Tim Minchin
R4 DVD
Madman Entertainment
Tim Minchin is a very unusual performer,
combining superb musicianship, amusing comedic skills and a very savvy stage persona.
His skills at the piano and as a singer cannot be faulted; he has a certain
“Billy Joel” even “Elton John” sound (though he would be loathe to admit it)
with a flair for showmanship.
It is clear that Minchin is professional
enough as a musician that he could easily cut it as a jazz or cabaret performer
and yet he has decided to work within his own niche market focused on comedy.
This makes him at first glance a rather eccentric and devoted artiste.
So live reflects on all manner of subjects
including religious intolerance, death, sexuality, war, fatherhood,
relationships, gender and anger management. At the same time it is not all
serious stuff, along the way we are treated to a fun song about a blow up sex
doll and lots of jokes about censorship, sex, language and relationships. Other
amusing ballads includes “So Rock” and “Dark Side” – a hilarious send up of would be Goths.
Mitchin also explores his emotions in his
performance art /song-poems “Angry” and “Mitsubishi Colt” and confronts intolerance with quite some
heat. His song “a ten foot cock and a thousand virgins” is one of the more
virulent attacks on religion I have heard in many years. It is nicely
constructed to a “Middle Eastern” beat and shows a solid knowledge of
comparative religion as well as history. He is stridently atheist and stares
down extremists with humour and wit. His musings on religion and science are
some of the better sections of his show.
While Minchin has dabbled in acting, his
success lies in his mixture of cabaret, music, humour and poetry. His show
walks a fine line between comedy and music and while always controversial
balances light humour with more taboo subjects such as discussions of Islam,
Christianity, the Middle East and so on. Minchin has been quite daring in his
willingness to explore subjects many comedians would consider taboo.
While Mitchin is an accomplished and
professional performer there are aspects of his act however which seem too glib
and too polished. His appearance, for example, looks awfully contrived. It is
as though he tested the market and felt these “affectations” would work well
and hence he created a “look”. His slight makeup and trendy appearance seems so
damn artificial it gets on your nerves after a while. Even his lack of shoes is
part of his trademarked presentation. I am sure as “Emo” goes out and something
else comes in his persona will transform to suit the market. This is one very
savvy performer with his finger on the dollar value of the comedy pulse.
While his songs have a nice witty edge,
they also seem to lack any great depth. His peace song on Palestine is a fun
reflection on religious prohibitions against eating pork yet it says little
else. It is much the same as his environmental song which simply focuses on
“canvas bags”. As works of comedy they share the same technique as many of his
other ditties. They take a central ideological motif and use satire to ridicule
it while padding the song out with long musical riffs. The more you listen to
them the more like advertising jingles they become and the less perceptive they
seem.
Songs such as Rock and Roll Nerd and Dark
Side actually seem rather insightful as they represent his essential quandary.
When he tells us he married the woman to whom he lost his virginity I am not
surprised. Here is an artiste who does not really have a deep perception of the
world around him and lacks life experience. His knack for song writing and
musical skills means he has a gimmick which gets him noticed, but he does not
seem to have been through the “school of hard knocks”. Now this may seem rather
harsh, but truly communicative comedians need depth and I just do not feel
Minchin, at this stage of his career anyway, has it. A lot of his music
actually sounds much the same and the comedy wears thin fairly quickly. Yes
there is the shock value of his constantly colourful language and songs about
sex and religion, but in the end there is not a lot else. After we stop being
shocked, we start being a little bored.
I am not saying his comedic style is not
funny and at times very entertaining. He is certainly a very “trendy” comedian
and appears on the right shows and at the right comedy festivals. But with the
amount of potential talent he clearly has I think as consumers we can demand a
lot more. He is “technically accomplished” and good at what he does but that
does not make him great.
In my mind Minchin is like a new vat of
Whiskey. It has just been made, has all the right ingredients, superb aroma and
just the right balance to create something delicious. But it needs to age. At
this early stage it is damn good but until it reaches that magic level of
maturity it is not brilliant.
I would like to see Minchin in twenty
years when his wife has had a few more kids and his life has been a bit more
challenging. Maybe his daughter has a drug habit and his son has become a
fundamentalist Christian. His mother has an artificial leg and he has had a few
prostate checks. He is balding and has a middle age paunch. He has had some
very lean times in his career when he played singalongs for local clubs. He has
been drinking a little too much wine and is now ready for a comeback. Maybe
then his life experience will match his abilities and he will be truly
magnificent.
Tim Minchin - So Live was Filmed in June 2007 in the intimacy of
the Sydney Opera House Studio and features the complete two-hour solo
performance including material both from "Dark Side" (2005) and
"So Rock" (2006).
Special
features include:
Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala
2006 performance - "Canvas Bags"
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Gala 2006 performance - "The Guilt Song"
Spicks and Specks 2006 TV performances -
"Song for Alan Brough"
Spicks and Specks 2007 TV performances - -
"The Adam Hillsong"
The Sideshow 2007 TV performances -
"Not Perfect"
BBC Comedy Shuffle 2007 TV performance -
"Canvas Bags"
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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