Most people go along to a comedy show for one reason — to laugh. Few audience members ponder on the inspiration behind the routine or care what the comedian was thinking. It’s either funny or it’s not.

But for those who do care — comedians themselves, mostly — there is a late-night show, Talk of the Fest, that promises to reflect on the link between comedy and art in the hope of gaining some insight into the mind of the stand-up.

“Talk of the Fest is an offshoot of one of the ideas behind The Aristocrats,” explains the New York comic Paul Provenza, director of the cult comedy documentary and host of the show. “I want the audience to feel like they’re backstage among the comedians.

“We want people to walk away from the show not only having had a good time but feeling like they understand a little bit more about the art of comedy. To understand that comedians, who conventional wisdom thinks of as disposable pop culture, are involved in works of art. Jokes that you hear come from people’s heart and soul, they’re about who they are and what’s important to them.”

If all that sounds a little like a self-help group for comedians . . . well, perhaps it is. But then Provenza — who turned 50 last week — doesn’t see anything wrong with that. He was, after all, a jobbing comedian and sometime bit-part television actor for most of his career, until he and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) had their long-time pet project released in cinemas.

The Aristocrats told the tale of a joke, a semi ad-libbed monument to filth, by which connoisseurs of comedy measure themselves against each other, testing their ability to create shock and humour. Apparently Chevy Chase used to hold parties during which the aim was to keep the gag going for half an hour, which surely appealed to both Provenza’s almost bookish devotion to the art of comedy.

“Comedians all have material that is somehow transgressive or confrontational,” he says. “So I’m asking everyone who does or wants to do that kind of material to do something the audience might take issue with and then to talk about it, about the piece and how the audience reacts. The audience is invited to take part in this discussion at all times, they can ask questions and challenge performers.”

In order to achieve this Provenza has invited a panel of guests, including Stewart Lee, Harry Shearer, South Park’s Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Glenn Wool, Adam Bloom and Doug Stanhope. He is also hopeful of a receptive audience.

“The general population looks on comedy as something that’s in their service, that we all go out there to make people laugh,” says Provenza.“That’s not the way it works. To quote George Carlin, who’s one of the funniest comedians of our generation, he looks at an audience like this; ‘I’m here for me, you’re here for me, nobody’s here for you’. That doesn’t mean the audience is irrelevant, it means he’s saying, ‘this is me, I’m going to do the sort of work that means something to me. If you find it funny, great — if you don’t find it funny, well I’m not going to start tap-dancing just to please you’.

Provenza is swift to point out that this isn’t some sort of masterclass, with the behind-the-scenes thought processes of those who appear on stage.

“Jimmy Carr has a very interesting way of putting it,” says Provenza. “He says that what people find funny is so individual that it’s almost like a sexual attraction.

Fringe favourite Brendan Burns has an equally impassioned, if more direct, view of his craft: “The fact of the matter is, a good comic makes it look easy. And anyone who watches them and says ‘all you need to do is this and this’; if they try their hand at it, they’ll understand how truly complex it is and agree they knew nothing.”

Paul Provenza’s Talk of the Fest is at the Smirnoff Underbelly until Aug 27.

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