Fringe firsts...

Revealed: Who's going to Edinburgh

Jeremy Hardy, Stewart Lee and acclaimed American stand-up Doug Stanhope are among the acts heading for the Edinburgh festival this year.

Although the programme is not due to be pubished in June, most comics have already submitted their entries.

Agency giant Off The Kerb have announced their full Edinburgh line-up.

Jeff Green, Marcus Brigstocke, Brendon Burns, Dara O'Briain, Barry Castagnola, John Bishop, Alistair Barrie and Jim Jeffries are all performing

Australian Adam Hills will return with a sequel to 2001's popular Go You Big Red Fire Engine show, currently being performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Rich Hall will also return in his Perrier-winning guise of redneck jailbird Otis Lee Crenshaw for a run at the Pleasance.

And Jeremy Hardy will be performing at the Assembly Rooms, his first festival run since winning the Perrier Award in 1988.

Meanwhile, festival veteran Stewart Lee will return with his first new stand-up show since 2000, probably at The Underbelly, having spent much of the last four years working on Jerry Springer: The Opera.

His former double-act partner Richard Herring is also heading for the festival, with a show based around the 12 labours of Hercules.

Herring's programme blurb reads: 'Battling a mid-life crisis, the short, fat comedian attempts 12 improbable feats - from running the Marathon to killing the Loch Ness Monster ­ to prove that Hercules was a sissy. Who says there are no more heroes?'

Doug Stanhope, one of the most talked-about acts of the 2002 festival will also be returning from the States.

The festival runs from August 8 to 30.

Published: 4 Apr 2004

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