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Tim Minchin - "Back" with Hannah Lonsdale
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Bryan and Nick welcome fellow Toastmaster Hannah Lonsdale to talk about Tim Minchin's special "Back"!
This is last firm in it. We serve a hot takes on comedy legends and rising stars. Every episode features a different guest claiming to be the armchair critic along with us, Brian and Nick. So lean back or lock in or whatever you listeners do while we butcher callbacks to our comedy heroes. Brian, who's our guest today?
SPEAKER_04Well, first of all, hey Nick, how are you doing? Good to see you.
SPEAKER_06No, I don't ask me back. Do your job. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Our guest today is Hannah Lonsdale. She is a fellow Toastmaster with us. And she speaks and does all kinds of things around the world, which is really awesome. We have like a very international, she is British. You'll hear a little tinge in the accent, I think, when she starts to speak. She's been in America for about seven years, and her job is putting babies to sleep, babies to sleep. So, because that, you know, pediatric anesthesiologist. And I did you see how quickly I said that and how easily I said that? It just rolls off the tongue. Welcome, Hannah. Thank you for being here. Tell us a little bit about you, uh, and also tell us a little bit about the comedian that you chose and why you chose them and whether you're a fan and things like that.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Brian. Hi, Nick. Great to see you. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast and giving me an excuse to sit down for two hours and do nothing and watch um something hilarious. I am I am very particular with my comedy. I there are many types of comedy I don't like. I don't like cringe comedy. Things like The Office just hurt my soul. And so I'm I only like very select comedians. But today's comedian, Tim Minchin, is one of those comedians that I think he's hilarious. He's very smart, his material verges on the intellectual at points, but he's also an excellent musician. He has very clever, funny songs, um, and even plays the piano with his feet at points during uh during this particular special. The performance uh is called Back. It's his first tour in several years, I think, since before COVID. Um, but it's it was great to view it. I think a two-hour long performance was a little longer than I expected it to be. I was hoping to watch this a couple of times to really pick up on everything, but two hours, wow, man. How do you keep that? How do you keep up that energy for so long?
SPEAKER_04That's crazy.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Nice. Well, we have a rating sheet where we can assess Tim Minson's performance. Um maybe just relive a little bit of the I love that you have an evaluation form.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have a lot, we we owe a lot to Toastmaster, right? A two-page evaluation form.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, in true Toastmaster style, you know.
SPEAKER_00A 13-point scoring system. That is impressive.
SPEAKER_06We never said we weren't nerds. I'm shocked. The first couple of questions are more um they're not scoring so much as just recognizing the the style and subject matter of the uh performer of the comedian. So, Hannah, look, how did you what what boxes did you check for Tim München and back?
SPEAKER_00I think I probably could have checked many of these boxes, but the ones that I eventually checked were storytelling. There's a lot of stories about his life. It feels like a bit of a retrospective of he's had a 30-year career now. We looked up, he's 50 years old. Um, he's looking very good for someone who is 50 years old. Uh but storytelling was a big part of it, and observational comedy. There's definitely some satire in there, and a large portion of musical comedy. You could probably throw in some of the other elements too. In terms of subject matter, it's cross the almost the whole uh spectrum here. We definitely had political and religious, and it was very controversial at points. Yes, social commentary, yes. Uh, personal life for sure, pop culture. There were some very dark humorous sections. I don't think I would go as far as saying it was absurdist, but uh pretty much everything else.
SPEAKER_06Nice. Yeah, uh I agree largely. Uh what here let's hear from you, Brian. What what would you say about style and subject matter?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I had um I had many of the same ones. I had storytelling, I had observational, just sort of like you know, the way of the world. Um, definitely musical comedy. Um I did miss satirical, but now that I'm thinking about it, like absolutely, uh especially I'm trying to think what the song was. There was a song in there that was uh Thank You God.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, thank you God. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh-huh. Yeah. It's a hundred percent. Like, and he did the whole thing before it, and like it said, I'm not gonna be doing this this material anymore. Anyway, we we'll get into that, I'm sure. But um, but definitely satirical. Um, I did he did have a couple of one-liners in there. Uh and the the other thing that we don't have on here, Nick, maybe we need to add it in honor of you, is we don't have like pun, pun maker. Fantastic. We don't have that. And he did a lot of puns. So like I was like, that's why I like him so much. Yeah. I think it's because puns, like you were saying, puns are the intellectual of comedy because you've got to understand like the context, and you've got to understand like you've got to like listen very carefully to catch the catch it. And sometimes you'll hear, I mean, in fact, in our last podcast, Nick, you would do puns and I would they would just go right over my head because I wasn't listening closely enough to catch it. You know what I mean? So um Yeah, I do know what you mean. Yes, you're like, I was I was there. And then, yeah, subject matter, uh, definitely political, personal life, uh, social commentary, and um dark were we going into that? Did we did I jump ahead?
