I’m incredibly excited that DC Turner’s wondrous animation of my large and ranty beat-poem, Storm, has finally been released online.
Two and a half years in the making, it is the result of epic dedication from DC and from the producer, Tracy King, who has driven the whole thing from day 1.
The film was long-listed for an Animated Short Film BAFTA and has played to great acclaim at festivals, but it hasn’t actually been completed til, well… today actually.
Tracy says: “When we first started Storm we had no idea how big it would become, but it was always our intention that this would be a free film for YouTube, and I’m so proud that that day is finally here. One of the best ways to get people to listen is to give them something to see, and I like to think of Storm as a gateway for ideas as well as a piece of entertainment, which is why we wanted to make this film. The fact that we were still making tiny changes a few hours before it went live is testament to the passion that has gone into the film and the justice we want to do to the source material. While I still maintain the best way to see Storm is to see Tim perform it live, I hope you enjoy our animated version as much as we enjoyed making it.”
Dan says: “Making Storm has been an exhilarating, terrifying experience, and I am endlessly grateful to everybody who worked on the film.
Now stop reading this and watch the film.”
If you want to learn more about how this all came to be, try here. I hope you love it as much as I do.
People of the UK, we hope you’ve missed hearing Tim’s dulcet tones over the radio, or seeing his big face on your televisual box, as there are some forthcoming events of that variety this very weekend!
It all kicks off tomorrow, when Tim will appear on Ian McMillan’s The Verb on Radio 3 at 9:15pm, alongside Blake Bailey and bits of Galician poetry.
On Saturday, Tim will be on Christian O’Connell’sJon Holmes’s Radio 5Live show sometime between 9am and 11am, shortly followed by an appearance on Vernon Kay’s Radio One show.
The next day, Tim will be on Something for the Weekend on BBC2, 10am – 11:30am, cooking up a treat alongside Arlene Phillips! If you’ve got anything you’d like to ask him, the show are appealing for questions via email or Twitter
Perfect timing if you were starting to think he’d left you for Australia! Oh, and if you aren’t in the UK, don’t forget you can still listen to BBC Radio with their iPlayer.
If you live in or near Seattle, WA, USA, here’s the heads-up that Tim will be splashing down in person, possibly in a smart waistcoat and certainly with a piano and hair teased into utter confusion, at The Neptune Theatre on 24th June 2011.
Tickets go on general sale on Friday 8th April, 8PM PDT and you’ll find further information and ticket purchase opportunities here.
OR there’s a presale, on right now if you go here and use the password/promo code ‘band’.
Hey, this show will be so rock, there might even be an Eddie Vedder impression that gets really deep…
If you’re in Australia, here’s a little something special for you! For the first time ever, anywhere in the world, some of Tim’s CDs are being properly released so that you can buy them in actual shops!
That’s right, you’ll be able to walk down to your local Sanity, JB HiFi or other record store of your choice and buy a Tim CD from them! Or, you could, you know, buy it from their websites instead.
The two albums being made available initially are 2009’s ‘Ready For This?’ and this year’s ‘Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra’. Both of these have been released on Navel Records and being distributed by Inertia Music.
If you’re elsewhere and wanting a copy of the orchestra album, we’ll hopefully have some news for you on that shortly but in the meantime, here’s a nice medley of clips from it to whet your appetite.
So last Sunday’s live broadcast of Tim Minchin vs the SSO was marred by gremlins in the speakers (no, not Gizmo; he wouldn’t hurt a fly and besides, he’s a mogwai) – a more technical explanation of which can be found here along with an apology from the ABC for the problems.
Well, the good news is that it will be broadcast again this Sunday; same time and same place as last time (8:30pm, ABC2). This time, though, they’ve rounded up the Stripe and his gang and are holding them in cages so that this showing will go out glitch-free!
The call for inviting your elderly relatives over to watch this still stands. Hopefully they’ll enjoy it more now that they’ll be able to hear Tim!
There have been quite a few requests from you Americans for Tim to come to Chicago, which would make today your lucky day!
