He did what?!

The conversations you have in Edinburgh, you could never have anywhere else.

Only yesterday, I had a chat with a non-verbal comedian about his chaotic experiences on a Greek TV chat show. Not the sort of chat you usually have in Sainsbury's.

The problems Mick Dow of Men In Coats, in Edinburgh only as a spectator this year, encountered on the set certainly helps explain the organisational problems they had getting Athens ready for the Olympics.

Later, I bump into an amateur comic I know, for what must be the most quintessentially Fringe conversation ever. It may be a bit blue for more sensitive readers, so you may want to look away now. It started, as 95 per cent of all conversations up here do, with him asking the perennial question: "Seen anything good?"

"Yeah, I saw Brendon Burns's show last night pretty good stuff, trying something different than his normal shouty stuff."

"Yeah, I saw him last night too at Paul Provenza's show... [Edit for rudeness - all we can say is that Brendon had to apply his tongue to a certain part of Paul's body]....

"What?". Then, intrigued at what sort of welcome the American comic might be getting: "Where?"

"Phat Caves cabaret. They tried to get someone in the audience to do it. They passed a pint glass around and got £100 for him but he still wouldn't do it. So as Brendon had been stirring everyone up to do it, so in the end he just did it himself."

And that, readers, is why Edinburgh is the world's most prestigious arts festival.

Later, I caught up with Brendon and had to ask the obvious question. His answer: "It was horrible. I could still taste them the next day."