2011 Edinburgh Fringe

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This year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, award-winning stand-up Jim Smallman takes the stage at the Gilded Balloon with his hilarious show Tattooligan.

Tattooligan sees Jim, in his own brutally honest words "a heavily tattooed idiot", discuss the assumptions people may have when encountering him. Having spent the last few years getting liberally covered from head to toe in ink, he's noticed people react to him differently. With people so quick to judge him based on how he looks, is he really the thug that they think he is... or merely misunderstood?

Jim uses a selection of true tall tales to illustrate both sides of the argument. On one hand he's a proud father, reformed alcoholic and reassuringly silly human being - as you would expect from a man who has both Ron Burgundy and his actual show title tattooed on him. On the other, he's got a past littered with ridiculous choices, colossal mistakes and a worryingly large amount of women (and one goose) that would like to kill him.

This show features professional wrestling, the greatest spreadsheet ever produced (TM) and, as with Jim's award-winning 2009 Edinburgh / 2010 Hollywood Fringe show The Boy Next Door Gone Wrong, several hilarious confessions that will ensure that you can probably never look him the eye ever again.

Jim Smallman has been a comedian for nearly 6 years, and in that time has established himself as one of British comedy's most intriguing young comics. As well as performing all over the country, Jim churns out two regular columns (one weekly for the Leicester Mercury about his beloved Leicester City FC, and one monthly for Skin Deep magazine called "Smallman Syndrome"), a satirical football blog, and has appeared all over BBC Radio (including BBC 4 Extra, Five Live and as presenter of his own show on BBC Radio Leicester).

This is his first full Edinburgh Fringe run. Tattooligan is supported by Skin Deep magazine.