Simon Amstell's new tour

[up_the_hampipe]

Simon Amstell was on Lorraine this morning with guest host Christine Lampard talking about his new tour https://metro.co.uk/2021/08/06/simon-amstell-throws-lorraine-into-chaos-with-awful-daytime-tv-jibe-15047908/

I love it when Amstell pops up on TV every few years to promote something, but says something slightly too honest for the daytime TV environment, he's a lovely little liability.

Anyway, he's doing a new stand-up tour called 'Spirit Hole' https://www.simonamstell.com/spirit-hole-dates-1
I saw his last hour and it was quite good, although I've not been really on board with his spiritual transformation. He's really been trying to run away from his cheeky pop show host past, which is fair in some ways, but it doesn't seem entirely genuine. It seems at odds with his natural personality of cutting through any artifice he can see, while pushing ideas that you'd expect him to mock. I don't know. Do you like New Simon? Did you hate Old Simon? Will you go see this show?

[momatt]

He does tend to talk about spiritual things, ayahuasca and and sexual freedom a lot more these days.
I still think he's funny.

He started this 'new Simon' talking about spirituality around ten years ago with Grandma's House.  I think that worked a lot better then, as you had his family there to take the pis out of it all afterwards.
I laughed loads when I saw him do stand-up a couple of years ago, he talked about wanking on drugs a lot.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Still haven't got over how ace Carnage is.

[MoreauVasz]

Meet the New Simon, Same as the Old Simon.

[The Mollusk]

New Simon seems about as genuine as he's ever been. I don't think you'd be able to go through experiences of spirituality and mind expanding drugs like that and come out the other side and fake it for attention. He's still very self aware (he is, after all, a self confessed and diagnosed narcissist) but if anything I'd say his recent experiences have given him even more clarity and insight that allow him to deconstruct those experiences to make them palatable and funny whilst also being real and from the heart. Personally I love the dude and all the post-Buzzcocks success he enjoys is enormously well deserved.

[MoreauVasz]

I wasn't suggesting that he was insincere.  Just that it's been quite a while since Buzzcocks.

Plus, does *anyone* remember his tenure as host being particularly harsh?  By the standards of Twitter, it's positively benign. It's not like he bullied anyone back into the closet or instigated pile-ons that resulted in suicides. I get that he wants to promote his new show and a lot of people still remember him as the host of Buzzcocks but I think he needs a new story to tell as 'I've changed, this is about me undergoing an awakening' is starting to wear a little thin. Unless he's suggesting that he's changed since Grandma's House?

[sevendaughters]

he played Wilderness at the weekend. I wasn't there but my sister-in-law was and I saw pics and vids. It was festival that was a load of rich self-satisfied yoga fans and running enthusiasts (they literally did a 10k on the Sunday morning instead of, idk, braving the portaloos with an armful of kitchen roll) being fucking mindful and attending people 'starting conversations' about self-empowerment, basically everything I hate in life, if that's Amstell now then he can stick it

[amateur]

Probably paid quite well though, like a soul-destroying corporate gig. I'm fine with this.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Plus, does *anyone* remember his tenure as host being particularly harsh?

No, especially as I can remember Mark Lamarr.

After Lamarr Amstell no doubt felt obliged to continue some ribbing to maintain the style of the show, and I suppose Popworld had a thin sneering element to it at times, but by then British pop culture had moved on from the bracing 90s era where there was a glut of new talent across a range of scenes all finding their way, to a much more precious time where the 'talent' from comedy to music was carefully honed to fit specific audiences and controlled by ever fewer agencies and handlers, the upshot of which is the 'talent' all expect to be pampered (even if they think or tell themselves they don't) and don't slag each other off for fear of losing work and being alienated. They lose their sense of humour, it really isn't a great environment.

The topic on why Roasts are huge in the US but not the UK explored similar territory.

[MoreauVasz]

Lamarr always felt way harsher than Amstell and the show back then had this weird air of menace. If anything, Amstell lightened the tone.

I agree that Amstell's hosting co-incided with the rise of mandatory niceness. A cultural trend that is only now starting to show cracks as people realise that making criticism culturally unacceptable only resulted in power being concentrated into the hands of smaller and smaller groups.

