OneMetal.com INTERVIEW:
Jim Smallman – Comedian, Gamer & Metal Fan

The Leicester Comedy Festival start this Friday (5th February 2010) and we got time to catch up with one of the stars of the festival, stand-up comedian Jim Smallman, who fills the bleakness between gigs with some serious gaming and metal appreciation…

OneMetal:Hey Jim, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you live a few times as part of the Leicester Comedy festival over the past couple of years; what have you got planned for this year’s festival?

Jim Smallman:The usual ridiculous amount of things, especially as the festival is 17 days long this year. Two solo shows – My Edinburgh show from last year, “Boy Next Door Gone Wrong” which I’ll be performing in Leicester for the final time, after debuting it here last year in the festival. Thats on Saturday 6th February at 8.30pm in the May Room at the Belmont Hotel. And a new solo show called “Two Ice Creams on a Sunday” which is all about my relationship with my daughter – that’s still very much a work in progress and is debuting on Thursday 18th February at Bowies, 8.30pm. Could be good. May be rubbish. Then I’m compering two shows at Cosby Village Hall on the 19th and 20th, plus hosting lots of other events and doing my usual amount of local radio. And apparently part of my set from the preview show in January has been deemed suitable for use on BBC7 during the course of the festival. Which surprised me. Didn’t know I could go that long without swearing.

OneMetal:I know you’ve got a great reputation as a compere and see you’ve got a standalone act called ‘Boy Next Door Gone Wrong’ that delves into some darker areas of your past. How’s that going and what has the reception been like?

Jim Smallman:Reaction has been nice for it. Last year during the Leicester Festival the show was still in its most embryonic of forms and it got nominated for best debut show, then I had fun previewing it around the country. The comedy critics from Time Out and the Guardian enjoyed it up in Edinburgh, and I’ll be taking it to the Brighton festival and to Los Angeles for the Hollywood fringe in June before putting it away for good.

OneMetal:So have you been to the Mecca of UK comedy, the Edinburgh Festival, with your act?

Jim Smallman:Yeah, did so in 2009. Was my first Edinburgh, and I won’t be back till 2011 now to give me time to write something as much fun as BNDGW. Was great to be in Edinburgh, doing my solo show every night and performing at various other gigs during the day – including for kids, who I would merely get to draw on me.

OneMetal:How did it go?

Jim Smallman:It went ok. Was a tiring experience and very much a learning experience – despite 4 years on the circuit nothing really prepares you for Edinburgh; Full houses some nights, ten people in the next – and it’s not at all like doing regular comedy clubs, with more theatre-style audiences led by what critics recommend. But it was fun, show did well and I got to hang out with my mates every day.

OneMetal:Was it intimidating seeing some of the shining stars of comedy all competing for audiences?

Jim Smallman:Kind of, but most people on the circuit are friends of mine. The big names sell out every night anyway, and deservedly so – and then you get newer acts who get rave reviews and all of a sudden are thrust into the spotlight. What is fascinating is how acts who aren’t really known on the circuit can have an amazing Edinburgh because their material or act fits in with the vibe of the festival, then they go back to being anonymous once its done. It’s a strange experience, like another world.

OneMetal:How did you start in comedy and what influenced you (and continues to) to stand in front of strangers and fire out the funnies?

Jim Smallman:People never believe me, but I suffer with nerves. When I had a proper job I would have to do presentations and would lose sleep over doing them. A colleague recommended I do a stand-up course to conquer my nerves – 12 weeks of writing and discussing comedy, followed by a performance at the end. My plan was to do the course but skip the gig at the end – but I ended up loving the buzz so much that I kept doing it. What people don’t realise is how hard it is to make a living from comedy; I had to drive 20,000 miles before I started making a penny, and have only been full time for a year and a half. What kept me going is how it makes me feel – there is no better feeling than making a couple of hundred people laugh with material that you have written and perfected. Having been addicted to pretty much everything in the past, comedy is my addiction now.

OneMetal:Is your act meticulously rehearsed or do you literally leap into the flames and see where it and the crowd takes you?

Jim Smallman:My material is fairly well rehearsed, as to do 30 minute sets every night completely blind would be tremendously hit and miss. But a lot of what I do is blatantly ad-libbed, I’m fairly fearless in terms of what I do onstage, especially when I’m MCing a show. So it’s a mixture of both, really – but I enjoy making it up as I go along much more.

