Laurence and Gus

Men in Love

What is your show all about?

Laurence Howarth: It's called 'Men in Love' and I see now that the title is tremendously self-explanantory. We're doing sketches about what men are like when they're in love. We've neglected mystery.

Where and when can we see it?

The Pleasance, 4.30pm every day from August 4th-29th (except 16th and 23rd). But giving this kind of information only serves further to dissipate our mystique.

Do you love Edinburgh or is it a chore?

I do love Edinburgh but "chore" doesn't begin to describe it.

What will you be doing with the other 23 hrs of the day?

This is very pertinent question. I will have to be working a lot, writing much of the second series of my sitcom for Radio 4, 'Rigor Mortis', which looks like it'll be recording in September and October. No, don't laugh. I am going to get a lot of work done. I am! Oh God...

What's the best thing you've ever seen on the fringe?

Fringe-wise, I'd probably plump for 'The League of Gentlemen' the year they won The Perrier. Though our sensibilities are very different, it inspired me a lot in terms of the quality of writing, acting, staging and the lack of mucking about.

What's the worst thing you've seen?

I think this is an area of the Edinburgh experience I've missed out on: most comics have a fanastic story about some ludicrously dreadful thing they've seen. I vaguely remember a not very good sketch show in 1997. Sorry, this is not a very good answer.

What's the most curious thing that's happened to you in Edinburgh?

Last year we inadvertently stole two suitcases from some Canadians.

If you could persuade one VIP to come to your show who would it be? Why?

Kris Akabusi, so that we could harness his fat laugh.

If the Edinburgh fairy could grant your wish, what would your wish for?

Oooh, I'd love it if I didn't sink into crippling debt. It's all a bit 'Cinderella' I know, but that's what fairies are there for. They love that, that's their job.

What advice do you have for first time Edinburgh punters?

Get a three-dimensional map. The notion that the 2-D ones in any meaningful sense represent this corrugated city is laughable.