Numb: Simon Amstell Live At The BBC

Usually I tend not to cover solo stand-up shows on TV because they're usually just edited-down versions of DVDs, but this isn't the case with show from Simon Amstell. Fed up with all the stand-up DVDs out there, Amstell has decided to make to perform his latest stand-up show for the BBC rather than just release it as a DVD.

Numb, broadcast on BBC Four in a specially minimalist set at the TV Centre, is mostly about Amstell's own anxiety, relationships with his family, friends and boyfriends, and his views on pain, feeling and life itself.

There were so many high moments in the show, such as his experiences of holidaying alone in Amsterdam, going to a nude swimming pool, and how he is now so lonely he watches the least ethical porn he can find.

The show was indeed a good one, and for those who are perhaps not into this kind of comedy, Amstell could help start a trend. Hopefully other comedians might go this way of taking their comedy routines to TV rather than DVD. I would certainly welcome it.

Review - Numb: Simon Amstell Live at the BBC, BBC4

Is self-consciousness contagious? When I started watching Numb: Simon Amstell Live at the BBC I was feeling pretty relaxed. But by the end I was almost as knotted with anxieties as he is.

Simon Amstell: A seriously funny man

Simon Amstell has made a comedy career out of angst. But, thanks to a Peruvian shaman and a Parisian clown, he's now as happy as he's ever been, he tells Alice Jones.

So it's New Year's Eve, and the rest of the world is forming itself into a conga line outside your door. But what if you're just not a party person?

Instead of sobbing into your miniature of sherry, check out Simon Amstell's soul-searching stand-up set in which the star of Grandma's House and one-time Buzzcocks host comes clean about all the ways social situations leave him feeling lonely, disconnected and depressed.

Far from being a vein-opening hour of gloom, Simon is on sparkling form as he describes various doomed attempts to fit in with the cool but humourless London trendies he would love to be one of. A typical bad-party anecdote finds him reluctantly inhaling nitrous oxide out of balloons. "I don't do drugs, but I will if it comes in balloons," he explains.

It's so confessional, when the hour is up you feel like you should charge him £85 and remind him to make another appointment.

A stand-up show by the star of Grandma's House. The theme is Amstell's inability to feel emotion without analysing it to death. The resulting spiritual journey took him to an all-nude pool in Amsterdam, a shamanic retreat in Peru and hipster parties in east London.

As he obsessively turns in on himself, the serious musings on the futility of modern life could turn the comedy to mush. They don't because the one addiction the vegan, teetotal Amstell can't shake is getting the rhythm and structure of a punchline just so.

There were a few beacons of light [on New Year's Eve]. Normally the idea of a whole hour of a Simon Amstell stand-up routine would be at least half an hour too long, but in Numb: Simon Amstell Live at the BBC (BBC4) his morose, loser schtick was a welcome antidote to all the relentless cheeriness and ersatz sentiment everywhere else. Amstell's killer line was: "You wake up. And it just gets darker." Thanks to the rest of the TV schedules, I knew exactly what he meant.

Ex-Buzzcocks host and Grandma's House star Simon Amstell takes his Numb tour to Television Centre. Dealing with Amstell's overbearing inability to connect with others, it's tempting to suggest this isn't the cheeriest option for those finding themselves alone on New Year's Eve, and in less adept hands such material might come across as leftover whine. Yet, when delivered with Amstell's engagingly weary incredulity, one can't help but be won over. At one point, he admonishes the audience with the words, "This is my actual life, not a fun night out!" It certainly makes for a captivating night in.