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Just a nice short note to say that Tim will be appearing at this year’s Guardian Hay Festival, which takes place in Hay-On-Wye, Wales.

Tim will be performing on the 31st May, with tickets for his show going on sale to Friends of Hay at midnight tonight and to the general public at midnight on Tuesday. The festival box office number is 01497 822629 and online ticket sales can be found here.

Other confirmed acts and authors include Phillip Pullman, Bill Bryson, Rob Brydon, Laura Marling and Brian May, so why not stay and enjoy more of the festival?

If you’re a fan of Tim’s on Facebook (and if you’re not, the only excuse is that you’re not on Facebook, and who’s not on Facebook these days?) then you’ll probably already know that we have an exclusive Easter Monday treat for you, and boy what a treat it is!

The producer of ITV’s Comedy Cuts, Rohan Acharya, has kindly allowed us to upload to YouTube, for your viewing pleasure, the video for ‘If You Really Loved Me’, which is taken from the forthcoming series of the said ITV programme.

Do you like abandoned warehouses, dancing and men in tailcoats? If so, this video might just make your day!

You’ve not heard much about Matilda, the musical for which Tim is writing the music and lyrics, have you? Well allow me to furnish you with some details.

The musical will run from 9th November 2010 to 30th January 2011 at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, with previews between the 9th and 13th November. Audio-described performances, for the vision impaired, are on the 11th and 29th January and captioned performances for the hard of hearing are on the 15th and 21st January. A comprehensive list of performance dates and times can be found here.

Tickets will be available to buy from 21st April (put it in your diaries so that you don’t forget), priced between £8 and £56 depending on what day you see it, and which seats you book. More details, including individual band prices, can be found here.

You know you’re really looking forward to it and, well, if you don’t, why not? It’s going to be ace!

The announcements for festival season begin: Camp Bestival is 30th July – 1st August 2010 at Lulworth Castle in Dorset.

Tim will be performing as part of the Jestival Sessions on Friday 30th.

The great comedy line up for Jestival also includes: Rufus Hound, Jim Jefferies, Marcus Brigstocke, Andrew Maxwell, Andre Vincent, Tiernan Douieb, Carl Donnelly, Craig Campbell, Mitch Benn, Rob Rouse, Matt Kirshen and Tim Fitzhigham!

Weekend tickets are £155 and can be purchased from the Camp Bestival website.

So dig out that crumpled tent and shake the spiders out of your wellies and have fun!

You know how on Tuesday we mentioned that Sam Leach’s portrait of Tim was one of the finalists for the Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious art awards? Well, it’s only gone and won!

Leach said he approached Tim to do a portrait, “primarily because I really like his style of comedy,” as well as seeing parallels between the pair’s lives.

“The topics he deals with – social commentary, the appeal to reason over religion and that kind of thing – tie in with my work.

“But in a funny way I also see my career reflected in his. His career is much bigger than mine but we became successful in our fields almost simultaneously and our first and second children were also born about the same time.”

He continued, “It was very important for me to get the toes in because he performs with bare feet and I was very happy with them.”

Tim gave this statement about his portrait: “What I like about my portrait is that it’s clear young Samuel has really put some effort into it. I particularly like how he made my lounge room floor look so clean – this will please my mother – and I’m seriously considering buying a print.”

Click the thumbnail to see the full prize-winning portrait.

So, it turns out that Tim’s going to be on Australian television this weekend as well as UK TV.

On Sunday, at 8pm, Tim will be appearing on the panel show ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on Ten, alongside Chrissie Amphlett and Brooke Satchwell.

After his recent appearance on Good News Week, you’ll know that you won’t want to be missing this!

As the post titles suggests, these are a few snippets of news that don’t really justify a whole news post to themselves.

1. Tim has won two Green Room awards in cabaret for the best artiste and best original songs. Unfortunately he wasn’t even nominated for best male dancer. The full list of nominations and recipients can be found here.

2. Tim has also won a Chortle award for best music or variety act. Looks like he’s going to need a bigger mantelpiece for all these trophies. The rest of the winners can be seen here.

3. Speaking of awards, a portrait of Tim, done by the artist, Sam Leach, is a finalist for the Archibald Prize, which is regarded as one of the most prestigious Australian art awards. The painting, along with the other finalists can be seen here.

4. ‘So F**king Rock Live’ is being repeated on e4, in the UK, yet again, on Saturday at 11pm. Not that we’re saying you should watch it because it’s already been on three times, and you’ve probably got the DVD too, but just so you know.

On March 14th, Tim will be taking to the stage alongside an eclectic line-up of comedians, scientists and politicians, including Dara O’Briain, Dr Ben Goldacre, Robin Ince and Simon Singh, at a benefit gig for the Coalition for Libel Reform, who are trying to get unfair UK libel laws reformed.

This is what Tim had to say about the matter: “Here is what current English libel laws say: ‘Dear inquisitive, hard-working person with the public interest at heart: If a rich b*****d tells you to shut-up, you’d better shut-the f**k-up or be prepared to go broke’. It needs a tweak, we reckon.”

The show is taking place at the Palace Theatre in London and tickets are priced between £20 and £40.

[Go here] for more information and ticket purchasing links.

