THE numbers add up in alternative comedian Richard Herring's new show at the Great Yorkshire Fringe on Saturday and the Edinburgh Fringe next month.

Oh Frig, I'm 50! marks the Pocklington-born comic, columnist and podcaster's 50th birthday and will be his 40th show in his 30 successive summers in the Scottish capital.

How is he feeling? "A bit tired," he says, but this is not on account of turning 50 on July 12. "We've moved out to Hertfordshire. It means we're near to my in-laws, now we have a child and another on the way."

Leaving London, Richard? What did that man of letters Samuel Johnson once say: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life". Is that true? "It's the rule. They kick you out of London at 50."

Richard and his wife, the comedian Catie Wilkins, have a daughter, Phoebe, aged two and a half, and a new addition on the way. "It's a boy," he reveals. "The full set."

What might be on Richard's mind in Oh Frig, I'm 50!? "As always, I'll concentrate on the 'below the belt' element, which provides many amusing things. It's all the realisation that I'm getting old, but I'm now the young old person rather than the old young person, which is the difference from my 40th birthday show [Oh F***, I'm 40]; going through a massive midlife crisis, going off the rails a little bit, which was fun, and I'm not quite sure why I stopped doing that, but in the end you extract yourself, work out what's wrong and move on," he says.

"Meeting Catie again was the significant moment. I first met her when she was doing stand-up – and I hope she'll do that again – and I met her again in the October after turning 40 and it all spiralled from there, and now new human beings have emerged from there. I'm glad I got all that other stuff out the system, and I'm glad that children have entered my life in my late-40s: I'm really enjoying being a dad.

"It would be weird to ignore that part of my life [in the show], though I used to do loads of anti-kids material before, but the truth is that I always wanted to have children. You just have to find your own through it. It would be odd not to do stuff about having children, but it won't be about how sweet and adorable Phoebe is, but more about the effect it's had on me, which was what my Happy Now? show in 2015 was about. I realised it was better to be happy than not happy.

"I'm busy, maybe too busy; lots of work; I've got a private life, and I'm still the same hapless idiot."

As for Richard's outwardly rambling yet focused performance style, he says: "I like to see if anything comes out of going about something for a while. I like to ask questions rather than try to find answers, and it's sort of fun to play with confusions."

Great Yorkshire Fringe presents Richard Herring: Oh Frig, I'm 50!, White Rose Rotunda, Parliament Street, York, Saturday, 4.30pm; Richard Herring Podcast, with Martin Barrass and Rahul Kohli, same venue, Saturday, 7pm. Box office: greatyorkshirefringe.com or 01904 500600. Oh Frig, I'm 50! will run at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, from August 2 to 26.