An Evening with Tim Minchin

Last night, my husband, kids, and I went into San Francisco and saw Tim Minchin at the Nourse Theater. If you haven't heard of him, he's an Australian songwriter/pianist/comedian/performer. His brand of musical comedy is irreverent, mostly social satire with some keen insights along the way. My family just adores him, so seeing him perform live was a real treat.

We own the Blu-ray of his Royal Albert performance, but this was just him, a bare stage, and his piano. Our seats were pretty good, center of the balcony about six rows back, but only because I found out about the show too late to get orchestra seats. Those would've been amazing. His show consists of performances with short comedic stand-up bits in between songs while he probably catches his breath. Most of his songs are pretty manic. It's no wonder his encore was two quieter songs, one of which was a preview from the musical version of Groundhog Day that he's working on. I absolutely love that movie. I told my husband afterward that the second that shows up on US soil, we're going.

Anyway, if you haven't heard Tim before, here are videos of two of my favorites of his songs. The first is called "Lullaby," and I still giggle hysterically when I hear it. It's one of those songs that starts out slow and slowly cascades into hysterics. Plus, it's an excellent showcase of just how talented a pianist he really is:
This second song is called "Prejudice," and it's pretty typical of how subversive he can be: