Tim Minchin: Joking aside ...
Although widely recognised for his epic orchestral comedy shows, Tim Minchin has a distinctly unfunny side that he wants to share with Christchurch. John Person reports.
Tim Minchin hasn’t lost his funny. But he has asked it to take a wee snooze on the back seat, while his music takes the wheel of his career for a while.
And his current show – An Unfunny Evening with Tim Minchin and his Piano – being free of comedy makes sense as, in truth, Minchin the funnyman is incidental to his musical career.
“I never thought of myself as a comedian,” he says. “It’s just not my world. I never did the clubs, I never did the ‘five minutes’. I just went straight into hour-long or 90-minute shows. I’m a cabaret artist, actually.” He immediately stops and reverses away from that description, on the basis that “cabaret is people singing songs from Les Mis, or whatever”.
So perhaps polymath is a better description, and it’s not overstating the case. Minchin is, of course, a comedian (who can be devastatingly funny when he chooses); a pianist and singer; a raconteur; a composer and lyricist; an author; an actor and a director. We’ll include that last one, although Minchin poo-poos the idea despite having directed the opening episode of TV comedy drama Upright, (as well as writing it, starring in it … you get the idea).
Minchin developed An Unfunny Evening while working in London on his musical Groundhog Day. The concept is to allow Minchin’s non-comedic music to come to the fore: the songs he wrote for Groundhog Day and children’s musical Matilda; compositions from his early days, before comedy infiltrated his music; and material from Apart Together, his 2020 “straight” album.
After starting in the UK and eventually moving down under, the tour has clocked up some 70-odd dates in venues generally much more intimate than Minchin has played in the past. And almost always sold them out.
“This tour is just another step in trying to create a genre of performance that is defined by it being mine, rather than by any other moniker,” he says.
“Although I got known as a comedian, it's kind of odd. Because if you count the number of people who have seen my musicals and the schoolchildren who have grown up on those songs – or watched Upright, or one of the films I've been in – comedy is down the list of my cultural impact, if I’ve had a cultural impact.”
So Minchin’s comedy isn’t dead; its nap in the back is just a natural part in the arc of his multifaceted career. And having now asserted his right to occupy the space of straightforward musician, Minchin has cleared the way to reintroduce the funny stuff as and when it feels right, (assuming he can wake it up again.)
On Sunday, and again this Monday, the folk of Christchurch can enjoy what might be the closure of a unique chapter in Minchin’s career at The Isaac Theatre Royal. Although the funny songs familiar to many will be absent, his more serious musical side will be out on display.
And given the fact that he will be chatting to the audience, it’s hard to imagine that his naturally comedic delivery won’t inadvertently amuse someone. But no sniggering in the back, please. This is no laughing matter.