He may be one of Canada's best known comics but for Stewart Francis playing the Edinburgh Fringe is like a homecoming show.

The comedian, who celebrated his first birthday in Prestonpans, East Lothian, says 90% of his family live in the Edinburgh area.

He even spent the best part of a year at school in the Scottish capital when he was 10.

He said: "The Fringe is iconic, it's very much a homecoming for me. Almost all of my family live in the Edinburgh area so it's like a home gig for me. Personal and professional reasons will always bring me back to Edinburgh.

"When I say to an audience I'm sure they think I probably said that last night in Wales or something like that but Scotland is very dear to me. I'm a very proud Canadian but Scotland's right up there as far as pride goes."

The stand-up, who has appeared as a panellist on Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats, is famous for his one-liners and is disappointed that puns are not given the credit they deserve.

He says the British sense of humour and, in particular, their love of the underrated pun is one of the main reasons he moved to the UK.

He said: "The audiences are so much better over here for my way of thinking and my style of comedy. It's just lovely, I've been coming here professionally for 20 years, we moved over here about eight years ago. I've known for a very long time that this is where I needed to end up and having a British passport, having a British family was a no brainer."

He is currently in the middle of his tour Pun Gent and will bring it to Edinburgh for a run at the Fringe on August 5.

He said: "The show is a similar style, just new jokes. I'm known to be a one-liner comedian so there's a lot of that, some singing and a little dancing.

"I want to take the tour everywhere, I'm so proud of it."

Despite performing at the Fringe many times, this is the comedian's first solo show, meaning he is eligible for best newcomer.

He says it's the "awesome, comedy savvy" Scottish audiences that keep bringing him north of the border.

He said: "I love Scottish audiences so much that every tour I've done ends in Scotland purposefully because I want to end of a high. They're just the best.

"I don't know if it's my humour or a combination of that and them just being awesome, comedy savvy people but it can make for some pretty wonderful nights and I'm looking forward to that because I've never done a solo show up there before so it should be quite lovely."

Francis, who won funniest joke at the 2012 Fringe, got into comedy because of his love of legends like Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper and Steve Martin.

He is currently working on a sitcom, which has been optioned by NBC Universal, about a fictitious version of himself searching for his family in the UK after discovering he was adopted and sent to Canada at the age of 12.

He said: "It's me just going around the UK tracking down my family, my mother, father and upwards of eight or nine siblings that I was unaware that I had. It's based on a true story, just not mine."

He says touring could take a back seat if the show is picked up.

However, rumours that he plans to quit comedy are completely untrue.

He said: "I'm not quitting comedy, that came from a Mickey Mouse journalist from a Mickey Mouse website that tried to create a story when there wasn't one. What I have said and what I will say is that I have a sitcom that's been optioned by NBC Universal that's being shopped around. If and when, hopefully, that gets picked up all my creative juices will go in that direction and fully on that because that's what it's all about for me.

"I was raised by television, the dream was always to do my own sitcom. If the outcome of that is not touring then so be it but I don't want to not tour."

Stewart Francis will perform Pun Gent at the Assembly Rooms from August 5-16 and 18-30.