Welcome to Edinburgh’s Stand Comedy Club’s Fringe Festival 2008. The 36 productions we will be staging this year make us the largest single producer of comedy on the Fringe. Effectively doubling in size from previous years, 2008 sees this small independent venue really come of age. Not bad going for a small club started by a bunch of comedy enthusiasts, and one which has been a perennial thorn in the side of the light entertainment establishment.

In pole position we may be, but director Tommy Sheppard insists the club remains true to its roots.

"We offer all performers a guarantee against loss, which is why more and more want to play here each year. Luckily we’ve found two new performance spaces across the road which allows us to expand to four stages this year, but still we’ve had to turn many artists away. We also work hard to keep down costs, making sure we don’t waste fortunes on hype and publicity which is why we can peg prices at seven or eight quid"

This year rumours abound about what four of the larger venues are up to. Are they forming a cartel? Are they splitting up the fringe? As the fourth largest venue on the festival, and one of the very few which operates all year round, The Stand is clear where it stands.

Sheppard again: "We’re proud to be at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and we will actively resist any attempts to break away from it. There are 49 comedy venues on the fringe – we all need to work together."

Every day The Stand will stage 32 different productions across 4 stages – a staggering 747 performances in all, a real jumbo jet of a schedule. There’s all types of comedy and all kinds of comedian from fringe veterans like Stewart Lee, Jo Caulfield, Daniel Kitson, Simon Munnery and Arnold Brown, to debutants like Mick Sergeant, Wilson Dixon and Johnny Candon.

Off the streets, down the steps, through the door, a packed house, a single spotlight, the smell of beer and sweat, the swelling and crashing sound of belly laughs. A real comedy club: The Stand Comedy Club.

The Stand is Scotland’s only full-time comedy venue: Open seven nights a week, every week of the year. We are an authentic comedy club. Not a bar that occasionally sticks on a couple of mics or a theatre flirting with comedy crowds, or even a church hall or student union or tent.

The Stand is not a company which just feeds off comedy and comedians, it’s got soul. The club is a true torchbearer for innovative and quality stand up in Scotland and the UK, as well as hosting top international talent. It’s also a greenhouse giving first-timers a chance and nurturing new talent all year round.

Now ‘intimate’ is not necessarily the term that first springs to mind when you are talking about performing in front of a large crowd, but comedy at The Stand is the real deal as far as being close to the action counts. This Scottish comedy flagship is at the cutting edge of British comedy and so are the audiences. You’ll not require giant screens or opera glasses to work out what’s happening onstage. The performers and the audience are always close enough to see the whites of each other’s eyes. Don’t get too close though. They bite.

Just look at the line-up! The Stand Comedy Club hand picks its bills on the basis of the freshest, smartest, most original voices performing out there. There is a vast range of style, content and pace to be seen here this year, no cookie cutter, conveyor belt comedy to be found under any of our banners. We actively encourage our comedians to take risks. This will be comedy for the serious fan and the curious and willing to be entertained alike. Raw enough to sting, smart enough to satisfy.

We’re chuffed to welcome Stewart Lee and Jo Caulfield for their Stand debuts this summer while the likes of Phil Nichol, Simon Munnery and Daniel Kitson have chosen to return once again. Arnold Brown, one of the most highly respected veterans on the scene was on stage when the Comedy Store opened back in 1981, is back for what must be his millionth Fringe show while at the other end of the comedy timeline, this year sees us welcome such future stars as Johnny Candon, David Longley and Mick Sergeant, all making their own debuts at the Fringe. Add in the likes of Limmy, Seymour Mace and Carey Marx and you get the picture....

And these guys are just at the tip of a vast comedy iceberg which encompasses solo shows, multiple line-up shows, improv shows, sketch shows, musical shows, chat shows, early shows, late shows, FREE shows, big names, future stars, guests, regulars (not to mention excellent home cooked food and a fine selection of booze) all of proved quality and none of it will spank your budget before you’ve even begun. Talking of which....

