They are treating me well. I think they are putting me up in a shanty town by the river.” Surely Greg Behrendt, the author of that hit book-turned-movie He’s Just Not That Into You, must have a Grand Canyon-sized masochistic streak to be doing Edinburgh? Nothing of the sort for the man behind the ultimate dating bible, Behrendt’s Fringe debut is a return to his roots. “I did a talk show, but when that ended in 2007 — thankfully — I went back into stand-up, which is the boat that I rowed in on.” Edinburgh is certainly not about money. “It’s never been about money. The great thing about stand-up is that you don’t get ten experts test-marketing you. You just go out there and do it.”

The happily married 46-year-old has thrived since moving to Los Angeles in the 1990s and hanging with like-minded cool comics such as David Cross, Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofalo (the latter also on the Fringe). Progress was initially slow, but eventually he landed an HBO special, followed two years later by a dream job — as a consultant on Sex and the City. “When they realised they had a staff only of seven women and two gay guys they called me in.”

While on set he got his book break: “Someone asked me if the guy she was seeing who didn’t want to have sex with her liked her. I said, ‘I don’t think so, he’s just not that into you’.” The quick-talking comedian struck it lucky with the subsequent bestseller: “It all came about because of a question. I wasn’t standing on a mountain top saying you must do this.”

His Fringe foray, however, is not the show of the book. “Relationships are a part, but I’m just trying to be as funny as possible, with a slight message of ‘seize the opportunity’. I talk about marriage, dating and a bit about alcoholism, but I also talk about snap crackers and elephants.”

Greg Behrendt is at Assembly @ George Street, Aug 6-31