Who can forget Tim’s ironic iconic dance moves over the past few years? From the sultry wiggle in If I Didn’t Have You and the highly polished routine in Bears Don’t Dig on Dancing to the high kicks in If You Really Loved Me and the French waltz in Cheese, Tim is an expert when it comes to comedy choreography!
Given these credentials, who else, is better qualified to judge this Saturday’s Let’s Dance for Sport Relief?
Yes, that’s right. On 3rd March, 7pm on BBC One, Tim will be sitting alongside fellow comics Ed Byrne and Katy Brand to appraise the contestants’ interpretations of classic dance routines as they vie for a spot in the series’ final.
Tomorrow’s contestants will be Scott Mills, Olly Murs, Omid Djalili, Tyger Drew Honey, Kirsten O’Brien and Arabella Weir and there’ll be musical performances from Chris Isaak and Tinchy Stryder & Pixie Lott.
Maybe he’ll end up teaching them a step or two – you’ll have to tune in to find out!
Did you know that you share 96.4% of your DNA with orangutans? You can proudly show off this fact, by purchasing one of the t-shirts, as modelled by the lovely Tim on the right, from the Sumatran Orangutan Society’s online shop.
In addition to this, the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) are also holding some Jungle VIP auctions where you can win various items from celebrities, and one of these items is the shirt that Tim wore during his ‘Ready For This?’ tour! You can start bidding tonight from 8pm at the SOS’s eBay page.
Proceeds from the auctions and t-shirt sales will go to the SOS so that they can continue their work in helping protect the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans and the apes’ environment.
More information about the work they do, and about the other Jungle VIP auctions, can be found on the SOS’s Jungle VIP website.
Tim’s extending his stay in LA to play an intimate show at Largo at the Coronet on the 9th April 2012!
The venue holds a measly 280 people, so if you want to see this panda-eyed Australian up close and personal, you’d better get a move on as the show is already on sale!
Tickets are available exclusively online at Largo’s website here.
Tim is joining Eddie Izzard, Larry King, Jim Jefferies and many more at KROQ’s annual Kevin & Bean’s April Foolishness show on Saturday April 7th 2012 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.
Tickets go on sale this Thursday, March 1st, at 10am PST via Live Nation.
For the full line up and further details, including ticket prices look here.
Ticket proceeds will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project and Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Children’s Heath Center NICU.
If you’re in the mood for some foolishness then act fast when this goes on sale, as it’s likely to sell out.
The Henley Festival has announced that Tim will be co-headlining, with opera singer Alfie Boe, on Friday 6th July, on the Floating Stage, Henley-on-Thames, UK. He will be joined on stage by his band, Pete Clements and Brad Webb. Everyone will be wearing their best bib and tucker for this event. Everyone.
Tickets are currently on sale to friends of the festival and go on general sale 14th March:
Box office: 01491 843404
Online: www.henley-festival.co.uk
*****
Tim will also close this May’s Bury St Edmunds Festival as he performs solo, in the Fat Cat Comedy Special, on Sunday 27th May, at 8pm. The actual number of fat cats attending has not been confirmed.
Tickets for all Festival events go on sale from 27th February:
Box Office: 01284 758000
Online: www.buryfestival.co.uk
Please Note: Bury St Edmunds – Rescheduled
Now Sunday 9th of September 2012
This gig was postponed from 27th May 2012. For further information please see this blog post.
So, two more festival opportunities for lyrical and exuberant musical satire performed on a buffed grand piano by a snappily dressed man with hair tousled to within an inch of its life.
Tim and his kick-ass band (Pete Clements and Brad Webb) will be heading to Knebworth, on the 7th July 2012, to blow the roof off the Saturn Stage at Sonisphere!
They’ll be joining a lineup that includes rock legends Queen (and Adam Lambert), KISS and Faith No More! Also appearing over the weekend will be glam favourites The Darkness, Marilyn Manson, Cypress Hill and Andrew WK.
Tickets for the festival go on sale Thursday, 23rd February, at 9am from the Sonisphere website!
Yesterday evening the 12th annual Whatsonstage.com Awards took place at the West End’s Prince of Wales Theatre. These UK theatre industry awards are nominated by and voted for purely by theatregoers and the ticket-buying public. Matilda The Musical had received an incredible nine nominations!
