Australian musician, writer, actor and comedian (born 1975)
Timothy David Minchin AM (born 7 October 1975) is an Australian actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, songwriter and comedian.
He has released six CDs, five DVDs, and live comedy shows that he has performed internationally. He has appeared on television in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His show "Darkside" launched him into the public eye, achieving critical success at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Minchin has a background in theatre and has appeared in various stage productions, in addition to small acting roles on Australian television. A documentary film about Minchin, "Rock N Roll Nerd" (directed by Rhian Skirving), was released theatrically in 2008 and broadcast by ABC1 in 2009. He is the composer and lyricist of the Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated show "Matilda the Musical" and the Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated show "Groundhog Day The Musical". In 2013, he played rock star Atticus Fetch on "Californication" and in 2019 he co-wrote and starred as Lucky Flynn in the TV series "Upright."
In 2013, the University of Western Australia awarded Minchin an honorary Doctor of Letters degree for his contribution to the arts. In 2015 he was awarded a second honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and in 2019 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from Edith Cowan University. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Australia Day Honours "for significant service to the performing arts, and to the community".
Early life.
Timothy David Minchin was born in Northampton on 7 October 1975, the son of Australian parents Ros and David Ellison Minchin. He holds both Australian and British citizenship, as everyone born in the UK before 1983 was automatically a citizen of the country. His father and grandfather were both surgeons in Perth. He is also descended from R. E. Minchin, founding director of Adelaide Zoo. Minchin returned to Australia with his parents and was raised in Perth, alongside his elder brother, Dan, and two younger sisters, Katie and Nel.
Minchin started learning to play the piano at the age of eight, but gave it up after three years because he did not enjoy the discipline. He developed a renewed interest in the instrument after he started writing music with his brother Dan, a guitarist, but still describes himself as a "hack pianist ... a 'more you practise, the better you get' kind of guy". He was educated at Christ Church Grammar School, an independent school in Perth. He graduated from the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1996 with a BA in English and theatre, and from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1998 with an Advanced Diploma in contemporary music.
Musical career.
Minchin describes his act as a "funny cabaret show" and sees himself primarily as a musician and songwriter as opposed to a comedian; he has said that his songs "just happen to be funny." His reasoning for combining the disciplines of music and comedy was revealed in one interview when he said: "I'm a good musician for a comedian and I'm a good comedian for a musician but if I had to do any of them in isolation I dunno."
He draws on his background in theatre for his distinctive onstage appearance and persona. In his performances, he typically goes barefoot with wild hair and heavy eye makeup, which is juxtaposed with a crisp suit and tails, and a grand piano. According to Minchin, he likes going barefoot in his shows because it makes him feel more comfortable. He considers the eye makeup important because while he is playing the piano he is not able to use his arms and relies on his face for expressions and gestures; the eyeliner makes his features more distinguishable for the audience. He has said that much of his look and persona is about "treading that line between mocking yourself and wanting to be an iconic figure. Mocking the ridiculousness and completely unrealistic dream of being an iconic figure."
The shows consist largely of Minchin's comedic songs and poetry, with subjects including social satire, inflatable dolls, sex fetishes, and his own failed rock star ambitions. In between songs, he performs short stand-up routines. Several of his songs deal with religion, a subject with which Minchin—an atheist and a fan of Richard Dawkins—says he is "a bit obsessed". He argues that, as one of the most powerful and influential forces in the world, religion should never be off-limits to satirists. He says that his favourite song to perform is "Peace Anthem for Palestine", which reflects his feelings about religious conflict. His comedy also deals with taboos more broadly. A prime example of this is the song "Prejudice", which parodies the power awarded to something as simple as a word. In October 2010 he was made a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
Early career (1998–2007).
After graduating from WAAPA in 1998, Minchin started out composing music for documentaries and theatre. In 2000, he wrote and starred in the musical "Pop" at the Blue Room Theatre in Perth. He released a CD titled "Sit" with his band Timmy the Dog in 2001 but achieved little success. In 2002, after only one professional acting job, he moved from Perth to Melbourne to pursue work. Minchin struggled initially; he could not get an agent for a year and had been unable to find any acting work. While several record companies gave him encouragement, they were not sure how his music—a mixture of satirical songs and more serious pop songs—could be marketed. He decided to compile all of his humorous songs into a single live show to "get the comedy stuff off my chest" before going back to more serious music.
Minchin says he entered into comedy "naively", having never even attended a live comedy gig before performing one himself. His break-out show "Darkside" (co-produced by Laughing Stock Productions) achieved critical success at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where it won the inaugural Festival Directors' Award and attracted the notice of Karen Koren, the manager of the well-known Gilded Balloon venues. Koren backed the show's run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where Minchin received the Perrier Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. His 2006 show "So Rock" was nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's top prize, the Barry Award, and in 2007 he was given the award for Best Alternative Comedian at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival.
