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More good news! So F**king Rock So F*****g Rock is now available to stream on Hulu right here.

Filmed at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre in May 2008 (in front of a glamorous and clearly intelligent audience, gathered from all over the UK) the show includes such favourite songs as Canvas Bags, Inflatable You, Rock n Roll Nerd, If You Really Loved Me, Not Perfect, Darkside and many more! PLUS hilarious talky-bits in-between songs.

This is some vintage Minchin and a chance to hark back to the days our fashion hero wore a long coat and much roomier trousers.

Only the other day we announced that the full-length version of Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra, Live at the Royal Albert Hall was available on Hulu, on the Comedy Dynamics channel. If you’re subscribed, keep an eye on Netflix as the Heritage Orchestra show will be available on there too, from the 15th October.

Get ready to sing along. All together now: I am so F-asterisk-asterisk-asterisk-asterisk-asterisk-g rock… and breathe…

Have any of you Americans worn out your recording of Tim’s Showtime special, wanted to see the full show, or were otherwise unable to watch it? If so, then today we have some Rather Good News for you!

The full-length version of Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra, Live at the Royal Albert Hall is now available for you to stream over at Hulu, on the Comedy Dynamics channel!

Recorded in 2011, the show features a raft of your favourite Tim songs, fully orchestrated and backed by the incredible 55-piece Heritage Orchestra. Oh, and there are some jokes in there too.

You can watch Tim in all his barefooted, kohl-rimmed glory now, at this very link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/682332

Those of you subscribed to Netflix are also in luck, as the show will be available there next week!

Are you still reading? Get to it and get watching!

As we announced here, a while back, Just For Laughs (JFL42) are hosting a ten day comedy festival, this month, in Toronto and Tim will be performing. Initially there was just one show planned for Thursday 18th September at 9:30pm at an unknown venue. We can now confirm that this will be at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre!

Due to his extreme popularity, JFL42 have given Tim two more shows at the same venue:
Friday 19th September at 7pm and Saturday 20th September at 7pm.

JFL42 is a pass-based festival. There are various passes available, priced from $49. For more information on how the passes work, visit the JFL42 website.

After you Choose Your Pass you can Reserve Act 33: Tim Minchin.

There are six Headline acts: Seth Meyers, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Joe Rogan and Nick Offerman, while Paul F Tompkins, Deanne Smith, Tig Notaro, Doug Benson and Tim are just some of the other 42 acts. You can check out the full 42 here.

Might want to get a wiggle on! These shows are only two weeks away.

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical will hold a special Gala performance in aid of BBC Children in Need.

Taking place on Tuesday 4th November, 2014, the evening will be hosted by Sir Terry Wogan, with the big furry teddy bear (sorry, not that one) the charity’s mascot Pudsey, also in attendance.

BBC Radio 2 presenters and celebrities will join members of the public for this splendid evening, where at least 50% of the proceeds from the performance will go to the BBC Children in Need Appeal and its work with disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

Tickets for this magical Gala performance are already on sale via SEE tickets. Prices range from £20 – £100 with tickets priced at £100 including a glass of Rose Champagne, a programme and a limited edition Matilda The Musical tote bag.

Further information can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

In more marvellous news: There are now performances of Matilda The Musical, at the Cambridge Theatre, through until 20th December, 2015, with tickets for the new booking period on sale Monday 15th September, 2014.

The West End production of Matilda the Musical announced some new cast members yesterday, including a replacement for the terrifying, tyrannical Miss Trunchbull!

Starting in September, Craige Els will take over the role of the formidable headmistress of Crunchem Hall joining existing cast members Haley Flaherty (Miss Honey), Kay Murphy (Mrs Wormwood) and James Clyde (Mr Wormwood).

In addition to the new Trunchbull, Matilda Shapland and Violet Tucker will be joining existing Matildas Tasha Shapple and Lottie Sicilia in the title role, while there will be new additions to the three teams of children that make up Matilda’s classmates too.

Tim took some time out and joined Dennis Kelly in getting to know the new Trunch a bit better and you can watch the video below!

The West End run was recently extended until 24th May 2015 and you can grab yourself some tickets from the Matilda the Musical website.

To mark the announcement of Storm – The Illustrated Book, a video of Tim performing his jazz-backed beat-poem has been put up on his YouTube channel.

This is just a heads-up, in case you missed the exciting news last week.

Filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, in 2009, for the Ready For This? DVD, it comes to you complete with sloshing glass of red wine, bonus shocking pink lanyard and those familiar bare feet.

