The Dullest Blog: Comedy ramblings to inspire the dullest moments of your week

The thing about festivals is they can feel like enforced fun. Particularly if you just happen to live in the place where a festival’s taking place and don’t have any particular interest in what it’s about. Or you just end up feeling guilty for being a bit of a misery. As a Londoner I know this - ‘The Olympics is more than just a sporting event – it’s going to be a brilliant nationwide festival!’ Or so we are told, three years ahead of its scheduled happening. To me it feels a lot like a great big sports day which lasts for three weeks. And, as was the case at school, I don’t seem to have been picked.

Anything that requires lots of logistics and organisation it can sometimes feel a bit awkward. A bit like when wedding DJs play something too high octane at the start of the evening and no one wants to join in. The Hokey Cokey or Tom Jones’ ‘Sex Bomb’ just sound out of place when it’s still light outside and everyone’s nibbling on sweet fruit cake and recovering from an embarrassing best man’s speech.

That’s what’s nice about Edinburgh – it’s a bit rainy, you’re performing in a room that gets used as an airing cupboard for the other 11 months of the year and you haven’t eaten a proper meal for three weeks. The only fun is what you make for yourself. And that suits me just fine.

Tom Allen: Women!, Gilded Balloon, 7.30pm, to Aug 30, £10 (£9), £9 (£8)