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Ready To Rant
Written Thursday, 11th February 2010 for The Herald by Anita Beaumont
PRIOR to striding out on to the stage of the Civic Theatre in Newcastle later this month, musical comedian Tim Minchin will have played a few cords on the piano and sung a few songs in soundcheck, perhaps enjoyed a can of Red Bull if he was feeling a little shattered, or a glass of wine if he was feeling tense.
And with a little hair styling and a good touch of make-up, he will have transformed into the manic Edward Scissorhands-esque ranting rock star character whose combination of stand-up and comedy first had audiences at the Melbourne Comedy Festival - then the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and later, London's West End - doubled over with laughter.
The now London based Australian entertainer and his family have been living out of a suitcase for three months as he awaits some final performances of his Ready For This show.
"We managed to avoid the worst winter London has had in a thousand years or something, so we're pretty happy with that," Minchin told LIVE.
"But I'm pretty excited to be doing shows again. It's a long break between shows, and you kind of forget what you're meant to do."
He was excited to be finally performing in Newcastle at the Civic Theatre, although admitted he was "scared shitless" that he might forget parts of the show as he hadn't performed it since December.
"I like this show, it's pretty ranty at times - I tend to do comedy about beliefs and things, and over the years I've discovered that's what I want to talk about, and maybe that's what I'm good at talking about, and Ready For This is a show that focuses on that stuff - which makes it sound really dry but it's really just ridiculous a lot of the time," He said.
People in Australia may also recognise Minchin from the documentary Rock n' Roll Nerd, which has aired several times on ABC.
The filmmaker was a friend who thought he might have a "fun year", and she started filming Minchin as he was preparing for a performance during the Melbourne Comedy Festival. None of them knew what was ahead.
Viewers saw Minchin transform his look into the one so many people recognise today, and watched as step-by-step he inched towards the big time on the comedy circuit.
"When it started, we were in Melbourne and I was not known by anyone - I had my little group of people who had seen me do little shows and came to everything I did, and I was still playing in cover bands and waiting for other things," Minchin said.
"I didn't really think about what the potential was at all - I thought it might end up being a half-hour thing on the ABC at 11 o' clock at night, a once-off."
Things changed for Minchin, not only during the course of making the film (where he wowed audiences at Edinburgh Fringe and the London's West End), but also in the year that passed before it screened.
His profile had doubled again by the time the documentary aired.
He had started to worry about how the film came across, as it was quite a personal look at his life, as well as his career.
"Then the reactions started coming in," He said.
"I still get emails from people, from young performers, who say they think every young performer should watch it, that they found it really inspiring, and I kind of realised that I was a bit narcissistic worrying about what people would think, because even when it's that personal, people just take from it what they want.
"These days I'm more cautious about where I pop up and how I'm presented, but I think in time we'll be really glad that doco exists."
"I think it will be am amazing thing to look back on when we're 50 or 150."
It doesn't bother Minchin that his career didn't really seem to flourish until he started wearing make-up and styling a longer hair-do.
He is a pragamist.
"I don't think, 'Oh, if they don't love me with my terrible hair then F--K them'," he laughed.
"The fact that there's an element to which fans seem to like the way I look is hilarious to me, because one thing I've known my whole life is that my looks aren't going to get me a lot - I'm never going to be a leading man in a romantic film."
"It's been quite nice to know that if I do certain things and get a bit fit then I'm not all that ugly.
"I love watching Johnny Depp because I think he's a great actor, but f--k he is pretty too. It's nice to watch people who are nice to watch."
Before Christmas Minchin was following the successful internet campaign in the UK to stop the latest of Britain's X-Factor winners topping the Christmas singles chart and decided to have a crack at the title himself with White Wine In The Sun.
"It was a tongue-in-cheek thing.. I thought, I'll hop on this and see if I can flog my atheistic Australian six-and-a-half minute Christmas song."
Minchin was going to donate much of the proceeds to autism research - good autism research.
He knows someone with autism, but also, "as a rationalist who does a lot of material about how belief systems that aren't based in evidence are dangerous", one of his biggest bugbears is anti-vaccination propaganda."
"There's a lot of people out there who are anti-vaccinations and conspiracy theorists who, especially in the UK, keep saying that vaccines cause autism." He said.
"It's so damaging because diseases like mumps and stuff are starting to rear their heads again in posh places in London because middle-class hippies are getting sold this life and not vaccinating their kids.
"I'm passionate about that, so that's why I'm donating money to good autism research to make sure that shysters and people who are bad at science don't keep f--cking it up, because apart from anything else, after all the research that has proved vaccines don't cause autism, it distracts from desperately-needed research into what does cause it and what to do about it once it exists."
(source)
Comments
Never gonna be a leading man in a romantic movie?? Are you kidding me?? You would be awesome Tim...At least be the next Doctor Who!!
Posted on 28th March 2010, 12:14
I can scan it... just as soon as I find my desk again... :P
Posted on 12th February 2010, 05:06
Foilly, any chance you could scan it? i liked this article as well. i think it's interesting he has come to change his mind about the doco. there's a radio interview from several months ago where he describes exactly what he's mentioned here, that it was a bit too personal maybe to put out in the UK. but it's cool to see he may have changed his perspective on this. i certainly found it inspiring as a creative person!
Posted on 12th February 2010, 01:59
nice one :)
Posted on 12th February 2010, 00:47
Wonderful interview there. And I agree with Tim, there needs to be more good autism reasearch.
Posted on 11th February 2010, 16:13
*sigh* I spelled chords wrong... I blame the fact it's midnight :D
Posted on 11th February 2010, 13:25
I personally like the photos of him in the Newspaper :D
Posted on 11th February 2010, 13:21
Just Julianna said:
Ok, I don't wanna be harsh but I'm an editing freak. Love the article, but a couple of errors: "musical comedian Tim Minchin will have played a few CORDS" *chords* "He is a pragamist." *pragmatist* He knows someone with autism, but also, "as a rationalist who does a lot of material about how belief systems that aren't based in evidence are dangerous", one of his biggest bugbears is anti-vaccination propaganda." *one too many quotation marks used*
Posted on 24th April 2010, 02:18