We talk to four performers appearing at the upcoming brand new Off Beat fringe festival next week to find out about Oxford's big event which boasts 50 shows in seven days, none of which have ever been seen in Oxford before. All tickets costs between £5-£10 and cover all age ranges and genres. Or buy 4 tickets for the price of 5 and book a wild card show. Organised by Oxford Playhouse and OFS. www.offbeatoxford.co.uk, www.ticketsoxford.com or 01865 305305.

Award-winning comedy mind reader Doug Segal: "I am not a magician, clairvoyant or a hypnotist. Everything I do is achieved though applying the principles learned in my previous career spent working in advertising agencies. I employed persuasion techniques, statistics and insight into the way people think and make decisions, along with two key advertising skills: cheating and lying, now offered up with humour, rakish charm and a rock and roll attitude!

My brand new show I Can Make You Feel Good uses mind tricks to figure out what makes an audience happy, jokes to make them laugh and a guaranteed endorphin rush for everyone.

Because 'what's the point of being 'Britain's best comedy mind reader' if you can't use your powers to make people experience happiness, even just for a while? So join me for an experiment in the science of happiness as we try to raise the serotonin levels!"

I Can Make You Feel Good, Burton Taylor Studio, Friday June 24, 9pm.

Francesca Millican-Slater: "Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night is something new, a collection of ideas, a stack of stories, odd, familiar, funny, true and stolen. Stories that I've been writing on and off for years. Stories that will follow the pattern of a sleepless night. A way for those stories to tell larger themes.

I've been looking into sleeplessness, into what keeps us awake, what makes us lonely, how we connect, technology. I've been looking into narcissism, the reflection of ourselves in the internet. I am not unaware of the irony of turning these thoughts into a solo show.

I am writer and performer creating solo work that talks directly to audiences, telling small stories to hint at larger things, for the past 10 or so years, often work that is steeped in history and research.

In Stories To Tell In The Middle of The Night, I wanted to tell tales that could be me, that could be you, the stories you might tell yourself if you couldn't sleep one night.

It started with not being able to sleep, of thinking of others up and flicking through blue screen news for distraction in other people dying, or dieting. An itch in the middle of the night, a rising in my throat to say something. Tell something. About now, specifically. I'll take you through this night, in an hour, telling stories set in houses and streets, call centres and factories, supermarkets and alleys.

I am working with a sound artist, director and designer to create mini worlds that each of these stories inhabits. Tales of missed chances, words unsaid, lost people and odd actions. Couples having rows, men parked in cars outside houses, people working through the night putting holes in pork pies. I am hoping you might find a reflection of yourself in some of the stories."

Stories to Tell in the Middle of the Night by Francesca Millican-Slater is at Burton Taylor Studio on June 25 at 9pm.

Stephanie Ridings: "My new play The Road to Huntsville is about American murderers – and the British women who fall in love with them.

Blending research with fictional storytelling and peppered with footage from my trip to Texas, I explore the strange and uncomfortable phenomenon of British women who fall in love with men on death row.

In the east of Texas, Huntsville is a small city with a population of just under 40,000, 25% of which are behind bars. Situated in downtown Huntsville, the oldest state prison in Texas is nicknamed the ‘Walls’ Unit, and is also home to the USA’s busiest execution chamber. The inmates of death row are housed just a 45 minute drive from Huntsville, their final destination.

Meanwhile, in Britain are the women who write to them, put in touch through hundreds of websites where prisoners can advertise for a pen pal, or humanitarian services that try to alleviate the harsh quality of life.

Some women may find themselves in a beautiful, old style courtship in which they are wooed through letters and cards. They have their pen-pals undivided attention and he listens fully to their problems, hopes and desires. After years of failed relationships and disappointment, they finally have someone who understands them. It is too easy to label women who write to men on death row as damaged or suffering from mental health problems. The truth of the matter is far more complex and fascinating.

I stood outside the Huntsville prison as an inmate was executed and talked to a former prison warden to help tell the fictional story of a researcher who falls in love with an inmate.

The Road to Huntsville raises difficult and pertinent questions about the unconventional love between convicted criminals and the women who become their only link to the outside world. Whilst exploring morally challenging issues of the death penalty and human rights, I shed light on to why the most unlikely looking love is not so as strange as it first seems."

The Road to Huntsville, OFS, Thursday June 23.

Tina Sederholm: "Till Debt Us Do Part, popped into my head at 5am. Not the fault of the dawn chorus, though the birds were exceptionally noisy this morning, but because a solution for the raggedy ending of my new show emerged.

It is all about money, getting out of debt and trying to be more real, about how we earn and spend.

It’s a touchy subject. I only have to mention it to people and they start fidgeting. But money has such a huge impact on our lives, I couldn’t ignore it. I’ve used poetry, stories and extensive actual research to shine a light on some of our fears and fantasies about money. I don’t promise to make the audience richer, but I hope by the end, they will feel better."

Till Debt Us Do Part, OFS June 22, 7.45, Old Fire Station Studio.