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November 16, 2007
Tim Minchin @ Ars Nova - 11.12.7
After clinching the Best Alternative Comedian award at the Aspen Comedy Festival earlier this year, celebrated Australian comedic pianist Tim Minchin finally returned to the US to perform a small string of shows to the packed crowds at Ars Nova. This was his first night.
NOTES
--Minchin is already a superstar in the UK and Australia, two markets which when we entered the word "comedy" in Google Trends a few weeks ago, were suprised to learn both ranked higher than the US in search volume. Significant? We think so. That sort of got us thinking that the US is probably actually the 3rd stop for international comedy stars ready to go global. Tim played to about a hundred here when he's usually in front of thousands at the Royal Albert Hall in London and The Sydney Opera House. He's every bit as sensational as the buzz suggested, but if NYC is supposed to be defining culture and the center of the universe and stuff, we're a little bit late to the Tim Minchin party.
--The guy is a total rock star, like Ben Folds with a different set of hangups. He fingered the ivories so fiendishly, he even broke a key!
--We were surprised at how much stand up there was in his show. We expected one song after another coupled with some witty banter as with Flight of the Conchords, but Tim wanders away from the piano and does long bits too. It's closer to a cabaret act.
--He made several allusions throughout the evening to his worry about not being taken seriously or thought of as deep enough, as seen here in the video below. It's no mistake that for an encore he chose a rather serious song that's littered with tender Hedwig-esque examinations on self-acceptance and our relationship to the vastness of the world around us. It does exactly what it's supposed to, making certain everyone walks away from the show knowing Minchin is brilliant.
Posted by The Apiary at November 16, 2007 2:02 PM