SPEAKER_06We're we're covering both at this point. We're covering both.
SPEAKER_04Okay, sorry. So yeah, I wasn't listening again, you know? Just um sorry, what okay. Uh I also uh dark humor checked, and uh I think that's about it. Oh no, I was trying, and that the other thing is I was struggling to try and find something that was like pop culture, but I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_06There's a lot of pop culture references, they were just needed glossary. Oh yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_04That is true. The glossaries, yeah, now we'll talk about that later. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Well so I don't okay. I I did check dark humor, but it was reluctantly. I don't think because you wear eyeliner that makes you dark. Emo. I would say I would say early on when he said I could buy your child, yes was probably the most dark he got. Which was good. I I liked it. And I think I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Are we not calling the uh the the religious ex uh um the religious elements dark?
SPEAKER_04I think that the and I think the Anne Frank stuff was a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah that that was like that yes.
SPEAKER_06That's that's true, yeah. Um what was it you just said? Oh well, yeah. I I agree. Maybe we could use a I don't know, puns puns maybe then just need a question about puns. Puns needs to be I think every good comedy show needs to have uh at least one or two puns. Just like every comedy should have some callbacks. Yeah. Like you want you at least need a sprinkling, if not liberal application of the that style.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_06Um I I put percentages down this time for the percentages, yeah. Wow, and the math really checks out too, because it's I'd say it's 60% storytelling, 60% observational, 60, 80 musical comedy, 40% satirical, and 10% improv.
SPEAKER_04So like 400%.
SPEAKER_06Well, he has a bit much, right? Like so it works out. I think it I think it all it maths out. The maths math as a stereotype of Hannah, I might say.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_06All right, let's let's get into our scoring. Our our very first question, because we like to spoil it. Um, laughs per minute, our namesake.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Hannah, how would how would you rate the frequency of laughs?
SPEAKER_00That should be the conclusion to the whole show. Yeah, yeah, we said the same.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna do that. We're we're working on, yeah, we gotta modify the because we said that same thing. We're like, why are we doing this first? Anyway, all right. Yeah, Brian, why are we doing this first? Because some idiot made up the scorecard, and that idiot was me.
SPEAKER_06Anyway, no, there are no idiots here. So Anna, what what's the number you gave for last one out of ten or ten out of ten?
SPEAKER_00I gave it a seven, and that didn't mean that I didn't find everything entertaining and amusing, it just some parts were more serious, and so those parts were not laugh generating. I didn't my enjoyment, but I I gave it a seven.
SPEAKER_06I uh I'll get to you in a second, Brian. I also gave it a seven. Um I think I feel like I so I'm a fan of Tim Tim mentioned, he's one of my favorites, and I think he's funny because he wants to keep people's attention between songs and philosophical rants. Yeah, yeah. He's only funny because he has to be a ghost.
SPEAKER_00So, like the point is that. It's a variety show with his like basically full of his opinions. He doesn't describe it as a comedy show.
SPEAKER_06Sure. And and I agree and appreciate, and I I think he's funny. The the things that were supposed to be funny were funny, and so yeah, seven steady laughs throughout. Um what say you, Brian? How are you?
