And try as hard as I like / A small crack appears / In my diplomacy-dike.
Had me some Tim Minchin at the Wilbur tonight, with my wife and mum. We had terrible seats - jammed against the wall with a colored spot in our eyes, Tim's face half-obscured by the lid of his grand piano, and a drunken sideburns-lout shouting behind us - but a wonderful time. I told adfamiliares there were three songs I hoped he would play (Rock 'N' Roll Nerd, If I Didn't Have You, and Confessions), and he hit all three, plus a few tunes I'd never heard. ("Some comedians do their new material in a small club, but that's 'cos they don't understand statistics.") Here's the full setlist:
Rock 'N' Roll Nerd
Cont
If I Didn't Have You
Thank You God
You Grew on Me
Lullaby
-
Prejudice
The Pope Song
Confessions
Storm
Dark Side
-
Drowned
-
Second Encore
It was particularly nice to be able to hold adfamiliares's hand during If I Didn't Have You, since it so nicely encapsulates our no-nonsense yet deeply romantic attitude toward our relationship.1 Tim had an appropriate-color spot during Prejudice, forgot the lyrics during Drowned, and filled the interstitial spaces with self-conscious standup, banter, and reflection. He seemed a bit taken aback by the sheer American boisterousness of the audience2 - we did not, as a group, fully grasp the concept of "rhetorical question" - but he gamely soldiered on, and very sweetly went into a mild panic halfway through Prejudice when he realized we call them "bangs," not "fringe." ("You do call tampons 'tampons' in America, right?")
A fine show, and despite the mildly awkward rowdiness it is heartwarming to see that Boston is full of very enthusiastic Minchin geeks.
1 Storm, particularly the bit in which his wife restrains his incipient ranting by simply widening her eyes, nicely encapsulates my wife's response to my desire to confront the sideburns-drunk - "A matrimonial warning / not worth ignoring."
2 When he gave a call-out to the upper balcony, and they responded with Fenway-style whooping, he said, "Americans are very proud of their geography. I didn't know it was that specific."
Rock 'N' Roll Nerd
Cont
If I Didn't Have You
Thank You God
You Grew on Me
Lullaby
-
Prejudice
The Pope Song
Confessions
Storm
Dark Side
-
Drowned
-
Second Encore
It was particularly nice to be able to hold adfamiliares's hand during If I Didn't Have You, since it so nicely encapsulates our no-nonsense yet deeply romantic attitude toward our relationship.1 Tim had an appropriate-color spot during Prejudice, forgot the lyrics during Drowned, and filled the interstitial spaces with self-conscious standup, banter, and reflection. He seemed a bit taken aback by the sheer American boisterousness of the audience2 - we did not, as a group, fully grasp the concept of "rhetorical question" - but he gamely soldiered on, and very sweetly went into a mild panic halfway through Prejudice when he realized we call them "bangs," not "fringe." ("You do call tampons 'tampons' in America, right?")
A fine show, and despite the mildly awkward rowdiness it is heartwarming to see that Boston is full of very enthusiastic Minchin geeks.
1 Storm, particularly the bit in which his wife restrains his incipient ranting by simply widening her eyes, nicely encapsulates my wife's response to my desire to confront the sideburns-drunk - "A matrimonial warning / not worth ignoring."
2 When he gave a call-out to the upper balcony, and they responded with Fenway-style whooping, he said, "Americans are very proud of their geography. I didn't know it was that specific."