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Bound and Gagged Comedy are proud to present the welcome return of Irish Comedian Michael Downey to this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

They say 'write about what you know', so Irish comedian Michael Downey decided to write about being blue, because he's experienced all its shades. Yes Michael has been blue but who hasn't? Michael knows the despair of making tea and discovering he has no milk, he knows the sadness of sitting an exam with nothing but blind optimism in your head that you might pass. And he's suffered the darkest blue by missing an episode of Coronation Street.

Michael Downey started writing at the age of three and a half just before he started his formal education. His early work has sadly been lost because the Downey's left the wallpaper on the house they had occupied on Revelstoke Road in London and no doubt the current residents have redecorated since 1969. Even the crayons Michael would have used have mysteriously vanished but will probably appear on eBay when he passes away.

Shortly after he'd left college he and Alan Donnelly were approached by Ardal O'Hanlon to write some stand up material for him for BBC's Stand Up Show.

As a consequence Michael decided to try his hand at stand up comedy himself. It turned out he could and in three short years he'd given up his van driving job and had become a full time stand up comedian regularly playing venues in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast, London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In 2002 he was involved in a near fatal car accident.

During his recovery from the accident he formed the New Hat Theatre Company along with Alan Donelly and Eileen Gordon Lonergan. In 2008 he wrote a full length play called Answers which was well received and instilled Michael with enough confidence to get back up on stage in late 2008. He got his comedy legs back again and started performing regularly in the clubs around Ireland. He presented his first full length solo show Standing Up Again at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012.