A LIFE on the screen and stage is notoriously rocky. Today’s hottest act, it is said, is ripe for tomorrow’s showbiz scrapheap. One group who know this more than most is the Doug Anthony All Stars. From starring on the 1980s Channel 4 comedy hit Friday Night Live to being forced to split up due to one of the group's battle with multiple sclerosis, the Doug Anthony All Stars (or DAAS as they were known) have certainly experienced a rollercoaster journey.

Now, as the group reform and return to where it all began at the Edinburgh Fringe, this is one story that looks to have a happy ending.

The group, originally comprising of Tim Ferguson, Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler, formed in 1984 and busked on the streets of Canberra and Melbourne with little success. It was not until 1987 when the group "cobbled together the air fare" and travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that things really took off for the group.

The Edinburgh audience responded to the trio’s anarchic and controversial style of comedy, joining in the riots and punching matches that the group would initiate in the local pubs.

When asked why the UK audience was so receptive to the group, Ferguson said: "I think it was the novelty. We’d set fire to ourselves, we’d set fire to venues."

He added: "In Edinburgh, more than once we started a small riot in the wine bar, otherwise known as the Bear Pitt. We’d throw beer at people, we’d upturn tables. More than once we were forced to punch people because they were trying to punch us."

The group’s stint at the Fringe was a roaring success and they quickly became a household name. They appeared on various UK television shows including the extremely popular Friday Night Live.

The trio finally achieved fame and notoriety in Australia after appearing on ABC’s comedy show The Big Gig. In 1991 they left that show and embarked on their own ABC series, DAAS KAPITAL, which Ferguson said was "great fun because we had total freedom and minimal freedom".

During the early 90s, DAAS released a number of singles and also their first official album, DAAS ICON, which was banned in the UK due to references to the IRA in the song Krishna.

Nothing was off limits, the group would shoot themselves out of canons, sing songs like Commies For Christ, burn vehicles live on air and were stopped short of burning the Australian flag. This, a producer on The Big Gig argued, would cause too many problems.

Ferguson admits that the group purposefully tried to antagonise and rile up audiences, saying: "Comedy audiences, certainly in Australia, were very politically correct and we thought that has to be overturned."

To UK audiences, the group would walk on stage and sing songs praising Thatcher, which was, as Ferguson puts, "the opposite of what everyone in Britain was saying".

However, the group split in 1994, partly due to family commitments, but mainly due to the early developments of Ferguson’s battle with MS.

"My eyes would go wacky, my left side stopped working, my face would go deadpan, and my head would feel like it was on fire," said Ferguson.

Ferguson soldiered on for a while, never revealing his symptoms to his DAAS counterparts. He recalls a time when the left side of his body just stopped working. "I just keeled straight over, which the audience thought was deliberate because I just went over like a plank," he said.

It became clear that something wasn’t right and that the tours weren’t helping and so the trio split.

Ferguson acknowledges that he "was very keen to get back on stage". He did small gigs, presenting shows like Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush and also produced two books, one a guide to writing comedy and the other a political satire.

His desire to return to the stage was realised in 2014 when DAAS announced they we reforming, with Paul Livingston replacing Richard Fidler. The group returned to the Fringe in 2016 and will be appearing again this year.

Ferguson says that politics broadly informs the content of this year’s Fringe show in the sense that it tackles "how society deals with disabled people and disability in general" – something that Ferguson, who is now in wheelchair, has first-hand experience of.

When asked if society’s treatment of disabled people has spurred him on to return to comedy, he said: "I like the power of proving to people that disability does not necessarily make you incapable of pursuing a full career".

This is a serious topic for DAAS but of course it will be aired with the group’s usual controversial flair. Ferguson notes the fear that people have in addressing the issue of disability. "We have large section [of the show] where all we do is say the wrong thing," he said.

Ferguson is excited about the group’s return to the Fringe and says that the atmosphere is "supercharged" now and the quality is beyond anything that the group had experienced in the 80s.

When asked if he likes coming to Scotland, Fergusons answers: "Oh yeah, Scotland is the best part of Britain. Scots have a wonderful dryness and tremendous scepticism towards institutions."

The Doug Anthony All Stars perform Near Death Experience at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Pleasance Forth from August 2 to 27 at 10pm, ahead of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on September 2 at 8pm. More info and tickets available at www.cheekymonkeycomedy.com