Storm by Tim Minchin with DC Turner and Tracy King will be published on the 16th October 2014, but it is already available to PRE-ORDER from Amazon, in Paperback Edition and SIGNED Hardback Deluxe Edition (there will only be 2000 of these). That collector’s hardback is currently just £14.49!

Head to timminchin.com/stormthebook for more information and a look inside at some of the brand new artwork.

The Orion Publishing Group announced today that they are publishing Tim’s first ever book!

Storm the Illustrated Book springs from Tim’s sublime critical thinking beat-poem, via the hit YouTube animation of the same name, which has now had more than 3 million views!

With a foreword from Neil Gaiman and boasting amazing new artwork from animator and illustrator DC Turner (with producer Tracy King), the book expresses Tim’s satirical lyrical trickery beautifully. There’s a compendious introduction from Tim and it is available in paperback, as an e-book and also as a limited, collector’s hardback edition, which is signed by Tim and contains exclusive extra content.

You’ll find details of that extra content on the Storm – The Illustrated Book Page, where you’ll also be able to see some more images and further information.

Storm by Tim Minchin with DC Turner and Tracy King will be published on the 16th October 2014, but it is already available for PRE-ORDER:

• Paperback Edition
  £12.99
  Amazon
• Hardback Deluxe Edition
  £20.00
  Amazon

If you only read one book this year, then this one is a book and it is good and it’s a book!

Tim will be hopping into his acting shoes for the ABC TV mini-series The Secret River, adapted from Kate Grenville’s acclaimed novel.

The series, which will air on, Australian television channel, ABC1 in two 90 minute episodes, stars British actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Mr Selfridge, Raven, Dracula) as William Thornhill, a convict, and AACTA award winner Sarah Snook (Sisters of War, Not Suitable for Children) as Sal, his free settler wife, who are transported to the new colony of New South Wales in 1805.

Tim joins a stellar cast which also includes: Lachy Hulme (Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Power Games: The Packer-Murdoch Story, Offspring), Genevieve Lemon (Top of the Lake, Rake) and Trevor Jamieson (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Around the Block).

Through the story of the young couple’s adventures, The Secret River explores social and cultural issues and the escalating conflicts, sparked by the interactions between newly arrived white convicts and settlers and the original indigenous inhabitants, during the colonisation of Australia.

Carole Sklan, Head of ABC TV Fiction said: “Producer, Stephen Luby and director Daina Reid have assembled a fantastic cast and crew to realize this landmark drama. A love story and story of outcasts, the drama ultimately looks at how good people are capable of doing terrible things.”

The novel won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in the same year. It has been adapted for television by Oscar nominee screenwriter, Jan Sardi and Mac Gudgeon.

The Secret River will shoot for eight weeks in locations across Victoria and on The Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney so Tim might have to get his feet wet.

We’ll announce, on here, as soon as we get word of exactly when and where it will air on your telly boxes.

Just For Laughs are hosting a ten day comedy festival this September in Toronto and Tim will be putting on one of his fancy-pants comedy shows for it!

You’ll be able to catch Tim’s ivory-tickling on the 18th September 2014. The venue will be chosen closer to the time based on the demand for seats.

This isn’t just any show you can buy a ticket for though, as JFL42 is a pass-based festival, which allows you to potentially see as many of the shows in the festival as humanly possible!

Passes start at $49 and go on sale on Friday at 11am EDT. They all include at least two credits, where a credit allows you to reserve a seat at any non-headline show in the festival, including Tim’s!

If a show is sold-out when you get your pass, do add it to your wishlist as the demand is monitored and if it’s high enough they’ll either add an extra show or move it to a bigger venue.

For more information on how the passes work, visit the JFL42 website.

Headline acts include Seth Meyers, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, while Paul F Tompkins, Deanne Smith and Doug Benson are just some of the other 42 acts. You can check the full lineup here.

Interested in this “avant-garde” comedy festival? You’ll be able to grab your pass from the JFL42 website, here!

To keep up to date with the latest festival news, follow them on Twitter and you can check out photos of last year’s festival on Instagram.

Tim and his band take to the ‘Great Oak Stage’ to play live in Hyde Park for British Summer Time Hyde Park on Thursday 10th July, 2014.

Preceding him on the main stage will be a fabulous line-up of comedy talent: Milton Jones, Nina Conti, Alan Davies and Gina Yashere with Special Guest Host – Jasper Carrott.

If you fancy some al fresco Tim, you can lay claim to a select spot on the grass, with blankets and chairs or, if you prefer, there will also be unreserved seating in the Grandstand area.

