Every room has an elephant

May 3 2008 by Gavin Allen, Western Mail

THE prospect of interviewing Simon Amstell – comedian, presenter and popbitch – made me apprehensive for two reasons.

Firstly, as question-master on TV show Popworld he subjected the useful and useless of music to all manner of sardonic ordeals; he knows this question and answer game well.

Secondly, Amstell is notoriously weary of interviews.

“So it’s only when we are desperate,” whinnied Amstell, when asked why he was giving this interview, a high-pitched gurgle of laugher partially disarming the bone-grazing insult.

He explains that he also has a pending appointment with the Stoke Sentinel because that date of his tour hasn’t sold out either: “Interviews make me anxious because, one, I’m more comfortable asking questions than I am answering them; two, the whole process fuels your ego; and three, even now I’m giving the impression that I have the answers to questions when I don’t.”

If your talent is in deconstructing, then you cannot fail to apply it to yourself.

The 28-year-old Londoner analyses his thoughts before they emerge from his mouth, thinks about them while they are being spoken and abridges them immediately after release.

And when a wit so sharp is applied to comedy, it always aims for the head.

“The theme of the show is about overcoming yourself.

“It’s our ego that creates our sense of self, and all the personality traits we have came about because that’s how we reacted at some point in our lives to a moment of fear or excitement.

“Why are people so attached to that personality they have created; the image?”

One feels that question runs through all Amstell’s work.

He began his career on children’s channel Nickelodeon but his breakthrough came at 21 with the sardonic and surreal magazine show Popworld, where he spent five very successful and creative years.

In October 2006 he took over from fellow mean-tongue Mark Lamarr on BBC2’s rock panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, where he locked eyelashes with the likes of Amy Winehouse and continued to unpick pop stars’ images with sledgehammer subtlety.

His skill lies in saying what others dare not.

“With Popworld we were reacting to the other pop programmes of the day, Top Of The Pops and CD:UK, because whatever was the big question everyone actually wanted asking, they never asked it,” he says.

“The elephant in the room, that was the thing for us.”

Amstell says he never regretted any of his verbal spears, believing instead that his problem was not having the courage to go further, but some people would disagree, including former Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes.

Hayes claims he was forcibly outed as gay during an interview when Amstell asked, ‘You’re obviously gay, why won’t you come out?’

Even though that section of the interview never aired, a furious Hayes felt compelled to come out afterwards.

“We had a very camp interview,” justifies Amstell.

“He was very camp in it – and that was the elephant in the room.

“This was in 2005 when people were out and OK, its not as if it was the ’70s.

“You have children who commit suicide because they are confused about themselves and anyone on TV helping to confuse them is a bad thing. It seemed to be the right thing to do.”

Amstell’s X-ray honesty is fine when applied to himself, but not everyone wants to reveal that much to the world – and to his timetable. Amstell is openly gay but had the luxury of coming out on his own terms.

“The decision I made was that once I was confident about it myself, I couldn’t be inauthentic about it after that,” he says, shifting in his seat.

“But that’s irrelevant. Basically you have to find yourself and then let yourself go.”

He checks that sentence in its tracks: “That sounds very pretentious. I have to call the Stoke newspaper in three minutes. Is that a good way of avoiding the question?”

I was surprised Amstell was wriggling so uncomfortably with the kind of question he asks every day and it made a very articulate, genuine and funny man look hypocritical and slightly foolish.

“I don’t want to upset anybody,” he says. “It upsets me if people don’t realise I’m doing it as a joke. It’s not just random viciousness, I don’t hate everyone.

“We always thought very hard about the people we had on the shows, how we might play with their image, and everything comes from a place of love.

“We are really into TV and showbiz and music so when people exploit the medium and their position by releasing cheap cash-in books or inferior products I don’t like it. What we try to do is keep egos in check.”

Acid tongue lodged in asbestos cheek, he concluded: “It’s a generous thing we are doing, a humanitarian service, because the rest of the world is gushing about these people.”

Simon Amstell performs at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, tomorrow. The box office number is 029 2087 8444