Day 47/55. Darwin. Tim Minchin: Superstar
Tim Minchin is a bloody superstar, and for all the events we have missed by a day or two, this one we anchored the trip around. When we saw he was playing in Darwin, actually on Linda’s birthday, it was a lock to go to Darwin. We had been trying to work out with the boys where they would come and meet us – Cairns maybe? Townsville? Uluru was too late in our timeline….then we saw Tim Minchin for the Darwin festival, and it was the perfect present for Linda, and a great event for us to share together so we locked in the 9 day holiday in Darwin with both the boys at the same time. It has meant that we are covering the same couple of thousand k’s to get up and back, but it was a great decision.
Tim is a performer. A humble and self deprecating one, which is endearing, but with a confidence to be able to take on an audience and bring them along for his ride, no matter the determination of some punters to try and impress themselves on the show. It wasn’t a comedy act, but we laughed. It wasn’t a rock act, but we danced. It wasn’t musical theatre, but we sang along to songs he was playing only the first or second time to an audience. He transcends the age groups with an honesty and insight that can be frank, and refreshing in its honesty, without having to put others down. He also doesn’t seem to give a fuck.
Tim played at the Amphitheatre in the botanic gardens, a smaller version of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, with no fixed seating at the front, but clearly marked out for blankets and chairs….and a dance floor. Right in front of the stage they had blocked and stopped the early arrivals from setting up camp in the prime position front of stage as it was going to be a dancefloor. Hokay, no worries and we have front blanket position behind that line. As they realise closer to showtime that they haven’t got enough space, they start letting people put their blankets down at the back of the “dance floor”, obviously causing consternation from those of us that had been there for a couple of hours already. Mumblings from the crowd and some complaints to security, but everything on deaf ears – but as it turned out, it was the best thing. Being a dancefloor, we got up 15 minutes before Tim came on and while the DJ was playing leading into the main act. We just had a dance right in front of the stage. Others we were talking to back on the blanket front then came and followed, and also danced with us up at the barrier right in front of the stage. Then the announcer asks for people to stand up and come nearer the stage, but most stay seated. To our disbelief as to how easy it was, when Tim came on stage, we had front row standing spot. For most gigs we get to, you have to be blessed by the music gods to get these spots. In the end we had prime standing, and a show that felt like that was being played primarily to us. Even at the start Tim started with how are you all? My response was “Good, and how are you?” to which he responded, “Really good thanks, thanks for asking, nobody ever asks how I am, I appreciate it”. We were that close, we had a conversation with Tim Minchin. Final encore song was “White wine in the sun”, which of course was beautiful. If you have not heard this Christmas song, do it right now.