Live recordings of his 2005 and 2006 shows, "Darkside" and "So Rock", have been released as CDs. In 2007, he released a DVD titled "So Live", featuring a live recording in the Sydney Opera House Studio with material from both of his previous shows. As this DVD was only released in Australia, he released a DVD in 2008 entitled "So F**king Rock Live" in the UK, containing largely the same material as "So Live".
"Ready for This?" (2008–2010).
In August 2008, Minchin debuted his third solo show, "Ready for This?", at the Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently took it on tour across the UK. During the Edinburgh run, he contributed to "The Guardian" newspaper's podcasts, despite his new show containing a song about a "Guardian" critic who once gave his show a negative review. Responding to the song, which contains graphic violence, the critic laconically remarked that he had not yet had time to listen to it: "Life's too short and I've already done my bit by sitting through that show in Edinburgh."
A live recording of this at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, was released as an album for download via iTunes on 20 July 2009. An Australian recording was released in Australia on DVD on 9 September 2009, and then as a United Kingdom release in the second half of 2010.
It was announced at the end of 2009 that one of Minchin's beat poems, "Storm", was to be made into a short animated movie. A blog was launched to accompany the film-making process, and a short trailer was released on 8 January 2010. The full movie was launched on YouTube on 7 April 2011.
In the movie, he takes on alternative medicine: "By definition alternative medicine has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work. Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine."
Minchin was the subject of the winning entry, by painter Sam Leach, in the 2010 Archibald Prize, Australia's most important portraiture competition.
"Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra" (2010–2012).
Minchin embarked on a new arena tour called "Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra" starting at the NIA, Birmingham on Wednesday 8 December 2010. A departure from the structure of his previous live shows, his act was scaled up to be performed with the Heritage Orchestra. It contained a mixture of material, including new songs on the subject of prayer and of rationality (themes which often appear in his previous work). Minchin stated that the aim of incorporating the orchestra into his act was to create a comedy show that would not be ruined by being performed in arenas, as stated in the special features of the DVD and Blu-ray. The show toured the UK and Australia, and was filmed at the Royal Albert Hall in London for a Blu-ray and DVD that was released in November 2011.
The show also toured Australia under the title "Tim Minchin vs. The Orchestras", where he performed with the city state orchestra in each location.
"BACK" tour and "Apart Together" album (2019–present).
On 30 August 2018, Minchin announced he would be returning to touring with a new show called "BACK", also billed as "Old Songs, New Songs, Fuck You Songs". It marked the first time Minchin returned to touring since 2012 (with the exception of a micro tour of Los Angeles in October 2017 called "Leaving LA").
The tour started in Adelaide, touring Australia and New Zealand in March and April 2019, followed by a tour of the UK in October and November 2019. The tour featured new songs such as "Fuck This", "Leaving LA", and "If This Plane Goes Down", as well as songs from his recent musical works such as "When I Grow Up" from "Matilda the Musical" and "Seeing You" from "Groundhog Day". The show also saw Tim reveal a new band that played alongside him for the rest of the night. This band played throughout the show, performing with Minchin for songs ranging from "Cheese" (first introduced in "Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra"), "Prejudice" and new song "I'll Take Lonely Tonight" to a modified version of "If I Didn't Have You". A new song called "15 Minutes (of Shame)" was also performed with the live band.
An Encore tour of "BACK" began touring in Australia in March 2020, however dates were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. The tour resumed in Australia in June and July 2021, followed by an encore tour of the UK in October, November and December 2021. The recording of the final UK shows at the Shepherd's Bush Empire was broadcast to cinemas on 23 November 2022 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 12 December 2022.
In March 2020 it was announced that Minchin had signed a record deal with BMG and would release his debut studio album, "Apart Together", in November 2020. Prior to the release of his album, Tim released music videos for the tracks Leaving LA, I'll Take Lonely Tonight, Apart Together, Airport Piano (which was filmed while he was in quarantine in Perth) and The Absence of You. 
"Apart Together" was released on 20 November 2020, with a streamed digital concert coinciding with the full album's debut. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics. The Independent called it "crisply observed and tenderly considered.", stating that "Minchin's unswerving commitment to all that good, decent, truthful stuff is irresistible." However, iNews referred to the album as nothing more than an "hour-long vanity project...Minchin obviously has things to say about the world but he hasn't really found the right way to say them", but also admitted that "There are glimmers of great humanity and honesty, small moments of beauty. Minchin excels when he tries less hard."
In 2023, Minchin announced he will perform some informal solo concerts called "An Unfunny Evening with Tim Minchin and His Piano"