OneMetal:I remember last year seeing a guy on stage totally died at a gig where you were the MC’ing – does it happen much and (god forbid) has it happened to you?

Jim Smallman:Touch wood, it’s never happened to me. Everyone has difficult gigs, I know I have – but I’ve never had a spectacular death. When that happened (the story you’re mentioning) I was in the bathroom sat in a cubicle playing on my iPhone thinking I had twenty minutes to kill. Cue the panic. I’ve not seen many people die that spectacularly in my time, to be honest. But it can happen to us all at anytime. Mine will probably happen at the most inopportune moment.

OneMetal:I noticed from your website that you’re a pretty big metal fan. What are the bands that get you going and keep you hooked?

Jim Smallman:I’m a massive music fan in general, and was lucky enough to perform at both Download and Sonisphere last year. I listen to a lot of old school Metallica when travelling to gigs, plus a lot of the Deftones and recently Slipknot, even though I always tried to convince myself I didn’t like them. Slightly less metal, I’m a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan and have one of their lyrics tattooed on me, so of course Them Crooked Vultures are in heavy rotation on my iPod. There’s a lot of Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Motorhead on there too, as I’m a child of the 80s. Away from metal, I like a lot of punk and hardcore so Gallows “Grey Britain” has been played to death in my car. Ooh, other metal: ISIS, Baroness, Bloodhorse, Opeth, Tool, Mad Capsule Markets and I b****y love Mastodon. I like a lot of post-metal too, so enjoy And So I watch You From Afar, Porcupine Tree and Pelican. Am I boring you yet?

OneMetal:LOL – sounds more like a confession ;) Anyhoo, on Twitter I see you’ve been getting to grips with our favourite burlesque brawler, Bayonetta. Are you a big gamer or did she have the ‘hips that won’t quit’ that compelled you to buy a console?

Jim Smallman:I’m a massive gamer, as signified by the sleeve tattoo on my left arm – all girls from video games: Peach, Zelda, Toadette, Midnah, Kitana, Morrigan, Felicia, Tifa and Chun Li. Bayonette may make it on there, as she’s hot (as long as you play the game on mute, her voice is terrible, like a plummier Keira Knightly in Domino). Gigs get in the way of my gaming, took me a whole week to finish Bayonetta. For the record, my favourite games of all time are Radiant Silvergun, Street Fighter Zero Two, Capcom vs SNK 2, Super Mario World, Dead Rising and Fallout 3.

OneMetal:Girls with tatts and leather? Hot or not?

Jim Smallman:My dream girls occupation would be being a SuicideGirl. I can’t imagine dating anyone without tattoos – after all, they have to come to terms with the fact that I’m stupid enough to have Ron Burgundy tattooed on me. Leather I can take or leave, but girls MUST like metal and MUST have tattoos. And piercings. And no shame.

OneMetal:It is an age old question but given the choice, Zombie, Ninja, Cowboy, Vampire, Pirate or Robot?

Jim Smallman:See, I love zombie movies but being a zombie would be pointless – no brain and shambling all over the shop like an idiot. Cowboys like Country and Western. Vampires have been forever ruined by the emo-teen-fest that is Twilight. Robots can’t feel attraction to tattooed girls. Pirates have been sullied by Johnny Depp camping it up. So that leaves me being a Ninja, I guess. As long as real life as a Ninja isn’t as hard as Ninja Gaiden is. I’d quite like to be able to swish around a supermarket in silence.

OneMetal:So what’s next for Jim Smallman?

Jim Smallman:5 gigs a week, off to see Wrestlemania in March, then back and more gigs, more trying to get famous, buggering off to Los Angeles to perform in June, then back, a ton of music festivals and more work until I’m sufficiently famous and surrounded by groupies.

OneMetal:[Obligatory last question - sorry] And finally (to incriminate you for the future), if you had to kill someone who would it be and what would be the motive?

Jim Smallman:Peter Kay. Most comedians would agree with me, partly through jealousy. But my motive is based purely on the amount of dicks at shows who have come up to me and quoted me his material as examples of what is really funny. Plus he has his own impersonator, so the world would carry on. Or maybe kill the impersonator. Hmmm…

OneMetal:Cheers Jim – good luck for the future fella!

You can catch Jim during the Leicester Comedy Festival and coming to a gig near you, check out his website for details or cyber-stalk him on Twitter.