SPEAKER_04Uh we are hand holding on that. Um I gave it a seven also. Um and I I think, yeah, that again, uh we always talk about storytelling comedians that it's not designed to have like sort of constant laughter. There's not like a punchline, punchline, punchline. But um, and we'll get into it further too, and later with audience engagement. But I think I gave it a seven just because I think it was steady, like where there needed to be laughs, where there needed to be a response from the audience. Um, there was because I'll count applause after a piece of music to as as quote quote quote unquote laughs, even though you know this, and that that'll and that sort of leads me into what I was gonna say about this is like this is a slightly different animal than what we normally will do on this podcast, which we're usually doing straight up stand-up comedy, even though there's music musical comedy uh comedians, many of them are like like we did Bo Burnham. Like Bo Burnham is a music, all of his songs are satirical in nature, they're funny, they are intended to be funny, they're like there for the punchline, they're they're part of the act. Whereas like he's put out full music albums that are just music to listen to music, and act and actually some of these, like some of these uh you're talking about Tim Minchin now. Tim Minchin, yeah. So like yeah, Tim Minchin like has put out albums, and the thing about it is that there are songs that are nice to listen to. A couple of them I teared up in, and I'll talk about that later because they were just very they touch me like in a way, um, which you probably can figure out which one it is, leaving LA. Um that like that that that hit me like hard, you know, and it hit me in a different way. So, like, which which I honestly love being connected to my emotions the way that I am. I I like it when I'm watching something that makes me laugh and makes me cry. And sometimes I've had certain things, I think I've talked about this before, but um uh gosh, who is it? Um I'm blanking on his name, but Chris Farley's like best friend. Adam Sandler. So Adam Sandler does had did a song in his in his show that is a retrospect about Chris Farley, and I can listen to that song and ball my eyes out and be laughing at the same time, and that is like that's awesome to me. Like, I love that. It's just it's a cool I want to be moved to I want my emotions to be moved, you know. So um, so anyway, all that being said, uh I think seven out of ten is what I gave him because of that.
SPEAKER_06That that reminds me what you said before, Brian. I think you're quoting somebody else or something else about if you've if in a day you've laughed and you cried and something else, then it's a good day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's Jim Valvano. It's uh actually I'm gonna I'm gonna get a tattoo of that. It's uh it's if you if you have if you laugh, if you cry, and if you think every day. So you have your emotions are moved to tears and you laugh and you have some time of contemplation every day, then that's those are the three things that you should be doing every day. That's he called that a heck of a day. So, you know, you got something special. So anyway, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Well, carry carry us into um number two, content quality out of ten.
SPEAKER_04So, content quality, how well written were the jokes and stories? Hannah already sort of touched on this. Like his writing is obviously he's been doing this a long time, and some of these uh the cool thing about this, this is almost like a retrospective for him because it's old. I mean, by its very nature, it's old songs and new songs, and so like even said, like for that one poem, I think it was the one about the uh Mitsubishi. He yeah, Mitsubishi cold, like he wrote that in like 1999, you know. So that's I mean, it's over 20 years old, obviously. And so, um, so uh obviously he's had a lot of times to develop his material. I just don't understand people that do music and also people that do these long shows without like lines or anything. I'm like, I just don't understand how you can do that long form and st and because you have to say the words in a specific way and deliver them in a specific way, but I guess it's just time after time after time.
SPEAKER_06It's just like prayer, Brian.
SPEAKER_04I know it's like a magic thing in a particular way, right? Exactly.
SPEAKER_00So and I also think this was the last date of his tour that's he'd been doing it for like months, basically.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, I think so. So I gave it a seven. Strong creative writing. Nice, Hannah?
SPEAKER_00Uh I also gave it a seven. Uh I think I very much enjoyed it, but I found at times it it as retrospectives do, it felt a little self-indulgent. It felt like uh I am very successful, and so I can think less about the best way to entertain people and more about what I want to do. There were just a few tinges of that, but it was mostly very entertaining. But I would not go as far as like brilliantly written. It certainly was unique though, um, by your prompts on your scoring system. But I also, having seen Tim mention before, I hadn't seen this particular performance, and I think I had incredibly high expectations, and they were not quite met. And I feel really dumb saying that because he it's it was still really good, but I was expecting a lot.
SPEAKER_06There's um what is it? You can you know, we we considered doing a way for this, and we learned that like really that was really just a concert kind of thing. Yeah, a lot of the songs that he plays in um back, he also played in a way. It's like the the songs of back in with the comedy stylings in between. Right, or without the comedy in between, yeah. Um so I'd actually give it a nine because it is brilliantly written, unique material. And I I think I'd just gone so long without being exposed to Tim mentioned though I'm a fan. It was just it was great. Like I was right along that memory lane with him and you know, happy to hear the songs that you know um I've always loved, you know, like cheese and um thank you gosh.
