lock picks his own route to stardom; He's less successful than his

"Sean always treated comedy like it was his own cottage industry." It's hardly the kind of quote that the producers of Sean Lock's show at the Fringe are going to splash across his publicity. But when it comes to summing up the can't-be-arsed philosophy of British comedy's best-kept secret, his colleague and admirer Mark Lamarr has got it just about right.

Sean Lock, cultured surrealist and Mr Take-It-Or-Leave-It, was one of the support acts the night that Newman and Baddiel took stand-up comedy to its most ridiculously rock'n'roll level, filling Wembley Arena with cries of "that's you, that is". Since then, Lock has kept a select band of followers happy with a routine that comes out of the leftfield and the top drawer simultaneously. Bar a great Radio 4 show, he's not progressed anywhere as far as they would like.

At the same time, one of the headliners that night has become an English institution. Lock's former writing partner Bill Bailey has gone on to take roles in Black Books and Spaced, two of the best sitcoms written in the last decade. While Harry Hill - who has cited Lock as an influence - enjoys massive success, Lock has to live with accusations that he derived the flashy weirdness of his stage persona from Hill.

You might think Lock would be a bitter man, but he doesn't sound particularly fussed. "My approach to the job is that I don't feel like putting myself under the kind of pressure you get when you are continually looking to play bigger and bigger venues," he says, smoking a roll-up. "I've seen it not as work, especially in Edinburgh, and the people involved are eating themselves up: 'Bloody hell, we were only a third full last night'."

Lock has always avoided the big and the obvious. He prefers instead to surprise his audiences, taking them on random sorties into strange new worlds. Given that he hasn't pushed himself into the limelight it's hard to argue when he says he doesn't have "mass appeal".

But he managed to sell out a three-week run at the Assembly Rooms two years ago, largely on the strength of word of mouth. "That's Edinburgh though," he argues. "It's a place where people appreciate good stand-up because they see so much of it."

But not all of it can match Lock's act, which is back this year in the same room at the Assembly Rooms. And if he has sold himself short in the past, that may change with the launch of his new BBC2 sitcom, adapted from his excellent radio series 15 Storeys High. It could launch him into a whole new league of success if he's willing to take the pressure.

Assembly, 0131-226 2428 Aug 11-26, 9.15pm, Fringe brochure p39

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