Tim has been confirmed as part of the line up of this year’s Just for Laughs festival in Chicago! He’ll be playing a huge five nights at the Lincoln Hall between 14th and 18th June, with each show starting at 10pm. This will be the longest run of shows Tim has done in America apart from his off-broadway run in New York in early 2008, just in case you’re the type of person who likes useless trivia.
The shows look to go on sale on Saturday at 10am via eTix on the venue’s website.
I won’t add any more razzle dazzle or all that jazz, but suffice to say, you’ll definitely be wanting to getting your bear paws on these tickets! (… sorry)
UPDATE: We’ve just heard there’s an Internet pre-sale, Friday April 1st at 10am for one day only. You can access this advance ticketing goodness via the Just For Laughs, Chicago website here and the password is “laughs”.
Shell x
Re: Pre-sale problems: In case you have not seen the comments by Linzy or me here or on Facebook – they are aware of the problem and are working on fixing it. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything helpful. Sx
They seem to be on sale here ok.
Some are finding ‘laughs’ works, others ‘witty’. We suggest you try both.
Shell x
The Royal Shakespeare Company have confirmed that their world premiere production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, A Musical, is to transfer to London’s West End in autumn 2011, for an open-ended run.
Tickets will go on sale in May when further exciting details of the venue, performance dates and casting will also be announced.
In case any of you have yet to notice the pretty tab at the top of the page we’d like to point you to the sparkly new Matildapage on this very website. It will give you the the story so far as well as videos and handy links, including to the dedicated Matilda, A Musical website where you can sign up for future news directly from the RSC and to the Matilda sub-forum on Tim’s official fansite if you’re keen and a little bit naughty…
UPDATE: For those watching the ABC2 broadcast, the audio problem in the first half was caused by the delayed ABC transmission. The second half is being broadcast live and there’ll be no problems. Linzy x
This is starting off as a reminder for you lucky Australians. Tim will be on your televisions tomorrow night at 8:30pm, with the Sydney Symphony, performing his latest show live from the Sydney Opera House! Mind you, he will only be on your television if you’re tuned into ABC2 so make sure that you are! And in case you missed it, we did a post about this, with a few more details in, here.
And as if you Aussies weren’t lucky enough, afterwards, ABC2 will be showing Rhian Skirving’s doco, Rock n Roll Nerd, about Tim’s rise from obscurity. Should be interesting to compare and contrast the two!
Oh, and Tim would really appreciate it if you could refrain from uploading clips from the live broadcast to YouTube etc as it goes against the spirit of watching this unique event, and also, you may have seen Tim recently tweet, “comedy = surprise,” so clips up whilst he is still touring the show can ruin that factor for those yet to see it.
Besides which, the double CD that was recorded in Manchester, with all the songs from the show on it, will be unleashed in a few days, both here and on iTunes. Oh, and there should be a DVD due by the end of the year too.
If you’re planning to rock your socks* off in a field this summer then you may fancy joining Tim at Reading or Leeds Festivals, where he’ll be performing on the Alternative Stage. Both festivals take place 26th-28th August 2011.
The official line-up announcements began this evening, with tickets on-sale now from a variety of ticket agencies, all accessible via these links: Reading 2011 tickets Leeds 2011 tickets
So pick your festival, grab your tickets and just think, whilst you are excitedly packing your festival essentials this August: wellies, sun-hat, *spare socks, loo roll, torch… Tim will be packing his: eyeliner, Van der Graaf Generator, thongs**, flauntingly skinny jeans and a piano.
Go forth and fest!
** Aussie for flop-flops. What?
EDIT: We can now confirm that Tim will be at Leeds on the Saturday and Reading on the Sunday.
New Yorkers! If you missed out on tickets for one of the Gramercy Theatre shows, or you just can’t get an elegant sufficiency of Tim goodness with only one or two shows, then you’ll be delighted to discover that another date’s been added for you.
Tim will be performing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York on Monday 2nd May 2011.
Doors open 8pm with Showtime at 9pm.
Tickets go on sale on Friday, 18th March, at 12 Noon EDT, are priced at US $29.10 including Fees and will be available from Ticketmaster.
There’s also a presale on Wednesday, 16th March, at 12 Noon EDT for American Express card holders.
