Help deconstructs his stand-up... and his life

Simon Amstell has written his first book.

Help will feature transcripts of his stand-up and expands on the personal stories behind his routines, including his revelatory experience of the hallucinogen ayahuasca and how being gay has informed his entire career.

It will be published on September 21 by Penguin imprint Square Peg to coincide with his What Is This Tour?

Amstell shared further details of the book, first revealed by Chortle in March, in a lengthy chat with Russell Brand on his podcast, in which he also discussed the development process of his recent film Carnage and defended his cruelty to guests while hosting Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Amstell's experience of taking ayahuasca, which Amazonian tribes use as a traditional spiritual medicine, inspired a routine in his 2012 show Numb.

'But at the point where I said I was reborn, on stage I said "there's no time to talk about that" he recalled. 'In the book I say "there's now time and we go on for 20 pages about what happened.'

He told Brand of his initial reluctance to bond with the other people he was taking the drug with, but how he subsequently felt connected to every living thing, to the extent of hugging a wooden post in the absence of a tree.

'It's really been interesting going through, seeing all the patterns and seeing where I I end up writing almost the same joke again, not out of laziness just out of the fact that I'm a human being with patterns' he reflected.

The star and co-creator of the BBC sitcom Grandma's House also deconstructed a routine from his 2010 show, Do Nothing, in which he mooned his grandmother.

'I just thought that was a funny story I suppose, I knew there was some sort of psychological reason why I mooned my grandmother' he said.

'But then I write in the book , I understand this now as a story about a young gay person in Essex, who is doing something totally inappropriate, to see if something inappropriate could still be met with love.'

When pressed by Brand, Amstell revealed that his grandmother hadn't minded, even though he'd been 15 at the time of the incident.

'The context is being gay! … only in my head' he recalled. 'Because of the frustration, I won't be able to be who I am in this living room …

'Everything I've ever done in showbusiness has been a version of showing my grandmother my bottom. Will you still accept me if I'm this nutty?'

Help is available to pre-order here.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 11 May 2017