BEYOND THE FRINGE

Originally, Broadway Baby was set up to allow people to publish their theatre-related CVs on the web for free (which it still does). Now its focus is on fringe theatre, particularly the Edinburgh Fringe, which it started covering in 2003. The site already carries a multitude of previews on shows such as Michael Morpurgo’s retelling of Aesop’s Fables and The Absinthe Monologue.

Also promised is the return of Broadway Baby’s vodcast, which will be available on YouTube, carrying “clips of our favourite shows and interviews with the people that make it happen”. www.broadwaybaby.com

TAKE A PUNT

In these increasingly Flash-ridden times, you can tell from its functional design that this site is written by an enthusiastic festival-goer.

Nevertheless, this “punter’s perspective on Edinburgh and its festivals” offers an informative, nononsense guide to what’s going on, with added historical tidbits. Its most useful feature is the downloadable pdf book, The August Feast, which contains a history of the main festivals, “light-hearted personal accounts of visits to the festival” and how to choose from more than 2,000 shows on the Fringe. www.edinburghfestival punter.co.uk

BLOG OF THE WEEK

He has been Alan Parker: Urban Warrior and The League Against Tedium, but this year at the Fringe Simon Munnery will be taking on the guise of the “Chairman of the Bored” with his AGM 2007 show.

The cult comedian ( above), known for his surreal and intelligent brand of stand-up, has found an appreciative audience with his New Statesman blog. Giving each of his posts one-word titles, such as Strange and Stains, Munnery delves into philosophy, musing on the nature of change, and politics. Of the appointment of a new Prime Minister he writes: “I feel as a passenger on a long-haul flight might when woken at 4am to be informed for the rest of the journey that the co-pilot will be at the controls: almost indifferent.”

Appealing to the more highbrow among his fans, he also quotes Rainer Maria Rilke and apologises when he ruins the ending of Rilke’s poem Archaic Torso of Apollo. Munnery is that sort of guy, and sometimes we should thank him for it. www.newstatesman.com/ blogs/simon-munnery

PODCAST OF THE WEEK

Produced in association with The Stage and the Podcast Network, last year’s Edinburgh Fringe show podcast was so good that it was nominated for a Scottish Bafta.

This year it returns under the auspices of Ewan Spence, who will report live in a daily 30-minute show running throughout the four weeks of the Fringe. It will contain “interviews, reviews and gossip from the funniest festival in the world”. Also promised are colour pieces and some audio tours around the city all produced in a specially created “mobile studio”. edinburghfringe.thepodcast network.com

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