These US shows will be an exciting blend of brand new songs with a few well loved classics. Tim will be joined on stage by his grand piano, iconic dance moves, wildly teased hair, gently calmed eyebrows, infeasibly skinny jeans, natural aplomb and his enormous…sense of occasion.
UPDATE: For those watching the ABC2 broadcast, the audio problem in the first half was caused by the delayed ABC transmission. The second half is being broadcast live and there’ll be no problems. Linzy x
Tickets are well and truly sold out for Tim’s remaining orchestra gigs in Australia but if you haven’t been fortunate enough to get yourself a ticket to one of the shows then it’s not going to be the end of the world, especially if you’ve got a large television!
On the 27th March, Tim’s final concert of this tour, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and from none other than the Sydney Opera House, will be broadcast live to the nation on ABC2 from 8:30pm!
It’s not the first time ABC2 have done live broadcasts, with previous ones including Shakespeare plays, operas and musicals but this one looks set to be something else entirely, as people who’ve already seen the show will know!
There’s a short trailer for it on the ABC website here, though if you’ve got tickets for a show, it contains loads of spoilers! You have been warned! Also, there’s a bit more information on the show here.
And, of course, a little something from Tim about it all: “It is an incredible honour to be playing with the Sydney Symphony and such a huge thrill to perform in the Opera House. That people will be able to watch the show live from their lounge rooms fills me with dread and excitement, and will fill the switchboards of right-wing radio djs with calls from the outraged. I can’t wait.”
You’ll all be inviting your elderly relatives over to watch this won’t you? There’s nothing like a live show for spreading the joy of Tim!
About two months ago, Tim appeared on the UK TV channel Dave, on Robert Llewelyn’s Carpool. There were two minor issues with this:
Not everyone could watch it, whether it was because they lived abroad or simply didn’t have Freeview in the UK.
It was only ten or so minutes long due to their being two guests on the half hour episode (the other being David Baddiel).
The good news is, both of these problems have now been rectified with this – the release of Tim’s interview uncut on Robert Llewelyn’s Carpool podcast!
So, if you’ve ever wanted to see how sexy Tim looks in a pair of three-quarter length trousers or hear an interview that’s a bit different to the rest then you’re going to love this!
The YouTube video is embedded below, but here are links to iTunes and LlewTube, where you can download yourself a copy to watch whenever you want.
A few days ago, we told you that you could buy Shaun Tan’s ‘The Lost Thing’, which is narrated by Tim, on iTunes for a measly £1.49.
Australians, you also have the option of buying it on DVD, which includes a cute 48 page hardback book, exclusive to the DVD release (non-Aussies, you can import it; it’s region-free)!
Have you been waiting for a reason to purchase this lovely animation, before shelling out your hard-earned money? Well try this one out for size!
‘The Lost Thing’ has won the Oscar for Best Animated Short!
The film was an outsider for the award and beat off competition from the favourite, Pixar’s ‘Day & Night’, as well as the other nominees, ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Let’s Pollute’ and ‘Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage’.
In his acceptance speech, Tan pointed out the irony of the film being noticed, given its subject of things that don’t get noticed and also said that the award should really go to the cast and crew behind the film, including Tim!
Tim had this to say about it all: “As many of you will know, Shaun Tan’s “The Lost Thing” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Excuse me while I gush: I’m incredibly excited for Shaun. He’s an amazing, lovely, wondrous and wonderful man. His dedication to his work is an inspiration, and the fact that I was offered the chance to play my tiny role in this film is a profound honour. I love his work and can’t wait to see what he does next.”
Here’s the trailer again, so you can see exactly what all the fuss is about!
On the 30th March 2011 Tim will be hosting the snappily titled 25th Melbourne International Comedy Festival Opening Night Comedy All Stars Supershow… *pants* – no the other definition: v. pants:To breathe rapidly in short gasps, as after exertion or attempting to announce an overly long show title.
This is the Comedy Festival’s 25th birthday bash, with some of the world’s best comedians taking to the stage. Tim’ll be performing and they put him in charge!
You can still get tickets here for this – we know, madness!
Remember how he opened the Gala in 2007?
The Gala will be shown on channel Ten, as in previous years, so we’ll announce the date it will air as soon as we know.
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