy. If I'm having a hard time, the last thing I want to see is people enjoy themselves. Frustrations are a far richer source of comedy.

Andrew Lawrence performs Soul-Crushing Vicissitudes Of Fortune! at the Pleasance Queen Dome at the Edinburgh Festival, from 5-30 August (tickets: 0131 226 0000).