The Edinburgh Festival is not the only comedy festival hitting the accelerator this week. London's Phoenix Fringe also boasts wall-to-wall wits competing for your pennies and attention. Their upcoming line-up includes a work-in-progress set from that nice and nerdy Mark Watson tonight and Robin Ince presenting a special edition of his Dirty Book Club on Saturday. Look out also for a gig on Friday from co-organiser Tiernan Douieb, who put the whole caboodle together with Tiffany Stevenson.

If you've just discovered Pappy's through their BBC3 sitcom Badults, the Phoenix also gives you the chance to see how they behave in the flesh – pretty much the same as on BBC3 to be honest – when they present an edition of their podcast, Flatshare Slamdown, on Thursday. And on the subject on television there are a couple of try-outs of game show formats here that might make it to the box one day. On Tuesday Rufus Hound hosts Fiasco, a late night role-playing impro concept in which performers create there own Coen Brothers-style caper. And next Saturday Jarred Christmas and Tom Davis host Do We Need You: After The Apocalypse, in which contestants compete to justify their survival after armageddon. The title of this show prompts another question – with a line-up as good as this do Londoner's need Edinburgh?