Tuesday 27th October 2009 @ Colston Hall, Bristol

Simon Amstell walks out onto the huge Colston Hall stage tonight a vulnerable figure in skinny jeans and a plain, black T-shirt; a million miles away from the snappily dressed, colourful and enthusiastic figure that has graced our TV screens so much over the past few years. His surreal, ironic and left-field presenting style on Popworld and Never Mind The Buzzcocks earned these shows and himself a cult following but instead of having other celebrities and musicians to bounce off and tease, tonight the focus is completely on Amstell.

After taking his applause, he takes the mic from its stand, walks to the front of the stage and loudly declares; ‘I’m lonely.’ Ouch, this wasn’t quite what we were expecting. I imagine that most of the crowd tonight are here just to see “that funny bloke off the telly” but what follows is a series of discussions based in paranoia, self-pity and emotional analysis. Amstell is completely aware of this though and encourages it; ‘This is quite a selfish, self-indulgent show but I like swimming around in all that – it’s where art comes from.’ It’s true, and although it takes a few minutes to get used to his new style and material (as well as his openness about his sexuality and Jewish background – topics he’s previously shied away from), there is a lot of humour to be found in a man psychoanalysing himself onstage.

Amstell shares with us stories of him trying to find love, his awkward romances and him trying to understand why he is lonely and unhappy. Each of his routines has good progression and is undoubtedly funny but they still lack that killer punch-line, that last joke to getting everyone really belly-laughing in the aisles.

His style and openness was refreshing and very funny but what was quite frustrating was how Amstell would approach some huge, interesting questions but would then fail to satisfyingly explore them. Fascinating topics included how technology nowadays means we all have immense power at our fingertips; we can order anything in the world on the internet and it will be delivered to our door in a couple of days but it still takes us a lifetime to find the thing we really want and need - love. Also, an off-shoot ramble saw him discuss the theory that it can give you immense confidence and freedom if you live your life pretending you are a character in someone else’s dream but again, he failed to really extrapolate this fantastic set up to its full potential. You could sense there was some really good humour to be extracted here if he only took the time.

Amstell is quoted as saying he quit TV presenting to focus more on his live tours and performances. This is fantastic news because although he’s not quite there yet, he has all the makings to be a fantastic stand-up comic.

www.simonamstell.co.uk

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com