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Metro
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Tim Minchin explains the ‘pretentious' reason he turned down hosting chat show
He might now have found success in comedy, music, television and theatre, but Tim Minchin admits that no one ever thought he was 'particularly talented'. The Australian creative, 49, was born in Northampton before his parents moved back to their home country, where he was raised in Perth, the most isolated city in the world. It was there that Tim initially pursued a career in the arts, studying contemporary music but as he admits, 'graduated without actually being able to read music'. Throughout his 20s, he wrote songs, played in bands, acted in plays, and composed for theatre, but struggled to get noticed. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Sarah, the couple moved to Melbourne, but it was still an uphill battle. 'I was 29 at that stage and really did think I wasn't very rock n roll or grunge or what people wanted and thought I'd just be a poor songwriter, but literally the next year everything changed,' he tells Metro on the day his latest album TimMinchinTimeMachine is released (the album is a curated anthology of previously unreleased material). 'It's only got more and more unbelievable with the things I've been able to do since. I was really struggling throughout my 20s to get any traction and couldn't get an agent or record deal,' he said. It was Tim's 2005 comedy show Darkside that saw him finally capture the attention of the right people. He went on to debut it at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he received the Perrier Comedy Award for best newcomer. In the two decades since, Tim hasn't taken anything for granted, working his ass off, continuing to release music, featuring on a range of comedy panel shows, appearing in Californication, Robin Hood and The Artful Dodger, composing the Groundhog Day musical, and writing and starring in the comedy drama Upright. But it was being asked to write the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical that changed everything. After it debuted in 2010, the show won a record-breaking seven Laurence Olivier Awards and has since gone on to be awarded four Tony's. Its success allowed Tim to achieve financial stability and make calculated career moves – including turning down multiple offers to host his own talk show. Reflecting on the decisions that could have made him a regular fixture on our screens (and undoubtedly rake in millions), Tim said he doesn't regret the risk he took. 'Lots of channels approached and asked me, but that just happens once you reach a certain level and start selling out arenas, which I did. They all asked me and asked what show I wanted to make,' he recalled. 'I said I was an actor and wanted to make drama and they went 'yeah right'. I said I didn't want to be known as a talking head. I've been asked so much over the years to host documentaries or shows…and I kept saying I didn't want to be a presenter, I wanted to be an artist. 'I'm not a trained actor or trained in composition and it takes a lot of suspending my self-doubt to go 'I think if I hold the line there's a chance, I might get to be an artist, not a comedian/ presenter'.' Although Tim admitted that might sound 'pretentious', he was willing to take that gamble – and it paid off when he was offered Matilda. '[That show] made me financially secure so I could take risks, but it also made me believe I was a real composer and could actually make things that could land in culture and not just be a fleeting joke. I was glad I held off on taking the big bucks. And once you're on a late night show you get famous and aren't walking the streets anymore,' he added. Despite his string of successes, Tim admits that he 'never really had one of those big career dreams' to chase. That admittedly felt surprising to me, after watching him become one of our shared home city's most successful artists. Coming from a city on the literal end of the earth, it's commonplace for young people to dream about 'escaping' their mostly middle-class existences. It's just as encouraged for parents to send their children out into the world, too, with Tim and I both sharing stints in London, a rite of passage for many. Although he has taken plenty of gambles over the years, Tim describes our shared 'luck' as one of the reasons he's been able to push himself. 'Some people think that daddy got me a car or mummy paid my rent but there was none of that. They were like 'good luck and here's $500 towards your first car'. It's a very Australian thing. I knew if everything went to shit though I could go home and had somewhere to sleep and that is unbelievable privilege and luck.' In 2013 advice he gave to university graduates at a commencement speech in our home city made waves, currently having over 5.6 million views on YouTube and being the basis of his recent book, You Don't Have To Have A Dream. In the speech, he imparted nine life lessons with his trademark wit and humour, with one surprisingly poignant line including: 'Don't seek happiness. It's like an orgasm; if you think about it too much, it'll go away.' More than a decade on and having just completed a tour of the UK to mark 20 years since his career took off, I ask what advice he'd now give to himself at the same age. Being incredibly candid, he explains: 'It's hard to imagine what advice I'd give myself. I worked so hard because I never thought I had the right to be an artist. My folks didn't mind that I wanted to be a muso…but no-one was ever telling me I was special. 'No one ever thought I was particularly talented…I never got the roles in the school plays. I just thought I had to work hard. I wouldn't want to give myself any advice that lets young me know that it works out ok because I might not have put my head down. 'The central lesson in the speech was to just be really, really good at what's in front of you and dedicate yourself to that and let the future take hold. That was something I did intuitively and now I look back and understand it to be a way of thinking. Just stop f***ing worrying about the ladder and take the next step.' So, what's the next step for Tim, who has had a notably hectic schedule for years now? More Trending 'I've got the Australian version of the tour in November and between now and then I am going to try and make a start on a new stage musical I am really keen on, but I can't talk about what it is,' he teased. 'And then next year I really want to write a TV show I have an idea for. I have two or three stage musicals I have ideas for. Next year needs to be a writing year. Even though I love touring, I've done it a lot a last few years.' Whatever it is, it's likely it will be a worthwhile gamble… Tim Minchin's new album, TimMinchinTimeMachine is out now. The RSC's Matilda The Musical is currently playing in London and will concurrently tour the UK and Ireland from this Autumn. You Don't Have To Have A Dream is out now. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: New fear unlocked after 16-inch stick insect found deep in Australian jungle MORE: 'I stayed with my boyfriend after he was jailed for sexual assault – here's why' MORE: I spent four days on a train in the Australian outback — it was my idea of hell
