Jim Smallman: Let's Be Friends

Tell us about your show?

It's called Let's Be Friends and is all about my search for new friends since my old ones have all grown up and become sensible, the killjoys. By the end of my Fringe run I hope to have a new best friend and a busload of minor chums to hang out with and eat cake.

In 5 words or less, why should we see it?

You + me = friends.

How have your previews been going?

Really well. I've taken to hugging entire audiences as thanks for them dealing with me working through a whole load of weird material. They seem grateful for that. Show is now ready and ridiculous.

How are you going to keep it fresh for the full three weeks?

A lot of the show is improvised (like my regular club sets) so it should stay fresh. Plus this is the first show I've written especially for the Fringe (rather than adapting parts of my regular club set) so it's all very new and fun to perform at the moment.

Is it ultimately worth coming to the Fringe?

If you look at it as a busman's holiday, yes. If you come up expecting to win awards and get nothing but five star reviews and sell out shows every night then you'd be disappointed. If you set out a mindset of entertaining as many audience members as you can and having fun yourself then it definitely is.

Do you have a guaranteed, sure-fire flyering technique?

Don't do it myself. I'm terrible at it, plus the tattoos and insane visage make people run away screaming. My flyering team are small and yet perfectly formed and are brilliant.

What's your health regime for the Fringe?

I'm a lot healthier during August than I am for the rest of the year as I walk everywhere rather than drive, can eat in nice restaurants rather than garage forecourts and get plenty of fresh air when I'm not performing.  That said, last year I drank so much of a certain orange coloured fizzy drink that I got kidney stones and passed out after hosting Late and Live one night.

What's the worst mistake people make at the Fringe?

Performing wise, it's doing too much.  Sure, we all want to perform eight times a day but you do that too much and you'll get burned out.  As for audiences, it's probably not seeking out enough new stuff and just settling for big names.  I say this because I'm not a big name.

Last year's Fringe was all about the London riots. What major news event do you think will force you to hurriedly rewrite your 2012 show?

I'm already proud of being as non-topical as possible, so I guarantee already that there will be nothing at all in my show about the godforsaken Olympics. I don't know, maybe an alien invasion? That would be sweet.

Do you pay your taxes?

Oh yes.  Far too much, for fear of a tabloid newspaper expose. It's the same reason I never have sex with Andrew Sachs' granddaughter.

What was your favourite joke when you were a kid?

The classic 'a horse walks into a bar and the barman says why the long face?' gag.  Which I genuinely didn't get until I was about 14.  Just liked the idea of a horse in a bar.

Who else are you hoping to see while you're in Edinburgh?

Mick Foley, Brendon Burns, Al Murray, Tony Law and tons of other stuff.