I used to think Brendon Burns had the biggest rock and roll intros in comedy but now I know it's Tim Minchin. Eye-searing flashing lights, dry ice and flames accompany a very grand piano while the Hammersmith Apollo crowd screams in excitement. He's not even on stage yet. Out he pads, barefoot, wearing only a shirt, wet-look leggings and thick eye-liner. The screaming gets louder. Any minute now someone might rush the stage, 'Beatles mania' style.
Like Michael McIntyre and Lee Evans, Minchin has moved well and truly into the domain of the comedy massive and is adored all over the world. He has almost 50,000 Facebook fans and when I tweeted where I was going before the gig, I got some very enthusiastic responses, all from women: 'God I'm jealous. I love him. In a wrong way.' Why has he become so popular? There are certainly funnier comedians out there, but Minchin is more than just funny. He is smart, he can sing, he can play the piano with sickening skill and he has charisma in spades.
Although his songs make up the bulk of the show he is more than capable at stand-up and audience banter. "I'm not a role model, I'm a fashion icon", he declares to a teenager in the front row. During a seemingly ad-libbed piece on the causation-correlation fallacy in science (also known as 'cum hoc ergo propter hoc' – what a geek), he is heckled by some incoherent idiot who ruins the punchline: "I was making a joke in Latin, do you know how hard that is you fuck?! If you don't shut up I'll take these trousers off."
Science is clearly a pet subject and runs through most of his material. A nine-minute beat poem about a hippie called 'Storm' sums up exactly what he thinks about 'fluffy thinking': "Science adjusts its beliefs based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved. You show me that it works and when I've recovered from the shock, I will take a compass and carve 'Fancy That' on the side of my cock."
Religion also gets a bashing with a country ditty about 'The Good Book' and a song that might appeal to the Westboro Baptist Church. As Minchin gets us all to sing 'I love Jesus' he wonders why we don't join in with 'I hate faggots'. "What happened there, it was all going so well?" Some songs like 'Bears Don't Dig On Dancing' and 'Taboo' are basic in subject matter but elevated by some clever twists.
The Apollo may be rubbish for intimacy and stage proximity but it makes up for it with effects. 'Canvas Bag' - an ode to inflated eco-warriors, climaxes with Minchin bare-chested, wind blowing through his unkempt locks and 'puff-flash' pyrotechnics going off. There's also plenty of room for a number with breakdancing bears; a sight I never thought I'd see.
When it comes to his encore song, a sentimental ballad about Christmas, I am waiting for the snarky punchline, the deflating put-down. But there is none, it appears the Minch has a soft side too and that is what is so remarkable. One minute he's performing a jaw-dropping nine minute poem, destroying the myths of religion and alternative medicine; the next he's singing a heart-warming song about his family. He's a man of many talents. Oh and he's pretty handy on the piano as well. After such a cocksure, rock n' roll performance, you'd think it might have all gone to his head. But as we all get to our feet in a raucous standing ovation, the showman disappears and he seems genuinely touched. A nice guy too eh? I feel a little queasy...
The new Tim Minchin: So F***ing Rock DVD and lyric book is available now exclusively from HMV.
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