Simon Amstell (work in progress), Invisible Dot

BBC 2 star and off-the-wall comedic waif Simon Amstell makes a hotly-anticipated return to the Invisible Dot this March with a run of new work-in-progress dates. These are Amstell’s first London shows since his return from the USA, where he spent much of 2013 touting his comedic wares since the critically acclaimed second series of his blurrily autobiographical family sitcom Grandma’s House.

Amstell’s stand-up is painfully self-analytical in a way that will surprise anyone only familiar with him from his pop-cultural captaincy of Channel 4’s whimsical Popworld and the BBC’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks. His last two touring shows – Numb and Do Nothing – were intense psychological self-portraits  - fuelled by a self-criticism that allowed him to plunge guts-deep into his own neuroses, whilst deftly puncturing stirrings of pretentiousness with a keen sense of his own ridiculousness.

His new work is less ‘existential anatomy lesson’, more: exploration of the ‘ hippy caricature ’ joy and healing he says he found while drinking psychedelic tea in Peru. But old habits die hard, and in this intimate work-in-progress show you’ll get the odd treat of seeing a comedian with one eye in the moment and the other fixated on deconstructing his every routine. You still get a portrait of the most self-aware comedian on the circuit - but this time round things are a little more uplifting.