Chatting With Tim Minchin – A Sneak Peak

Jay Houhlias

“Irony, my god! Humans invented irony, and it’s the most wonderful thing. It helped people laugh in the face of despair; it helped young men in the trenches in WW1. It’s an incredible tool.”

Tim Minchin

This November, Australian musician, writer, actor, songwriter, and comic returns to the Opera House for what will be, as Tim Minchin might say, a ‘super tight’ set of brilliant songs from his storied career featuring his 8-piece band.

The Forecourt Concert Series will run in Sydney from 10 to 19 November. The Sydney Opera House will present a special outdoor concert series including two free concerts as part of its year-long 50th anniversary celebrations.

Sydney Observer caught up with Tim for a chat. We covered a myriad of topics and probably could have covered a myriad more; life, love, the lack thereof, the past, present, and future – just the usual. All of this and more before Tim had his morning coffee. Of course, we expected nothing less from such a diverse, articulate, and talented individual.

“I think the main thing laughter does is disarm you. Laughter can make you very open, and it can allow you to deliver messages that aren’t necessarily funny… You can help the audience laugh at things that are painful, which is one of the roles of comedy that I think is very important. We run the risk of losing this art because of the internet – everything is taken out of the context. If you wrote some of my lyrics down in the newspaper, which people have (deliberately to criticise me), it can look really bad. Comedy, satire, and laughing at the things we find painful is an artform that takes many years of craft and practice.”