Edinburgh Comedy Festival or the Fringe?

The promoter of the if.comedy awards, Nica Burns, has warned managers of Edinburgh's top four comedy venues not to breakaway from the Fringe Festival which is synonmus with Edinburgh in August. Burns' warning came after the four biggest Fringe venues - the Assembley, the Gilded Balloon, the Underbelly and The Pleasance announced - that the comic shows put on in their venues would be termed as part of The Edinburgh Comedy Festival.

Duplication will be the name of the game for ticket holders for comedy shows at any of the four venues, as the Assembley, the Gilded Ballon, the Underbelly and the Pleasance have produced 400,000 copies of their own Comedy Festival Programme. But their acts also appear in the main Fringe Programme that was released in June. So long as everyone realises that the two names refer to the same thing as regards comedy at the above venues that's fine...

Anthony Alderson the Director of the Pleasance was quoted in The Scotsman on Tuesday 15th April as saying: "We do not want to be separate from the Fringe, just give comedy its own platform."

Visitors to Edinburgh can clear their heads, stretch their legs and learn something new about the city with a Walk Talk Tour mp3 guided tour. Walk Talk Tours brings you two podcast guided tours of the Scottish capital: The Royal Mile & More Tour and The Old and New Towns Tour.

The Assembly Rooms have been the venue for the Assembly for over twenty-five years. Confused, again? It's not intentional on my part, honestly. Musicians, top stand up comics and theatre all take place in the annual August extravaganza. Listeners to the Old and New Towns iPod travel guide can discover which well known British comedian fell foul of Scotland's anti-smoking ban in the not too distant past.

Visitors with the audio tourist guide will learn about some of the famous visitors to have been entertained - and as in the case of Charles Dickens in 1841, when he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh - honoured in the Assembly Rooms.

To hear an audio sample from the Old and New Towns tour please click here. To see the route of the podcast guide in full, please click here.