We are now halfway through this year's Edinburgh Fringe and if you are planning to come during the thrilling second half there is one thing you should get hold of. Not a ticket for the best shows. Not somewhere to stay. but Secret Edinburgh, the pocket guide to the festival produced by fellow comedy website Such Small Portions.

I finally managed to see Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa yesterday. For a film that has topped the box office charts it didn't feel like a big hit. There were about six people in the cinema, but then it was an afternoon screening in Edinburgh and I guess with the Fringe Festival raging all over the city it has a fair bit of competition for those in search of laughs.*

The Pleasance

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Claudia O'Doherty's shows are certainly different. Last year's Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated show The Telescope played around with the time-space continuum and featured O'Doherty in various guises onscreen and onstage. This time she is even more revolutionary. She performs large chunks of Pioneer from behind a transparent screen on which words and slogans are projected.

The London comedy circuit never sleeps but it does have the occasional disco nap in the middle of August. With almost everyone scarpering to Edinburgh big gigs are thin on the ground around town. There is always the Camden Fringe, but apart from that the main action is at the Soho Theatre and it comes in the shape of Sam Simmons.