Matilda the Musical triumphed, winning Best New Musical – Tim Minchin & Dennis Kelly; Best Set Designer – Rob Howell and Best Choreographer – Peter Darling.
Tim won The London Newcomer of the Year for his work on Matilda.
“With 35% of the votes in his category, Australian comedian Tim Minchin, making his musical debut providing the show’s music and lyrics, was a commanding winner for London Newcomer of the Year.” Whatsonstage.com
Tim: “I’ve been around for a bit but newcomer implies that I like doing new stuff and that the industry expects me to keep doing stuff in the London theatre world, which I really hope I can do.”
Many congratulations to Tim, the creative team, cast and everyone involved with Matilda the Musical!
The Larmer Tree Festival have announced that their comedy headliner is to be none other than Tim! He’ll be ripping up the Main Stage – the first comedian ever to do so, may I add – on Thursday, 12th July, accompanied only by his grand piano.
Other acts confirmed to be on at the festival, which takes place in Wiltshire, include Jools Holland and The Levellers, with plenty more acts, including comedians, still to be announced.
You can check the latest news and find out further information about the festival on their website and it’s the place to go to grab your tickets too.
Due to high demand sublime on stage chemistry the 2012 Telegraph Hay Festival has added another date for Tim with the delectable B[rad]&P[ete] band: Thursday 31st May at 8pm in the Barclays Pavillion.
Tickets are already on general sale. The festival box office number is 01497 822629 and online ticket sales can be found here.
The Hay Festival is celebrating its 25th year with ten days of music, comedy, literature and more, all taking place from 31th May to the 10th June. Other acts and the programme of events will be announced on the festival website on the 14th February.
Head for the [Malvern] hills! Tim will be performing at the Malvern Piano Festival on Saturday 2nd June at 8.30pm. He’ll be joined on stage by a piano reinforced for his zestful exuberance, some natty attire and his aesthetically pleasing and talented band, Brad and Pete, who toured with him and the Heritage Orchestra last year.
Tickets are £25 and £22.50 and available from the Box Office: 01684 892277 and online here.
The Malvern Piano Festival runs from the 1st June to the 3rd June 2012, if you fancy some additional pianist action.
Tickets for Tim’s shows have been selling out very quickly so if you want to catch this show get a w[r]iggle on!
UPDATE: We were informed that the tickets would be on general sale today but an error occurred. They are rectifying the situation. You will be able to buy the tickets shortly.
UPDATE: 18:15 GMT They are back on general sale now – you do not have to be a member to purchase.
Did you miss out on tickets to see Tim play in an intimate, purple upside-down cow when they first went on sale? It’s not surprising if you answered, ‘yes,’ as the initial allocation was sold out before we got a chance to announce the show! Fortunately, a second allocation of tickets are now available, however, to make things fair, there’s a bit of a twist.
There are 150 tickets available for the show on the 8th July at the Udderbelly at the Southbank Centre in London, but, to ensure that they’re bought by fans, and not touts that’ll sell them on for extortionate prices, the folk at Udderbelly Festival have decided to run a “ballot” system for them.
Between now and 5pm on the 8th February, you can apply for either one or two tickets to the show (only your first entry will be accepted so don’t you go trying to cheat…) and you’ll be notified as to whether you’ve been successful or not shortly after the ballot closes.
There are various other terms and conditions, like you need to pick the tickets up on the day with the card with which you paid for them, and it’s only open to UK residents, and the age restriction for the show is 16+. You can and should read all the small print here on their Terms and Conditions page.
UPDATE: the Underbelly site is temporarily down from too many eager fans! Don’t forget, there’s no rush to get your application in as the ballot is open until Wednesday 8th February.
UPDATE: To address the queries about ticket prices if you win the ballot:
This gig has unreserved seating for the standard ticket price. Sirloin priority seating allows a very limited number of customers per performance to sit near the front. No one is under any obligation to choose a sirloin seat upgrade. The ballot is for the standard £30 ticket. If a customer wishes to upgrade this ticket to a sirloin seat, should they be available, then they have that option.
Tim will be appearing on the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, tonight, 31st January 2012, on Channel Nine at 9.30pm – 11.30pm.
