The idea of a life plan, "I'm here now, where do I need to go to..." There's always "And then what?" And eventually the end of that "and then what?" is death. I've just learned that I can't have such a narrow focus as I did as a child, because there is no end point, and eventually you feel empty if you're not also nourishing other things: joy, love, relationships.
Simon AmstellThe idea of a life plan, "I'm here now, where do I need to go to..." There's always "And then what?" And eventually the end of that "and then what?" is death. I've just learned that I can't have such a narrow focus as I did as a child, because there is no end point, and eventually you feel empty if you're not also nourishing other things: joy, love, relationships.
Simon AmstellI'm not playing a character. What I'm doing though is taking the worst, most shameful, peculiar, or troubling aspects of my personality. So there are elements of me that are not there. The happy version of me is not really in the show, because there's nothing funny about being happy. So it's more like I'm poaching on the funniest parts of me rather than actually creating some other character.
Simon AmstellI'm not interested in being gratuitously relatable and broadening out what I do in order to reach more people. When I'm going into specific details of the trauma, I think it's the details that connect with people. I'm accidentally relatable - I didn't mean to be, and I didn't think I would be. It feels like what I'm saying on stage is quite shameful and possibly perverted; so for other people to be laughing and go, "Oh, yes, we understand that. We are like that too," is very lovely.
Simon AmstellI can't bear small talk, it's awful. I want to get beyond that thing of discussing how the weather is a bit better today than it was yesterday, and how this is a nice restaurant. I want to get to what are the problems, what's really going on. Are you in love? Are you in a lot of pain? What's really going on in your life? I'm interested in that area, whether it's on stage or in real life.
Simon Amstell