The subject of today’s Q&A is Danielle Walker  

What’s the best bit of advice you’ve been ever been given from a seasoned comic? 

Get good in the shadows.

And what has proved to be the least useful? 

I don’t remember bad advice; I think I just immediately know it’s bad and don’t commit it to memory. Gotta save brain space for the stuff that matters, like remembering my grandad telling me the way to get rid of a frog that keeps coming back to your shower. He says, take the frog outside, then throw the frog back at the house. He says that confuses the frog. I guess the frog would then use its reasoning abilities and think ‘well, I mean, he wouldn’t throw me back at the house!’ and then hop off in the wrong direction.

Is there one thing that keeps cropping up when people talk to you about Edinburgh in August? 

Yes. They ask if I’m taking my set to Edinburgh (my show has a full set to feel like a typical 70s style Queenslander/weatherboard house living-room). The answer is fingers crossed.

What’s your favourite word that begins in ‘e’? 

I can’t say I have one, but a word beginning with ‘e’ that means something to me is Edward: the name I wanted to call my first dog but was denied. Also, my nana’s dad’s name, and the name of the ghost I saw as a child (also nana’s dad).

Is there one act you absolutely HAVE to see in August? 

Heidi Regan. Her show is called Heidi Regan Gives Birth Live On Stage Every Night Or Your Money Back and I’m intrigued. Once I went to a show where a man shat out an egg on stage and I’m excited to see Heidi do something in the same vein (fingers crossed).

Picture yourself in early September: what would constitute a successful Fringe for you? 

Enjoying my show for the full month. Seeing myself get better. Not getting sick. I reckon if I focus on those things, I can’t get upset about anything else. All the other stuff is outside of my control anyway. 

 I have massive feet so I glide through the water like a seal

What percentage of your early stand-up performances is likely to appear in your Fringe debut? 

3%. I have an old bit that I really love from my first year or two of comedy that I pulled out, extrapolated on and repurposed. 

Which other new comedian do you feel a special kinship with? And do you reckon it’s reciprocated? 

My friend Nikki Britton is also coming over from Oz to do her debut Edinburgh show. I hope the kinship is reciprocated because we hang out sometimes; I hope that’s classified as friendship.

Which side of your family do you get your funny bones from? 

My mum’s side. They don’t know they’re funny though. They just exist in this chaotic alternative universe where everything is heightened. Once I was living in a share house and one of my housemates kept eating my ham (my family have our own pigs, so it was good ham) and my nana put diuretics in my housemate’s protein powder to retaliate. I didn’t ask her to do that, she just came over with a resealable bag full of powder.

What will you do to keep fit and healthy (relatively speaking) during August? 

I Iike to swim (I have massive feet so it’s very easy for me to glide through the water like a seal). I’ll try and cook myself some meals with veggies. If not, I’ll walk around with capsicums and eat them like apples.

Which word of six letters or more will crop up the most in your Edinburgh show? 

‘Family’. 

Danielle Walker: Nostalgia, Assembly George Square Studios, 3–28 August, 3.35pm.