Tuesday, June 05, 2007

my simon amstell london embarrassment

You may or may not know that my favourite comedian guy is the popular Never Mind The Buzzcocks host, Simon Amstell.

Well, I'm in London. I came down yesterday on the train (cost: £35) to see Amstell's stand-up show for the first time, with my London friend and fellow Amstell-appreciator Harriet.

Booked the tickets weeks ago, (cost: £6.50. Bargain!) and had been really quite looking forward to it ever since.

The plan was simple: get to London in the afternoon, saunter over to Mile End to find Harriet, saunter about some more, then make our way to Camden's Etcetera Theatre for about 8:30, because doors open at 7:30 and that would be pretty much perfect. We can't afford pricey Camden drinks, after all.

Except: we got to the theatre and are confused about how to get inside. We ask a barmaid, and suddenly it becomes clear: the 7:30 on the ticket wasn't the doors open time, it was the show start time.

Cue general mortified reactions.

We crept upstairs to the theatre anyway, and entered a room with no more than 70 people in it, and Amstell six feet from us, who then proceeded to welcome us in, and explain that he had just told the audience that that was pretty much the end of the show, and asked if anybody had any questions.

Harriet speedily asked if he could provide the gist of the show to us two latecomers, to which he then generously spent three minutes reading out the hundred or so prompt words he had written down, and telling a couple of short jokes he'd missed out along the way.

And then that was it. Show over. And a room of 70 people are laughing at us having been encouraged by our favourite comedian.

Awesome. Both of us know now, not to presume that that time printed on tickets is the time doors open. Important lesson learnt, I think.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a shame you missed the show! On the bright side, if you have to learn life lessons, it's best to have Simon Amstell involved somehow.

Anonymous said...

This is great. I can sooooo imagine it. Look on the bright side - Simon gave you a personal show! You can maybe catch him on a date on the tour - and just to be sure of timings, camp outside the venue the previous night ;-)

Anonymous said...

aww shame you missed the show! dont want to rub it in but its really good haha! did you manage to get to another date? i assume this was a warm up gig? did you get to one on the tour? go to edinburgh festival if you havent seen him as i think he is always there! also have a peek at the pleasence theatre in islington i think he is there qtie alot! i love him too!