 In 2005 Karen Koren and The Gilded Balloon
brought a young Australian performer Tim Minchin over to the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival after seeing his show “Dark Side” at the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival. She placed him in the 300-seat Debating
Hall and this sell out show was nominated for and won the ‘Perrier
Award for Best Newcomer’. Thus the phenomenon that is Tim Minchin was
introduced to the UK.
Our reviewer Ben went to this debut show, a
retired teacher he is not perhaps the main target audience for Mr
Minchin yet the five star review this generated goes to show this
performers vast appeal. Tim’s return to the Fringe in 2006 and 2008
also produced five star reviews one from Ben and the second from his
daughter Diane. In all this
time Geoff and I had only had glimpses of Tim at various press launches,
it was therefore with great delight we got to see him at the Alhambra
Theatre Dunfermline on Friday 9th October during the
extensive ‘Ready For This?’ UK tour.
 From his first steps on to the Alhambra stage
to his finale over two hours later Tim had this almost capacity crowd in
the palm of his extremely dexterous, articulate hands. Tim is a comedian,
lyricist, musician, performer, philosopher, wordsmith and to many a cult
figure. In his own words he is not a role model, he is a fashion icon!
Some of his subjects in other hands would be very close to being
offensive but his treatment of these topics are hilarious. A few of the
numbers performed were, 'Ginger', ‘Canvas Bags’, ‘Bears
Don’t Dance’, ‘If I Didn’t Have You’, ‘White Wine in The
Sun’ and ‘Dark Side’. His
10-minute long poem about a dinner party and a young idealist female
called Storm went down so well the thunder of applause was almost
deafening. The audience, which ranged from young teenagers to the
retired, were unified in their appreciation culminating in an almost
unanimous standing ovation.
It is
safe to say both Geoff and I are in total accord with this audience and
had we been prone to awarding stars to non-fringe shows it would be safe
to say he would have received his fourth five star review (unfortunately
we can not award more than five). I
can see world war three breaking out the next time Tim appears at the
Fringe as we will all want to see him. It is rumoured that this tour
will be recorded and released on a DVD, also that he is booked to appear
on the “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross” show soon. For more
information and merchandise go to www.timminchin.com
It is
great to see the Alhambra theatre in Dunfermline attracting some amazing
acts and shows. For up and coming shows including Ed Byrne and Frankie
Boyle go to the Alhambra website www.alhambradunfermline.com
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