SIMON Amstell’s first ever full length show in the city had been one of the most anticipated of the comedy festival.

He seemed to get off to a confused and nervous start, and having been warned it had been a long time since he’d last done stand up and seen how overwhelmingly shy he’d been with the press, I was wondering what we were in for.

However, once he was settled the set started to flow, and by the end Amstell was really on top of his game.

“I expected him to be darker and more nihilistic,� a friend said in the interval. More to the point, I thought, was that he was certainly both – except wrapped up in such an nonchalant, matter-of-fact delivery it could almost be missed.

Live, Amstell wants to investigate human nature, who we are, why we do the things we do, and what’s the point of it all. “What’s worse than being single? When you think about it, death is less bother,� he ponders.

His style, self-depreciating, aware of the absurdity of everything, including his own fame (“half the people in here are only here because the person sitting next to you likes me�), seems genuine. You could almost see him having to push himself out of his comfort zone.

There’s some skilful terrorising of the front row (“Five years together. And now you’re here. Paying for laughter. Remember when you used to make each other laugh?�); and a smidgen of the celeb-bashing that has seen his career through so far.

But this isn’t really the “cruel� Simon Amstell of Popworld and Nevermind the Buzzcocks. If anything, he’s harshest on himself. “My type is myself. What I really want is me, but a little bit better. So now I’ve just got to find someone who wants himself, but someone much, much worse,� he said after talking through the break up of his last relationship.

Finally, it must be mentioned that support act Arnab Chandra was a joy, and certainly one of the discoveries of the festival. His routine about living in Saudi Arabia and confusing hummous with Hamas (“I love hummous! Sure I’ll come to your meeting!�) was cute and clever and suited the headliner down to the ground.

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