I did read a thing by a, music critic the other day saying that hating bands and singers felt weirdly inappropriate just because few bands have huge audiences anymore. I can where they were coming from as that kind of rudeness comes from a place of wanting to reclaim one's attention and preferences from the institutions governing pop culture and to say that actually no... You don't have to love this, shitty over-promoted act. But the landscape of popular music  has changed to the point where it no longer seems capable of generating those kinds of omni-present acts so why the need to aggressively reclaim one's attention?

I can see why Amstell would look back at Buzzcocks and go 'ooh.. That wasn' t really on was it?' but it was a very long time ago now and I think the pendulum might well be swinging back in the other direction.

[jimboslice]

Amstell's tenure on Buzzcocks also coincided with the whole Sachsgate thing. Russel Brand's episode got dropped and then there was an entire show where he was dressed as a bunny and being "nice".

[sevendaughters]

Amstell was just as cunty as Lamarr, he just had more charm. There was more booking of obvious targets for Amstell too, whereas Lamarr was an equal opportunities bully. I also think Amstell on Popworld was more than a bit sneery, would routinely bring peoples' personal lives into it, usually twinks in guitar bands he obviously fancied. I actually find Amstell's recent years volte face a bit insincere to be honest.

[kalowski]

As Christine attempted to bring the conversation back to Simon's new tour Spirit Hole, the comic wasn't having any of it as he told her: 'You've got such nice teeth...They can't have just grown out of you naturally can they?'

Crikey! What is he like? What will he say next!?!‽

[who cares]

I do believe that that is what's known as a "neg."

Love Simon Amstel.

There was a section a couple of shows ago, might have been 'Numb' where he talks about an experience on ayahuasca, where he suddenly realises that he is a cat. Fairly standard type of insight on powerful hallucinogenics I expect, to be shelved when reality or something approaching it returns. However, I read an interview with him where he talks about his daily schedule, and he sets aside some time each day to 'be a cat', presumably stalking around, pouncing, that sort of thing. I think that's rather lovely.

I guess if you can't relate to that at all then 'new' Simon might not be for you, there's quite a lot of that sort of thing.

[up_the_hampipe]

Amstell was just as cunty as Lamarr, he just had more charm. There was more booking of obvious targets for Amstell too, whereas Lamarr was an equal opportunities bully.

Yeah, Lamarr would generally attack if they did something strange/annoying on the show, Amstell had prepared bits based on the public perception of the guests. I personally enjoyed Amstell's tenure a lot more, there was more preparation that went into an average episode, like it was clearly trying to be something better than just a music-based pop quiz. Even though it was relatively short-lived, I think Amstell's era was one of my personal comedy highlights of the 00s. Lamarr did way more episodes and a lot of them were just phoned in, although his exasperation with the show could produce some gold.

[MoreauVasz]

Wasn't Amstell's famous one inviting some bloke on the show and then reading out sections of his wife's book and going 'lol what a moron!'?

[BeardFaceMan]

Amstell was just as cunty as Lamarr, he just had more charm.

This. Which makes perfect sense if he is indeed a narcissist. Being a narcissist and being sincere and not two things that go together.

[The Mollusk]

I wasn't suggesting that he was insincere.  Just that it's been quite a while since Buzzcocks.

My post wasn't levelled at you by the way, it was more the general tone that was set in the OP that I took umbrage with.

This. Which makes perfect sense if he is indeed a narcissist. Being a narcissist and being sincere and not two things that go together.

Just to clarify, in Set Free he talks about his therapy sessions and he says something like "so it turns out I'm not [something or other, preconceived trait], but I am a narcissist!" so I gleaned from this that his therapist had given him that diagnosis/label. It's always come across in his personality as well, he can be very self-obsessed. But he has the added bonus of being reflective and very funny about it which is where a great deal of his charm lies.

[BeardFaceMan]

A great deal of his charm lies in him being a narcissist, that's how they get away with being cunty, by being very charming so that you forgive the cunty bits.

[Steve Lampkins]

Wasn't Amstell's famous one inviting some bloke on the show and then reading out sections of his wife's book and going 'lol what a moron!'?

He did kind of let the text do the work... 2 minutes in: https://youtu.be/UewCI6dtHss?t=126