STAND-UP
Showing @ Gilded Balloon Teviot, 12 – 28 Aug (not 17) @ 7:45pm
Like it or not, anyone with a tattoo is setting themselves up to be judged. Such inevitable assumptions can come from the person’s choice of tattoo, or even the simple fact that they’ve chosen to ink themselves at all. Either way, it’s fair to say that anyone with a tattoo has chosen to physicalise something about themselves; something they want the rest of the world to know and see. And so we have the theme of Jim Smallman’s latest stand-up show. With countless tattoos across his entire body, Smallman takes his audience on an autobiographical journey through the process of getting them, the reasons behind each one, and the character assumptions he receives as a result.
With an array of colourful, quirky and downright weird tattoos ranging from an Oscar Wilde quote to a portrait of Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy taking pride of place on his right bicep, you’d be right in concluding that Smallman is loud, confident and full of energy. His stories are engaging and believably down-to-earth, but although funny with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, something about Smallman’s tone is a little uncomfortable. Apart from occasional references to his much adored and sickeningly “brilliant” nearest and dearest, everyone else around him is apparently as stupid and two-dimensional as they come. Almost all jokes are at someone else’s expense, with the mood suddenly changing to respectful seriousness when the subject matter turns onto Smallman or his family. Whilst by no means infallible and admirably honest at times, Smallman has a lot of unashamed chauvinism flying around, developing Tattooligan into more like a proclamation of self-love than a stand-up.
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