Winning the Edinburgh If.Comedy Award in 2007 sent Brendon Burns's career, and head, spinning. LondonisFunny spoke to the Aussie comic before a series of London shows and a return to the 'Burgh in August

Brendon Burns is in the bath. This isn't as irrelevant as it sounds – it is reflective of a new, 'chillaxed' Brendon Burns who does things like do (phone) interviews in the tub.

Not that he has an easy schedule. He hasn't done since taking the coveted Edinburgh Fringe If.Comedy Award in 2007, which each August propels its winner into a flurry of TV work, international touring and a generally mental work timetable. Nonetheless, his plan is that this year, Brendon is not going to shit himself about Edinburgh (much more easily done once you've won its main award).

"I've been exhausted," he says above some plish plashing, "it's like, ok great I won the award, but then it doesn't end, and if you want to do the whole month at Edinburgh you can't fuck about. It takes a hell of a lot of writing – last year I wrote six scripts for my show and I was burned out. If you win you end up knackered. David O'Doherty was rushed to hospital this year with exhaustion and I can understand why."

Not that Brendon is biting the hand that fed him. He "loves Edinburgh and didn't want to miss out this year" and expresses no regret to winning the If.Comedy, just reeling from the fall-out. And anyone familiar with his aggressive, often astute stand-up will know that Brendon thrives on intensity, and is not one to shirk a challenge.

Anyway, two nights in Edinburgh it is, as opposed to 28+, as he devotes more time to trying to prove himself in different parts of the world and different media such as TV and books (he has completed the first manuscript to his debut novel, Fear of Hat Loss in Las Vegas). And his London warm-up gigs are pretty scarce as well; we suggest you check out his three-night run at the Leicester Square Theatre, which will contain material for his new show, the artfully titled Comedy Good Yeah Silly Side C*nt.

Taboos, loofers etc

When speaking onstage, Brendon reaches less for the squeezy ducks and massage oils of this world, and more for the abrasive loofers, in particular the most abrasive loofer of them all – race. It is the subject that drove his 2007 winning show So I Suppose This Is Offensive Now, which featured an ingenious 180º that turned the audience's prejudices back on themselves, and it is still bang on topic for him.

"Race is the last taboo in our society. There was a backlash to the hateful racist stuff of the 70s and 80s, only we then realised we went from being racist to not talking about it at all.

"When I was in the US recently, with Obama getting in it was all very positive and hopeful, and honest – they've got their guards down and they're talking to each other again, it's amazing.

"For too long in London comedy has been a white art form, for white people by white people, and it's all the guys from somewhere else – me, Glenn Wool, Reg Hunter – who come in and are talking about things. There's a real arrogance to London, but it is an amazing place and the gigs are becoming more and more diverse and wonderful."

And with that, it's time to leave a man to his now tepid bath.

Brendon Burns plays Leicester Square Theatre between 18 and 20 June.