SPEAKER_04I have so much to say about that anyway.
SPEAKER_06We'll get there, Brian. But hearing what you said, you've you've taken me down a peg and I'm gonna I'm knocking it down to eight. Um in part because of what you said, but also you helped me remember that like I've heard a lot of these same jokes or a lot of these same songs. It was a retrospective, so it's just yeah, it was well written 20 years ago. You know, it's just sort of a rerun in a lot of ways. Performance and delivery. Anybody want to go first?
SPEAKER_00I gave him a nine on this one. He's been doing this a long time, he's polished, he knows his material, he has great timing. Even when he was slightly kind of messing things up. So there's the he asked for a shot of tequila and drank it, and then I think in a fit of like flourish, kind of threw it off stage, but the glass shattered, and then they brought him a broom, and after he finished the song he was singing, he swept it up himself and brushed it off stage, and it could have been staged, but I I got the impression that was not part of the scheduled performance. And then once he finished sweeping up, he he said something like, Oh, I'm really kicking myself now because I should have used what was it, brush sweeping. Sweeping statements, sweeping statements. Yeah, sweeping statements, that was it.
SPEAKER_06Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. He should have talked about making sweeping statements.
SPEAKER_06Um, because he had just gone on the soliloquy of making sweeping statements about other people, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00While sweeping. But um, and I thought that was as far as I know, improv or extremely well acted uh staged material that um was delivered well despite being improv despite not being part of the planned performance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, in my head, it was improv at some point, probably on his tour. And you know, those little moments he they're so good that he probably brought it forward and even made a comment that he said, like if it if it if I had made if I had made the the comment about sweeping statements, y'all would have like, oh, it's staged. Um like it is like nothing, and I think he said like nothing's ever staged or nothing's ever pre-planned. I can't remember what it um but I I I kind of wonder if it was. There was other times he lied to us, you know. He said totally true story. I mean, once he's done, it's like, oh I made it all up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um did I Brian, what what did you score for some delivery?
SPEAKER_04I gave an eight out of ten. So just right below where Hannah landed. Um, I think he definitely engaging and confident on stage and uh knows his material, uh is sort of comfortable with who he is and how he wants to deliver things. And um and he did that. And I just thought it was really interesting in him being barefoot because that was like the one of the first things I noticed. I was like, is he barefoot right now? And it's like okay. Okay, is that his thing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I would say that if the if the smashing the glass was not improv, that's a pretty risky thing to do. That's what I was worried about then.
SPEAKER_02I was I was like, man, he's gonna cut his foot.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. So what would have made it a nine out of ten for you, Brian?
SPEAKER_04That's a good question. Um I think um see what would have made it a nine out of ten? Probably like just being, I think just taking it to the next level.
SPEAKER_06I think um I think some of the stuff that he what I just he he took it past several levels. No, I know, I know, I know.
SPEAKER_04I think um I think just uh I'm trying to think, like I felt like he's super confident on stage, but then um I maybe it's just his shtick, like the way that he is, because he is sort of like um I don't want to say he's not like self-deprecating, but he's sort of like, you know, take me as I am kind of thing. And I think that got in the way for me a little bit. So, you know, but it like I said, it might just be part of his act. So yeah.
SPEAKER_06I think we talked about something similar, speaking of Bo Burnham. All of the ums and er and um errors. How much of that is scripted and how much of that is genuine? Like to seem more humble and relatable, the more ums and awkward pauses you you put out there, then the more relatable you can be.
SPEAKER_00So that's we will try that Toastmasters sometime. So for the uninitiative, uh uninitiated Toastmasters meetings include a person who keeps track of every time you say um and ah and so and all of those filler words that you use while thinking.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_00And I wonder how fun it would be to deliberately and precisely use filler words to maximize your point rather than subconsciously use them because your brain needs time to catch up.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I would I would steal a line from art and say that in Toastmasters you learn to uh keep the rules so then later you can break the rules. Right? You're learning into you're learning art, you're like you gotta learn about shadow and all that. But then once you learn the rules, then you can start breaking them. Um my score was eight. So in part because of the errors and the ums, and then partly because of the glass mishap that you mentioned. Okay. But on my second viewing, I did commit four hours to this. Actually, three and a half, because the second time I watched it on faster speed, uh, there was a piano swap mishap that I caught. There was a piano swap. He during the in the middle of the song, he's playing the piano. Oh, I saw that. Yes, and he you know dismounts from the piano song to sing with you know the mic in hand and do dances and act out certain parts of the song. Well, one of his entourage comes up to play the piano in his place, yeah, and she doesn't quite get there in time. She's fiddling with the mic.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the mic went, the mic messed up. The mic was like loose and it fell down, so she had to like play the piano but then tighten the mic stand because the mic literally like popped down like that, and she had to like mess with it.