Formerly the AFI Awards, the AACTA Awards will be screened from the Sydney Opera House in a delayed broadcast. This year the television section of the awards marks 25 years of celebrating Australian television.
Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett and Red Dog starlet Rachael Taylor head a host of film and television stars who will present the inaugural Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. Special guest Olivia Newton-John will be singing a medley from the soundtrack of her new film, A Few Best Men.
The Hay Festival is celebrating its 25th year with ten days of music, comedy, literature and more, all taking place from 31th May to the 10th June. Other acts and the programme of events will be announced on the festival website over the coming weeks.
Tickets are now on general sale. The festival box office number is 01497 822629 and online ticket sales can be found here.
29th Jan 2012 UPDATE: More tickets have been put on sale now – grab them while you can!
Hey you, Americans! Are you starting to suffer from withdrawal symptoms after Tim’s tours last year, and do you like secularism and skepticism? Then boy, should you be excited right about now!
Your favourite Golden Lion Tamarin descendant, Tim, is set to rock up to the Reason Rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on the 24th March 2012, bringing his silly songs about science and rationalism with him!
The event is free to attend, and will run from 10am to 4pm. In addition to Tim, Bad Religion and Jamie Kilstein will also be performing and there’ll be talks from Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers and James Randi, amongst many others.
Additional information and the full line up can be found on the Reason Rally website.
I really like Jonathan Ross. I think he’s a funny, interesting, kind person, and an excellent interviewer. I also really like his wife… But let’s not get back into that.
Jonathan and his wonderful producer, Suzi, have been incredibly supportive of me and so when they asked me to write a song for their pre-Christmas show, I didn’t hesitate. It was the worst possible time to be writing a new song – I’ve been overworked and ill, was on tour, and was really feeling the stress. But I wasn’t going to say no… it’s Jonathan Ross! And my fellow guests were to be Tom Cruise, the divine actors from Downton Abbey, and the ace Inbetweeners boys.
So I got to writing. Being Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a song about Jesus, but being TV, I knew it would have to be gentle. The idea was to compare him to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology.
It’s not a particularly original idea, I admit, but it’s quite cute. It’s certainly not very contentious, but even so, compliance people and producers and lawyers all checked my lyrics long before the cameras rolled. As always with these bespoke writing jobs, I was really stressed for about 3 days, and almost chucked it in the bin 5 times, and freaked out that it wasn’t funny and all that boring shit that people like me go through when we’re lucky enough to have with a big audience with high expectations. And if I’m honest, it ain’t a world-changing bit of comedy. Regardless…
On Tuesday night last week, we taped the show. I met Tom (he’s nice and quite laid-back off camera, and not very short) and the divine Downton ladies (swoon) and the lovely Inbetweeners chaps (yay) and I did my song and everyone laughed and Tom said it was great and when it was done I ran off set onto the back of a waiting motorbike, got from South Bank to the Hammersmith Apollo in 13 minutes, walked into the building, straight on to stage to sing White Wine in the Sun with Professor Brian Cox. Rock n roll.
Subsequently, Suzi and her team edited the show and everybody was happy. Suzi felt it had a nice balance of big-ticket celeb action, local talent, and a nice bit of that cheeky, iconoclastic spirit for which Jonathan is known and widely loved.
And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham.
And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show.
He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.
Yesterday I wrote a big rant about comedy and risk and conservatism; about the fact that my joke has no victim; about sacredness (oh God, not again!) and about the importance of laughing at dumb but pervasive ideas. But I trashed it because it’s boring and takes it all too seriously. It’s hardly the end of the world.
But I have to admit I’m really fucking disappointed.
It’s 2011. The appropriate reaction to people who think Jesus is a supernatural being is mild embarrassment, sighing tolerance and patient education.
And anger when they’re being bigots.
Oh, and satire. There’s always satire.
Anywaaaaaaaaaay… the fun news is that I already had the footage of the song when they cut it. Yay. And so you can decide for yourself how offensive it is! Yippee.
Oh, and although I can’t think why anyone would have a problem with me posting this (Peter has covered his arse, the protection of which he is rather nervous about) but I suppose you lovely tech-geeks might want to grab a copy or mirror it, just in case I get asked to take it down.
I hope you enjoy my silly, harmless, accurate song of praise, “Woody Allen Jesus”.
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