The Edinburgh Fringe is set get underway for another year bringing hundreds of actors, directors and culture vultures to the Scottish capital.

As the world's largest arts festival, the Fringe boasts a wide range of different artistic disciplines in venues across the city - with comedians continuing to dominate the festival.

A third of shows at the Fringe will featuring comedians prompting the question why does the festival remain so popular with comics?

On Scotland Tonight, we spoke with comedians Mark Little, Jim Jefferies and Rick Shapiro to discover why.

Mark said: "I'm an artist, and it's an art festival and I feel a bit left out if I'm not there. I haven't been there for seven years and I just started to feel a bit twitchy."

Jim, who is returning to Edinburgh for a ninth time, joked that he had more financial reasons for making the trip.

He said: "Well it took me six years to start making money so I've got to cash-in. If I don't come back now, those six years have been wasted. But I like it, it's the best festival in the world."

Rick added: "It's the only ticket that fits in with my curriculum vitae. I love it because it's diverse and you get a bigger stage."

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