SPEAKER_06And while she's doing that, somehow the piano still plays. Ah I don't know if yeah. I mean, it's definitely live, like he's definitely singing, sure. Um, and there's parts where he's definitely playing the piano. I don't know if maybe like they have a backup track or something that they can, you know.
SPEAKER_04I think he sang mostly in F sharp though.
SPEAKER_00So I I loved and hated that song.
SPEAKER_04What I thought was funny is how he broke the audience up for that, where he's like, Yeah, certain amount of people that are just like musicians, and they're like, Yeah, that's terrible. Like, I can't believe this. And then there's the middle of the audience is laughing, and then he's like, two to three percent is like, what I don't hear any problem. What's wrong with it?
SPEAKER_00Like speaking of audience, oh go ahead, Anna. My inner musician was just like cringing every time he then I I was almost laughing at myself for how much I hated it.
SPEAKER_06Good thing he doesn't do cringe comedy. Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that that was as close as I could get to cringe comedy and be okay.
SPEAKER_06Well, let's let's rate audience engagement out of five. Uh Brian, you go first.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I sort of already talked about this a little bit. This I I give him a four out of five. Um I feel like the audience was fully engaged the whole time. They are, you know, they're there were silent when they needed to be silent. So some of those slower, um softer songs, it was like you could hear a pin drop. Like you the audience was just completely captivated on what he was doing, listening to the song, taking it in, and then um, you know, appropriate applause where they need to where there needs to be applause, laughter where there needs to be laughter. And I just felt like you could feel that the audience was there. There was a couple of parts too where the audience, there's a little bit of audience engagement, like meaning like, I love you. And it's like, well, I'm if I was gonna if we're gonna take this any further, then I'm gonna need to see you before I just comment whether I love you or not.
SPEAKER_00You know, I didn't actually find that funny, but he tried.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04In terms of engagement, though, you've got people yelling at you from the audience, so that's what I'm saying. So I'd say four out of five, not a not a hundred percent not perfect score, but close.
SPEAKER_00I have a meta question. Some of your uh evaluation scales are one to ten, and some of them are one to five. What what was the thought process there?
SPEAKER_04Um none. There really wasn't a thought process.
SPEAKER_00Okay. It was it was it was I did give a four for this, which may sound low because we've been giving sevens and eights, but that's because this one is out of five and not out of ten.
SPEAKER_04No, so actually what happened was we what happened was um we I came up with the amount like the different categories, and then I had to make that fit within a hundred because I wasn't gonna be like, what's your score out of 137, you know, or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00I mean, Nick's already demonstrated how well you can math and 400%.
SPEAKER_04So anyway, yeah, that's why that's why there's a disparity there. But anyway, no thoughts.
SPEAKER_06Like performance and delivery is more important than audience engagement.
SPEAKER_04Right, out of the 100 points, yeah. So similar to similar to a Toastmasters scale where it's like certain things are worth more than others, you know.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Uh let's see. So that was you, Brian. That was me. Four out of five. Yep. Um, what what do you say, Hannah?
SPEAKER_00Uh I give them five. I felt like there was full audience buy-in. I think he knows his audience well. He knows the kind of people who comes to his shows and he caters to that audience. The I'm guessing it's people born before about 1985, or are where he hits hard. Maybe 1990, if you're like on the the more mature end of that scale. Uh he I feel like he knew them well. And um he I feel like there were points in some of his songs where the audience like he kind of didn't sing and the audience sang, although I can't remember specifically. Um, so yeah, I maybe I I didn't interpret this one. So audience audience engagement from what you were saying, Brian, is like how the audience kind of talked back at him or responded to him and how he worked with that rather than how he tried to engage the audience. Because I I think things like the glossary of terms where he was explaining terms for the Gen Z who don't understand that porno used to come in magazines. Yeah, I felt like that that was that was excellent audience engagement within the the the skit.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That was great. It's like it's like TikTok. It doesn't give you mental illnessine is like TikTok, yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's it's like TikTok, it doesn't give you mental illness.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Um I don't know. I'm pretty sure magazines back in the day did give uh people mental illness.