Everyone’s a winner here. Check out the Festival prices and compare them to The Stand’s average ticket price of £7.80 a show during the run. Some of the best value shows are our special and very lovely package affairs which will showcase a boss range of talent for a price that might get you twenty minutes at an SPL fitba’ match. If it was a Hearts’ home game – and which would you rather go to?

We start every day with a free comedy show. That’s right, free. Nothing, zilch, nada, rien. How’s that for value for money? Devlin’s Daily is a chat show with a difference: it’s a chance to sample five or six different shows from right across the festival. An excellent fringe tasting menu in the jolly company of the exuberant Mr Devlin will set you up for your festival day. If that wasn’t enough Stu & Garry, our resident improv experts will be running their Free & Easy sessions at the equivalent cost of a whole bundle of fresh air (that’s Free, again). Low cost, high-class comedy, that’s us.

So, it’s the other end of the day. Not ready to go home yet? Course not - who sleeps at the Fringe? Not us, and that’s why we have the Stand’s Late Club on Friday and Saturday nights. Starting shortly before the witching hour and kept afloat by a revolving cast of some of the best comedians in town and a handily placed bar, The Late Club is one of the must check out Fringe spots.

Those who were lucky enough to get to the late night Honourable Men of Art shows at the last two Fringes will be licking their lips in anticipation once more as it returns under the fluffy wing of that benign genius Daniel Kitson. He’ll be recruiting a fantastic team of cohorts from amongst his friends at the festival to help out, so expect some surprises.

The Seven Quid Comedy Cabaret is our deluxe Ronseal of a night. As it says on its plush, velvety. definitely not tin lid, It only costs £7, it is comedy and it is cabaret. We probably should have put the word ‘excellent’ in too but that would just have been unwieldy. It’s a co-production with our fellow travellers from the heart of comedy, Manchester’s Frog & Bucket club, and the night is hosted by Wunderkind Kevin Bridges along with Dan Nightingale, Wendy Wason and Jason Cook.

Also well worth a gander is another of our co-productions, this time with The Comedy Unit and The Angry Puppy is a sketch based show born out of their Rough Cuts night at The Stand’s Glasgow venue. The Comedy Unit is best known for developing brilliant Scottish comedy shows like Rab C Nesbitt and Chewin’ The Fat and this will be a good opportunity to check out some great up and coming Caledonian talent in the shape of Susan Calman, Leah McCrae, Jordan Young and Mark Prendergast.

The Stand, located in a comfortable basement on the edge of the city centre is the undisputed home of Scottish comedy and plays a vital role in the development of home-grown talent. Big contemporary Scottish names like Frankie Boyle made their first steps here and we’re always on the lookout for the best newcomers on the scene

If you want a sample of the rich cornucopia that is Caledonian comedy talent then step right up to our Best of Scottish Comedy shows where Frankie, Fred MacAuley, Susan Morrison and Kevin Bridges will be guesting alongside residents such as Vladimir McTavish, Graeme Thomas, A.L.Kennedy and Susan Calman

In naming The Best of Irish Comedy showcase we have performed a masterclass in literalism. This Best of night is so-named because in the form of comedians like Jason Byrne, Owen O’Neill, Ed Byrne and Andrew Maxwell, and others we have the best Irish comedians at The Stand, bar-none. This is even without mentioning our Emerald Island residents during the Fringe who’ll be performing their own solo shows. David O’Doherty, Kevin Gildea, Karl Spain et al are the latest in a very long line of blarney meisters to cross the Channel to vast plaudits.

From further afield we will also be playing host to Jeff Kreisler and Wilson Dixon from the States and Tom Stade, a Canadian who enjoyed the whole thing so much last year he stayed!

As an Edinburgh club we’re delighted to play hosts to all these fantastic comedians at what is effectively, during August, the World’s comedy capital.

OK, it’s high quality, it’s not costly, it’s damn good fun and it sits prettily and perfectly in with the true spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And given the smoking ban it’s now a whole lot healthier than it was in 2006. Erm. What else?

Isn’t that enough?