Scotsman
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Madonna Tim Minchin Paul Vickers and the Leg
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Madonna: Veronica Electronica (Warner Records) ★★★ Mabel: Mabel (Polydor Records) ★★★ Tim Minchin: TimMinchinTimeMachine (BMG) ★★ Paul Vickers and the Leg: Winter at Butterfly Lake (PX4M) ★★★★ Over recent years, Madonna has been re-issuing some of her best-loved albums on limited edition silver vinyl. True Blue and Like a Prayer are already part of her Silver Collection; now her long-rumoured Ray of Light remix album joins the club with the playful title Veronica Electronica. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Madonna | Ricardo Gomes There is ample competition for the accolade of best Madonna album but Ray of Light, released in 1998, must be in the running for its moody pop atmospheres, euphoric dance tracks, immaculate production by William Orbit and majestic string arrangements by Glasgow-based composer Craig Armstrong. These rare and unreleased remixes of most of the album tracks were originally intended for a companion album, but plans were shelved when Ray of Light took off, zephyr-like, rebooting Madonna's career for the new millennium. Veronica Electronica features new edits of remixes by the likes of Orbit, the late Peter Rauhofer, Sasha, BT and Victor Calderone, who may not be able to improve on the joyful source material but can tap into its renewing spirit. The title track is already an ecstatic invocation. The Sasha Twilo Mix Edit adds some spacey bells and galactic whistles, while Peter & Victor's Collaboration Remix Edit of Skin - don't those titles just trip off the tongue? - is both banging and hypnotic. The Club 69 Speed Mix of Nothing Really Matters introduces counter rhythms to the bassy beats, while Caldarone turbocharges Sky Fits Heaven with propulsive carnival percussion and irresistible electro vibrations, and Fabien Waltmann's Good God Mix Edit of The Power of GoodBye adds a fidgety thrum over which Armstrong's original swirling string arrangement soars. As enjoyable as these reinterpretations are, they are no substitute for some quality new material from Madge herself. The best she can muster here is an unheard track from the original sessions called Gone Gone Gone on which she offers hymn-like lamentations over floating synthesizers and a robust disco rhythm. Unlike many an unreleased demo, this mesmeric dance pop tune deserves to see the (ray of) light of day. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mabel | Simone Beyene Brit Award-winner Mabel's latest released comprises nine 'unfiltered' tracks recorded in her home studio in recent months. It's pretty repetitive fare in which she wrangles with positive and negative aspects of relationships, retrofitted to present a 'toxic love letter to my ten years in the industry'. Opening track Jan 19 is set at the moment when the scales are falling from her eyes. Elsewhere, she shakes a manicured finger at some disrespectful behaviour on the low-slung R&B of Run Me Down, appeals for a kinder, less judgmental approach on Love Me Gentle and advocates for people over possessions on Benz, folding in reggaeton, drum'n'bass and slow jam synths along the way. Tim Minchin | Contributed Tim Minchin made his Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2005, arriving as an unknown cabaret pianist and leaving a comedy star. Since then he has penned global musical theatre smash Matilda among other big ticket achievements. In contrast, his latest project is a personal excavation of songs written in his 'prolific-but-obscure twenties' that arguably should have stayed there, from underwhelming ballad Understand it to the jazz lounge noodling of Moment of Bliss. He crosses from sentimental songwriting to rollicking satire on Song of a Masochist but former Fringe favourites You Grow On Me and Not Perfect fall flat without the bearpit energy of a Gilded Balloon audience. Longtime Edinburgh-based collaborators Paul Vickers and the Leg present Winter at Butterfly Lake, a 'heartbreak suite' which is conventional only by their standards. Vickers' voice and Pete Harvey's string arrangements are powerful opposing forces but they style it out on the demented grungey bluegrass of Optical Illusions and chunky chamber pop of Contents of the Earth. CLASSICAL King of Kings: JS Bach (Chandos) ★★★ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The conductor Sir Andrew Davis was famous for his hearty chuckles and precious grammar school wit. Such eccentricities live on in his orchestrations of Bach organ music, ranging from the bombastic to the intricately beautiful, as witnessed in this part-posthumous album by the BBC Philharmonic. Davis, who died last year, lived to conduct four of the tracks; Martyn Brabbins stepped in to complete the project. The organ loft was where Davis began his musical life, none so lofty as his stint as organ scholar at King's College Cambridge in the 1960s, and you imagine - certainly from his treatment here of the big Preludes, Toccatas, Fantasias and Fugues - his taste was shamelessly eclectic. Where it works - the surreal orchestral imaginings of the monumental Passacaglia and Fugue for instance - Davis' playfulness tickles the senses, and the Chorale Preludes are mostly a confection of delights. Novelty value is the key selling point. Ken Walton JAZZ Marianne McGregor: Make Believe (Self Released) ★★★★
