Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Simon Amstell Review - Fringe 2007

Went to see Simon Amstell at the Edinburgh Fringe on Monday night. It was his last night and in fact the last night of the Fringe itself. He was playing in pleasance one that holds a few hundred people. My girlfriend and I got there a bit early so we thought we'd just join the queue that only had a few people in it when we got there. As they started letting us into the theatre, the stewards herded everyone down to the front row and we ended up dead centre, second row in. Must admit, there's always something that makes me nervous about sitting down the front row at any comedy gig (i'd had previously had a rather experience in Benidorm in my younger days when there was only one seat left down the front for some scouse comedian and he'd ripped the piss out of me for half the act!). We'd been to see Micky Flanagan a few nights before and hats off to the guy he'd encouraged people to not be afraid of the front row as he wasn't "one of those kind of comedians". Anyway, Simon Amstell came onto the stage and to tell you the truth it was quite a comfortable, informal experience. I'd only really known him from Buzzcocks and a couple of glances at pop world and to tell you the truth I thought he'd be quite funny but a bit of a prick. Contrary to my preconceptions though, he seems like quite a genuine and funny guy.

The show was called "No Self" and I think the idea was a "i'm 27 and everyone thinks i'm a bit of a prick sometimes but everyone else is just pretending that they're not selfish, i'm just being honest!". He put his case down quite well and although he was funny it was also quite an interesting and honest chat. He had a bit of banter with a few people in the front row, particularly some goatee bearded twat who deserved to have the piss taken out of him (why do these people always turn up to these things by themselves and sit in the front row??). After a while he was chatting about relationships and said "are there any couples here", I looked round at my girlfriend and he homed right in on us, "well you just looked at each other so obviously you are a couple!" I must confess that my heart was racing at this point (I was having Benidorm flashbacks!). Anyway, my girlfriend and I kept our mouths shut and like wasp buzzing round someone doing the standing still trick, he buzzed off pretty quickly.

All in all though, it was a good show so i'd recommend it if Simon Amstell is in your area in the future!

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