"Every comedy gig I have been to at the O2 Arena has been so disappointing." Can Tim Minchin change Emma McAlpine's mind?
“Nothing ruins comedy like arenas”, Tim Minchin sings in his opening number at the O2, “Ego is the only thing you can see from the back.” The Minch has a point, every comedy gig I have been to at the O2 Arena has been so disappointing, I made a pact never to go there again. You’re so disconnected from the comedian and distracted by the massive TV screen, microphone reverb and overwhelming visual of bodies, neatly aligned like Anthony Gormley’s Asian Field, that somewhere along the way, you forget to listen, or laugh. I’d take a cramped basement and the fear of being asked what my job is over an arena any day. At least there’s a relationship with the person on stage and an atmosphere. That said, you factor music into the mix, a figurehead who’s more rock star than comic and a 55-piece orchestra – surely that’s going to go some way towards galvanising the place?
The stage looks promising from the offset with the orchestra taking up so much space there is barely room for Minchin’s piano. “So thanks for coming to this new material night”, in typically mock blasé fashion. “Well, if you’re not going to try it out here where would you?” There are indeed plenty of new songs on offer here such as the daring ‘Context’ which begins with a seemingly prejudiced outpouring and ends with a customary clever twist, to reassure us he is still the middle-class liberal we know and love. Another stand-out song, bound to appeal to any sleep-deprived parent out there, turns the traditional lullaby on its head by juxtaposing it with some hilariously inappropriate lyrics. “When is rocking rocking and when is shaking shaking?/My heart says I love you, my brain says ‘fuck you!’”
The Heritage Orchestra provide a dramatic backing to Minch’s flamboyant piano skills, with a hectic circus-like crescendo capping off the lullaby and a drummer and bass player adding to funkier numbers (‘Cheese’ is a sure fire hit, proving you can’t go wrong with a Camembert pun or two in your set). Sing-along fans have nothing to worry about either, as there are plenty of well-loved classics thrown in from the wryly unsentimental ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ to the gleefully childish 'Pope Song', with a cheeky bonus ditty tagged onto the end: “If the Pope had a disco...no one would come because he doesn’t allow gays there” – brilliant.
Breaking up the songs are a few good lines (“I was wearing skinny jeans because some time ago I forgot I was wearing them ironically”) and a nail-biting section where it looks like he might be about to do something catastrophic with a copy of the Qur’an – a further example of how good he is at playing with audience expectations. Yet while there are laughs, the music takes centre stage and the final few songs (with two encores naturally – this is Tim Minchin) are heartfelt ballads, more likely to choke you up than make you chuckle.
For a minute, as I get swept away by the heartbreakingly beautiful finale ‘White Wine in the Sun’ I almost forget I am in the O2. Perhaps arenas aren’t so bad after all. Then someone in the distance shouts “Come On Tim!” like some Centre Court crackpot. Hmmmm. But as he pads off stage in his bare feet, starched mane flowing behind him to a standing ovation, I can't argue - he's pulled it off.
Tim Minchin's second live DVD, Ready For This? is available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes now.
Photo credit: Rich Hardcastle
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