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

Some say the Fringe is like the World Cup of comedy so as a guy from Scotland it’s such a relief they don’t make me qualify. Well I’d only end up losing to Macedonia on away jokes.

It is amazing how quickly that twelve months goes. It only seems like a week ago I was paying off the tax bill from the last festival. Oh wait, it was.

All in all we've had a great start to the festival 2009 which comes as a bit of a surprise after the traumatic year we’ve lived through. Think about it – 52 weeks of credit crunching, political scandal and toughest of all, the breakup of Jordan and Peter Andre. It’s a wonder anyone has the strength to leave the house.

To be fair, something like the credit crunch isn’t really an issue if you have a show at the festival. The idea of money worries, being in debt and on the brink of financial disaster... hey that’s what being a fringe performer is all about.

Also let’s not forget swine flu which has been sniffing around our headlines for a good couple of months now. I did hear about an unfortunate performer who got diagnosed with the bug the morning of her first show. That’s just cruel timing. In fact on a scale of bad timing that’s on a par with losing your tooth on Christmas Eve. Think about it, you can’t eat any of the selection box and it means the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus turning up to your house on the same night. You know there’s going to be trouble when the fat toymaker and the creepy dentist bump into each other in the dark.

Well to keep that football analogy going, I hope we’re all over the moon come the end of August though it is a big ask and as always it’s a festival of two halves.

They think it’s all started? It has now.

Des Clarke is in the Pleasance Courtyard, to 31st Aug (not 19th), 6.20pm (1hr), £11.50 - £12.50 (£11 - £12)