This is Tim’s first time playing Hyde Park and it promises to be a unique and very special evening of comedy entertainment.

Presale tickets are available from – 9am Wednesday 4th June.
They go on general sale here on Friday 6th June.
Prices:
£29 Standard General Admission
£35 Terrace seating (unreserved)

(more…)

While Tim’s in the UK to perform with Tim Rice, someone decided it’d be a good idea to have a long, friendly chit-chat with him live on stage!

On the 7th July 2014, Tim will be interviewed by Fiona Lindsay at the Lyric Theatre in London for her twelve part series Encounters: Performers on Performance.

The series celebrates performance, investigates the enduring allure of those that do it and reveals the transformative nature of performing. In other words, we reckon there’ll be some interesting gossip revealed!

Previous interviewees have included Ruby Wax and David Suchet, so Tim’s in good company.

Tickets are on sale now from the Nimax Theatres website, Box Office: 0844 412 4663, priced from £22.00 and (although with an apparently higher booking fee) from See Tickets.

Tim was announced today as one of the special guests who’ll pay tribute to Tim Rice, at his Life In Song concert, at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the 8th July, 2014.

In 2012, Tim toured with the first ever UK arena tour of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary rock classic Jesus Christ Superstar, cast in his dream role of Judas Iscariot, reprising his award winning role when the show toured Australian arenas and then the UK again in 2013.

He’ll be performing one of the many songs saluted at this unique evening, celebrating fabulous music and iconic lyrics. Michael Grade will hosting and in conversation with Tim Rice to tease out the stories behind some of the best loved songs from stage and screen over the last five decades.

Music will be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Mike Dixon and the show will also be filmed by the BBC for broadcast later this year.

Tickets are priced at £30-£85 and are available from the Southbank Centre, www.eventim.co.uk or 0844 249 1000.

Last month, on a flying visit to Melbourne, Tim attended the launch of the world première DreamWorks Animation: The Exhibition, at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). He’s currently working on ‘Larrikins’, a Dreamworks animated feature, which tells the story of a little bilby who finds himself launched on a musical adventure across the mystical and untamed Australian outback.

In case you missed it in the Aus press, we thought you might like to see a couple of photos and a little video footage from the event.

Evidently Alex the Lion was delighted to embrace a kindred spirit, so clearly willing to have an eyeball and tooth-off. Tim won by a whisker:

Tim enjoying an embrace from Alex the Lion
Photographer Andrew Morley, Image courtesy ACMI

(more…)

Photo by Lyndsey Gardiner

Having heard a bit of a clamour for his satirical lyrical trickery and musical athleticism, Tim will be performing at the lovely Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday May 29th, 2014.

The presale starts today, Thursday 24th April, 2014, at 10am PDT with tickets via Ticketmaster.
Use the presale code: MINCHIN

Tickets go on general sale at 10am PDT tomorrow, Friday 25th April, 2014.

Those who emailed in a photo of their glum face and ticket stub, for fuckuppery make-uppery, you’ll be contacted shortly, if you haven’t been already.

UPDATE 10:32am PDT: There’s been a bit of a glitch with the number of tickets put on presale. It is being sorted out and if you try again shortly you’ll be able to buy them.

UPDATE 15/05/14, 8:23am PDT: For those waiting to hear about their fuckuppery make-uppery tickets we’ve asked about them and have been told that “final details are imminent” so keep an eye on your inboxes.

For those of you who were disappointed last October when The Great Visa Fuckuppery meant that Tim was not allowed to appear at Festival Supreme: This is the news you have been waiting for!

As Tim said in his Great Visa Fuckuppery blog:

“I really want to do something to try to make this up to y’all. …could you do something for me? Try to keep hold of your ticket stub from Festival Supreme. OK? …take a selfie with your sad, sad face next to the ticket before you lose it. That way, we have some chance of putting on some sort of free compensatory gig next year.”

So now’s your chance.  Tim will be doing a gig in LA in the next couple of months, but before the main announcement he’d like to see those ticket stubs and sad, sad faces so that he can arrange for you to attend the gig for free. Yippee!

All you have to do is email the photos of your sad faces next to your Festival Supreme ticket stubs to [email protected] and then, sometime quite soon, you’ll be emailed with details of how this will work.

Act fast though because you have just 48 hours to find those ticket stubs, take suitably sorrowful snaps and email them to the address above.

Deadline: Friday, 18th April 2014, 12:30 PDT

UPDATE: Tim has extended the deadline by 12 hours to Saturday, 19th April 2014, 00:30 PDT