CityLife

Acerbic Amstell lines up Lowry double

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T BOUGHT A TICKET TO SEE ME AT THE LOWRY?!: Amstell

THIS CityLifer has watched on intriguingly as Simon Amstell has tentatively crafted a stand-up career for himself.

After catching the then acerbic Pop World presenter flatter to deceive at the Fringe festival in Edinburgh a few years ago, I wondered if the Londoner had the quick wits and confidence to cope once the autocue and cameras were turned off.

After bravely leaving such a cushy anchor as one of the faces to T4’s yoof, his current spell at host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks seems to have done him a world of good.

As, aside from the obviously scripted links, the Londoner regular goes off-piste to comically ridicule ego-heavy pop stars at will.

Injection of bravery

This appears to have given him an injection of bravery in the live arena too, proving one of the real stars of last year’s stand-up circuit.

He returns to The Lowry this October for two nights on his Do Nothing tour.

And with his 30 birthday looming, Amstell’s trademark confessional style, which caused one critic to exclaim: “As close as you can get to a man emotionally and philosophically disembowelling himself on stage,” will surely see his ultra sensitive stage persona mimicked as he contemplates the foibles, which are the by-product of his upbringing and growing old.

Simon Amstell plays The Lowry on Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17. £20. Call 0870 787 5780.