Tim Minchin: "Arty Farty Echo Chambers"

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps

Comedy Interviews, Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education, Comedy

4.6 • 863 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2024

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you escape the shaming of the mob when you're a public figure with original ideas?

Tim Minchin is one of the most successful creatives Australia has ever produced. He wrote the music and lyrics for Matilda the Musical, which won more Olivier Awards than any other show in history at the time. Now in its 13th year, the show continues to sell out on the West End. The Broadway production was nominated for a stash of Tonys. The 2022 movie version is a riot.

Minchin went on to write the Broadway stage musical Groundhog Day, which scored seven Tony Award nominations and won the Olivier for Best New Musical.

Tim has starred in massive arena shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and sells out stadiums with his own blend of music, comedy, and musical comedy. He co-wrote and starred in the hit television comedy show Upright and he's a staple on the biggest TV talk shows.

But he's been most influential as a thinker, rationalist and activist -- as a New Atheist, a Defender of the Enlightenment and a Renaissance Man. He often finds himself at odds with the progressive wing of the artistic scene... cautious about being cancelled, but compelled to call out the bullshit he sees.

Due to copyright, we aren’t able to include the full versions of the songs mentioned in this podcast, but I urge you to listen if you’re unfamiliar with Tim’s work:

White Wine In The Sun
https://youtu.be/fCNvZqpa-7Q?si=dTedPJk58G54Ikza

When I Grow Up
https://youtu.be/6Y82wktAEmQ?si=gVaVtvQIO1f8jCEB

Woody Allen Jesus

https://youtu.be/_SFdUJLebzU?si=1-rBM5ht7xt85V1S

To get more content like this and to join in the fun of the Uncomfy Convos multiverse, hit the Substack page at https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe

http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_

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http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations

Transcript

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0:00.0	Gahey humans, welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas, and it's one thing to
0:06.1	dabble in dangerous ideas. When you're a podcaster whose Métis is having uncomfortable
0:12.1	conversations with provocative people, but when you're a public figure who wins awards and makes
0:20.7	big movies and sells out arenas and stadiums and has to please a lot of fans.
0:27.3	The threat of public shaming for expressing a provocative point of view is all the more intense.
0:34.7	Tim Minchin has straddled this for decades now.
0:37.6	He's one of the most successful creatives in Australia.
0:40.6	I make no secret about the fact that I think he's an absolute genius, and I love his work.
0:46.0	I love his music, and I love his comedy.
0:49.9	You probably know him best as the writer of the lyrics and the music to Matilda, the musical,
0:55.8	which has been running on the West End for 13 years,
0:58.5	at won more Olivier Awards, which is Britain's Tony Awards than any other show in history at the time that it won them.
1:06.8	It was on Broadway, it was nominated for a bunch of Tonys.
1:10.5	It was in the year that Kinky Boots was on,
1:12.7	and so Kinky Boots won, unfortunately. Nonetheless, it's been wildly successful. It was turned
1:17.3	into a 2022 movie, which my kids love. There's a book of its main song when I grow up.
1:24.5	And this is just one feather in the cap of the many that Tim Minchin has to his name.
1:29.5	He went on to also do another musical of Groundhog Day, which won best new musical at the Olivier
1:35.0	es, was nominated for like seven Tony Awards as well.
1:39.2	And he's done a lot of television.
1:40.8	He co-wrote and starred in an Australian TV show called Upright. But really,
1:45.6	he's best known in Australia as a thinker, cultural commentator, sort of whimsical, almost
	...

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