What are you doing at this year’s festival?

I’m doing my new one-woman show, Leah MacRae Weighs In, a 60 minute version of my tour show of the same title. It’s a lovely one-woman comedy with some important messages and topics running through it, but with loads of heart and warmth – and a couple of songs thrown in there as well!

What do you most want to see this year and why?

I would love to go and see some amazing female comics, I love Susie McCabe and Rachel Jackson. I also love comedians like Mark Nelson, I think he’s wonderful, and I love Paul Black but we can never get to see Paul Black because he’s always sold out.

What’s your favourite place in the city and why?

I know it’s a little bit of a cliché but I do love the Castle and the Grassmarket, I love the old side of Edinburgh, you know with all the history and the cobbled streets. We have some cobbled streets in Glasgow but we have nowhere near as many as Edinburgh, and Edinburgh is really quite beautiful. It’s a really beautiful city to wander through.

Who do you most like spending time with at the festival?

I like spending downtime with my team, I have an amazing team of people. I have Martin, who is my tour manager, and he runs the shows and I have Russel, who is an assistant stage manager. I love spending time with them when I’m not performing, going to see some shows and having a little beverage or two to wind down. It’s always important to do nice things with your team who work really hard to put everything together with you.

What do you remember about your first ever Edinburgh festival appearance?

I was doing a kids' show and we had brought a whole set with us complete with tree stumps, it was a forest scene and there were all these little tree stumps sitting around scattered and it was a very idyllic, beautiful set. However, you learn very quickly at the Fringe that when you’ve got to set out your set and your props and strike the set and props very very quickly at the start and end of each show... now I’ve learned to come with only a table.

What are the best and worst things that have happened to you in Edinburgh?

The best thing so far was the worst thing: lockdown. It was a terrible, terrible time for the industry, for our festival – or our local artists and international visitors, and the local economy. But it also created one of my favourite experiences, which was performing in the car park at the NCP on Castle Terrace, in front of the Castle, so it was pretty amazing. It was a pretty spectacular backdrop.

How was lockdown for you? Did it change you, and if so how?

I’ve always been very grateful to do the job that I do, but it really does hit home when you come back out onto a stage, just how long we were off for. For example, this show that I’m doing now is my first new show, my first new material, and my first live show in three years. It’s been a long road back, a very difficult and long road back.

Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

I actually get very nervous before I go on stage. I think that normally surprises everyone when I tell them that, but I do.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Hit the snooze button. I hit the snooze button quite a few times in the morning!

And what’s the last thing you do before you go to bed at night?

After, of course, I’ve brushed my teeth, I like to listen to some nice yoga music, nice relaxing music to wind down for the night.

Thanks for the interview! We’d like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking?

Thank you very much, I’ll have a bottle of champagne please! I would drink it with you, probably in one of the nice hotels in Edinburgh, ideally on a nice outdoor terrace somewhere. Maybe two glasses of champagne? One glass is never enough. Thank you so much!

Leah MacRae Weighs In, Gilded Balloon at the Museum, 8pm, until 28 August

My Festival: Leah MacRae