Tim has been nominated for the Music or Variety act in the 2010 Chortle Awards, along with Wilson Dixon, Frisky & Mannish and Hans Teeuwen.

It’s the ninth year of the Chortle Awards and Music or Variety is one of the two new categories, the other being Sketch or Character act.

Polls close at 11.59pm on February 21 and you can vote *ahem* numerously here.

Waiting for something?

…on your mouse, get set…Go!

Wow, there hasn’t been any news in a while but that changes right now!

For all you Aussie folk reading this, be sure to tune in to Ten on Monday at 8:30pm.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “but that’s when ‘Good News Week’ is on,” and you’d be right because, along with Jimeoin, Kitty Flanagan and Colin Lane, Tim’s appearing on it so if you’ve ever wanted to see him take part in a comedy panel quiz show that isn’t ‘Spicks and Specks’ then now’s your chance!

So who amongst you has heard the rumour about the ‘Storm’ animation? The good news is that it’s all true and it’s due out sometime next year (or sometime this year if you’re reading this in 2010; look at you being in the future).

The movie’s production blog has now gone live in the lead up to the release; it’ll feature character designs, concept sketches, inspiration for the film, time-lapsed videos of artwork being created and more, posted by the team responsible for this ace project! It’ll be updated frequently, exclusively, and maybe even by Tim.

For all the latest goings on I suggest you keep your beady eyes on [this], follow the [Twitter feed], become a fan on [Facebook] or maybe do all three!

To get a taster for it, the trailer is now live!

And so the mission to get my sentimental, atheistic, southern-hemispherical Christmas song, White Wine in the Sun, into the UK charts was a massive success!

Well, it was to me, anyway.

Sure, it didn’t exactly end up ruffling the feathers of Joe’s X-factorial Miley Cyrus cover, nor the teen-angst anarchanthem that, were it a person, would be old enough to drive its grandma’s Volvo, but the odds on it making a real impact on the Christmas charts were always very, very slim, like a post-apocalyptic shopping-mall Santa with gastro, or an Olsen twin.

After all, I only thought to give it a push about a week before they stopped counting, and we were competing against dozens of songs that are played dozens of times a day on dozens of radio stations. Oh, and it’s 6.5 minutes long and doesn’t specifically promote the idea that Jesus is magic.

But I am so very, VERY chuffed by the responses to the song and the amazing support from my frickin’ ace Twitter followers and Facebook folk and fancy celeb-types like Wossy and Gaiman and Mills and Bacon and Wallace and Herring and Brooker and Serafinowicz and, well loads of nice, good people who felt that my song was a reasonably pleasant musical contribution to the festive season.

To everyone who did so, thanks so much for downloading and enjoying.

As you may know, 50% of proceeds from the sale of the song during December will go to the National Autistic Society to support their efforts to further understand and treat Autism. And although our fucking cracking attempt to climb the charts is now over, there’s still 10 days left in the month! So please continue to let people know that the song is available.

(The other 50% goes to me, because I live in a small flat with a devastating paucity of closet space.)

Merry Christmas and peace be with you.
xx tim.

The single can be bought from:
iTunes
Amazon
HMV
We7
Play.com
TuneTribe
Tesco

Tim’s moving, secular Christmas song offers an alternative to the hype-driven singles we’ve come to expect at this time of year. It hit iTunes as a single for the first time on the 14th December and to mark the occasion, 50% of the proceeds from the December sales of the song are going to Autism research.

This is a disability Tim feels is poorly funded with its causes and treatment still not well understood.

The song is a beautiful and intelligent exploration of why Christmas might still be meaningful to those of us who hold no religious beliefs.

You can download it here.

Update: The charity Tim is delighted to be supporting is The National Autistic Society.

OK, there are red cups at Starbucks and big socks in the shops… so what else is traditional at this time of the year? The Christmas single of course… but not the usual fare eh?

‘White Wine in the Sun’, the beautiful and sentimental encore to Tim’s ‘Ready For This?’ show has been released as a single for the first time and is now available on: iTunes

You can also get it elsewhere, if you are not into iTunes but the best way to ensure that your download counts towards the singles chart is to buy from iTunes.

We know getting it to chart is a ridiculous long shot… but just imagine if it did!

Update: It turns out it can be gifted through iTunes too, which is especially apt at this time of the year and for a Christmas single. Simply click “Gift This Music” under the information on the single’s page. However, it will ask the recipient to download iTunes if they do not already have it or to update if below Version 6. It’s even suitable for your auntie…and beats that pack of hankies she may give you hands down.

Tim will be appearing in the Perth Theatre Company Production of An Oak Tree by Tim Crouch.

The comic play is set in a stage hypnotist’s act and is performed by two actors: the star Luke Hewitt and twenty three guest actors. There are no rehearsals for the guests so Tim won’t know anything of the script until he is performing on his night! Exciting huh? Tim reckons: “it’ll be great whatever night”.

The dates of each guest’s performance are being kept top secret but the curious and speculative amongst you can take a look for further information and the alphabetical (see no clues there) list of featured actors here.

On the QT all I can say is that Tim will be performing on one of the November or December dates…*wink*

Shhhh…