Minchin about

Last night LE and I went to the Palais to see Tim Minchin in concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He is a very talented performer, writing clever, often very funny, songs which attempt to rip away much of the hype of modern life. Always taking a strictly rational view of the world, his songs, with one exception, display a complete lack of sentimentality. Often profane (I wonder how the MSO players reacted to F*** the mother-f****** Pope when they first heard it) but usually right on the mark, he interspersed his songs with fairly laid-back patter to the audience.

After singing Cont(ext) the first part of which is a string of outrageous racial, sexual and other slurs, all of which are ameliorated when sung, in the second part, in context, he was verballed by a woman at the front of the audience who claimed that she was offended by the song. He suggested that if that was how she felt, she would be better off to leave immediately, as it was only going to get worse. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with Minchin she was quietly but firmly escorted from the theatre.

He seemed a little spooked by this encounter, but was quickly back on form. In all it was a most enjoyable night. His one indulgence in sentimentality was White wine in the sun (Christmas song) in which he describes how, without any recourse to religion, he "really likes Christmas".

As an ex-ginger myself I'll leave you with this: