5 minutes with: Marcus Brigstocke – 'It's a privilege to play Edinburgh'

I've always loved performing, even when I was very young. When I was five I burrowed under a fence at school and was found in the old people's home next door giving a performance. I'd found an old soldier's hat and thought they might like to hear some soldier's songs. So it began early.

Some strange stuff happened to me in adolescence, such as going into rehab, but then I got myself together and had the intention of going to drama school. But I was astonished that I didn't get in. So a good friend of mine took me out for lunch and said "you're funny, you should be doing comedy". And he phoned me the next day and said "I've booked you a gig next week, so you'd better write something."

I went to Bristol University and studied drama because I wanted to get involved in making stuff. It's quite embarrassing but I wore a suit most of the time, with a gold-buttoned waistcoat. I was walking down the road on my first day and I asked somedody "do you know the way…" and before I could finish the sentence he said "drama department? It's down there."

I used to give out business cards to people I wanted to work with, which I'm obviously mortified about now. They must've thought I was so weird. But I gave a card to Dan Tetsell and I gave a card to Danny Robins, and we put on shows in the student union and halls of residence as often as we could. We took our sketch show, Club Seals, to Edinburgh in 1996 and I won the BBC New Comedian Award, which led to my first radio and TV stuff. Before we graduated we had a television series together.

I saw Fully Committed when it first opened at the Chocolate Factory about ten years ago, and I wanted to do it because it was such a great piece of writing. And if you're a big, frilly-shirt show off like I am, and being in musicals is beyond you because you can't really sing, this is as close as it gets. It's maximum show off. And if you get it right, at the heart of it there's a really beautiful, moving story, with a message that good things happen to good people.

I'm also doing a stand up show [Why The Long Face?], which is exploring notions of happiness and contentment. I should be ecstatically happy all the time; I'm a straight white man, I own a house and I have a job I love. My life is as charmed as it could possibly get, and yet I spend half my time snarling and complaining and the other half ordering stuff online thinking 'that'll make me happier'. Another title for the show could easily be 'Check your privilege, Brigstocke'.

The third thing I'm doing is an improv show [The Beau Zeaux], which I love doing. What we're trying to achieve is to get people to care about the characters, which is very hard with improv. We're aiming to create characters and stories that are very funny, but that also make you care about what happens to them. That's what sets us apart from other improv shows.

I'm the biggest flag waver for the Edinburgh Festival that there ever was. Did you know that it's the biggest ticket-selling event the world has ever seen? That's incredible. And most of the people there are paying for the privilege of showing you what they made. I genuinely believe that's really special, and every year I'm flattered by the privilege of playing it.

Fully Committed is at the Underbelly; Marcus Brigstocke: Why the Long Face? is at Assembly Hall; The Beau Zeaux: An Improvised Comedy is at Pleasance Courtyard