Wizards of Oz

“It's the story of a man who's been swept out to sea on a windsurf sail. Inevitably in that situation, you're going to start talking to yourself because you're going mad, you're going to start thinking about cannibalism and suicide...”

Back at the Fringe with Death of a Sails-Man after a year away, because he wasn't 100% satisfied with his previous show, the wilfully odd and stubbornly perfectionist Sam Simmons is leading a “new wave” of Australian comedy absurdism and creativity finding its fullest expression in Edinburgh.

From January onwards, working through the likes of the Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and New Zealand comedy festivals, antipodean acts are buffing up their shows nightly. By the time they reach Edinburgh in late July, give or take some last-minute cultural reference modifications, theirs tend to be among the most polished, yet seemingly risk-inclined hours in the brochure.

Simmons works “extra hard to get [his] show ready for Edinburgh, with a full three-month run in Australia,” before decamping to the “genuinely super-enthusiastic” Los Angeles for “two to three more months working, working, working. Making it better.”

Regardless, while Sails-Man attracted strong reviews in his homeland, the former Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee has re-written “nearly two thirds” of it.

“It went really well in Adelaide and I got a bit lazy,” he explains. “It was a bit self-indulgent and I wanted more silliness, less of this fucking sappy, pathos-y thread running through it. I'm so sick of learning in comedy shows, so many boring epiphanies about what you learned from your dad dying, playing a song and supposedly everyone's happy.”

Arriving in the Scottish capital, “you can't be bringing a shit show, otherwise financially it's not worth it. I want to be great. I like having other comics come and see my show and then to see some little 'mini mes' next year. That's really inspiring. Especially coming from Australia, because traditionally, we're not looked at as innovators at all."

Citing everything from an “extreme right-wing government” and macho Australian culture “that gets offended by the effeminate nature of what I do,” to a “weird theatre scene in Sydney that's merged into comedy a little bit,” Simmons can trace a progressive response of “ridiculous” originality and oddity via the likes of Dayne Rathbone and Claudia O'Doherty through to newcomers like Zoe Coombs Marr. “That doesn't get reflected on [Australian] mainstream television," he says and, having hit a personal glass ceiling, Simmons relocated to LA, “where I feel unique. It inspires me to push what I'm doing a bit further.”

Another Fringe favourite of recent years, Felicity Ward, who's endeared herself to audiences with her high-energy, creative approach to unsparing personal honesty, has also been forced to escape Australia to get a perspective on it. The sketch performer-turned-comic has, along with her friend and fellow award-nominated stand-up Celia Pacquola, split her time evenly between Australia and the UK in recent years.

But she's now moved to London for the foreseeable future, attracted by our established tradition of radio comedy and the sheer number and density of gigs, and “because I simply didn't know how to get better at home”.

Originally conceived in the UK and during television pilot season in the US, The Iceberg has turned out to be Ward's “least personal show yet,” and includes a series of observations on Australian politics “and the embarrassment of how we're representing ourselves internationally”.

Like Simmons, she sees Edinburgh as “so brutal, I wouldn't want to bring a show that wasn't match fit.”

“If you can give yourself a 60-show lead from doing it in Australia, why wouldn't you give yourself every advantage that you possibly can?”

She points to her best-received show of recent years, 2012's The Hedgehog Dilemma, as an example of an hour that became successful in Australia, picking up award nods everywhere, before transferring to critical acclaim in Scotland.

However, it was while performing the far less personal, more straightforward and relatively "freeing" stand-up of last year's Irregardless that Ward says she "really got my head around Edinburgh mentally" for the first time. "There are no guarantees at the Fringe… the Australian reception can be an indicator but I'd never rely on it."

Despite this warning, Ward champions one act currently making a real impact Down Under: Steen Raskopoulos, who is a Fringe debutant and the younger brother of Axis of Awesome's Jordan, and whose character comedy showcase, I'm Wearing Two Suits Because I Mean Business, is led by hard-nosed corporate aggressor Toby Zegamo. The Sydney-based comic is "a dazzling performer, just so watchable," Ward enthuses.

Raskopoulos himself explains that his show has benefitted from his study of improvisation, especially at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago. “Over there, it's all about the truth in comedy and keeping everything grounded, whereas the stuff we do here [in Australia] that I like is pretty absurd and very character-driven. So it's been nice to find a nice medium of pushing that absurdity in my range of characters but keeping them grounded, so they can appear believable.”

With glowing notices at home, there seems little danger of Raskopoulos becoming complacent or peaking before the Fringe, as his frequent recourse to audience interaction ensures that “the show is always different".

“With standup and maybe plays sometimes you can go into autopilot, just do the show and walk off," he says. "Whereas I enjoy the rollercoaster of needing to be really on so much of the time. If I'm not, then it's not going to be funny. I'll be stuck in my head and the audience won't enjoy it as much."

Raskopoulos has sought help from a very British source to help keep the rollercoaster on track. “Tom Parry from Pappy's has been giving me some tips and helping me with a couple of sketches to make them work for UK audiences. I'll be discovering how far I can push the boundaries, while leaving you guys still feeling safe within the world I create.”