SPEAKER_06So depending on the mag, yeah. But still funny. Um audience engagement for me is four out of five. I'm thinking of the you mentioned the I Love You, the lady that said that and he tried to call back or call out to uh the cheese song. Tons of audience engagement. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was it.
SPEAKER_06I knew there was like the the the tension with Cam and Barrett. Oh my gosh. That was the one interrupted.
SPEAKER_00I was like in my car. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02The Cam and Barrett, the Cam. Like alright, like just and it was like that was like, okay, I can't even get it out.
SPEAKER_04Most comedians would have stopped at a certain point when the tension was built, and he like hep, it was like a it was probably two minutes of like tension that was built, and then he was like, Cam, and then the audience today, he's like, fuck shut up, shut up, like go back to it, and then he'd like rewind, and then go back and back, and it's like, dude, you'd like know what the joke is gonna be, and like he got like two to two and a half minutes of just like intense, you know, and I was just yeah, I was blown away.
SPEAKER_00It's a little cringe too.
SPEAKER_04That's uh I loved it, I loved it, especially since it was about cheese, too. I mean, yeah, it's a little crusty.
SPEAKER_06Diversity of material. Hannah, what's what's your score on on that?
SPEAKER_00Are we talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion? Because I believe he put down the word woke pretty hard. Yeah, yeah. I don't think that's what we're talking about here, though. That's funny. I love that he was like, he kind of like dissed the word woke and then was like, yeah, oh, I've now lost everyone. Yes. Like under the age of 30 from my audience. Uh diversity of material. I think I gave it a four out of five. Wide range, um, although some of it, as Nick has already mentioned, is material from previous shows and back through his long career. But he certainly he touched on every offensive topic: religion, politics, um, children, the Holocaust. Yet somehow somehow like it it just about stayed in the gray areas of good taste. Right. Right. So I maybe maybe four and a half, because it's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06You can do that. We we only tell our guests they can do decimals during the record. We don't tell them to do decimal. Right.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Okay, so four four and a half out of five. What about you, Brian?
SPEAKER_04Diversity of material. That's exactly what I gave a four and a half. I give four point five out of five. Yeah, I was like, not a perfect score, but like four and a half. And yeah, because I think you've already sort of touched on it though, that because this is such a long body of his material, like long meaning like in length of time that he's writ written this, obviously it's going to be a wide variety of subjects because it's his material as he's going through being a comedian, being a songwriter, being a husband, a father, uh, you know, all those things. And also going through multiple places, like living in LA, then living in Australia, then living in did he say he lived in England as well at some point? So um, so living all over the world, so different material, different, you know, all those things are gonna play into the diversity of material, especially if you take it all and shove it into one show like he did. So um, I don't know that it was absolutely perfect, but I didn't see very much overlap. And here's a good example. We'll get into it later, actually, two two levels down, but callbacks, you know, if if there's a lack of diversity of material, there's gonna be a lot of callbacks, right? Because you can because you're able to like call back relatively easily to that joke, you're making a connection to those two things. But the further apart or the further diverse your material is, at least in my opinion, the harder it is to make callbacks, which I didn't we'll get to it, but like I I I don't know if I caught any callbacks, but anyway, we'll get to that in the net in the next couple things. So so four and a half out of five.
SPEAKER_06I gave a four out of five on diversity of material, wide range, kept fresh. Um you know, at five would be brilliant range, no stagnation. And I think there was maybe a bit of stagnation for the reasons y'all have already given, right? Like two hours is a long time. Um and there this is a retrospective, like these are like his his greatest hits, you know, or his favorite hits, not even his greatest, his favorite. Um so yeah, it's kind of if you've seen his other stuff, something will be familiar here. You know, impact and memorability, Brian.
SPEAKER_04I give him a pretty good score on this. Eight out of ten on that. Uh, you know, was the performance that sticks with you. So I think, and I wrote next to it earworms. And part of the reason why is because I thought, honestly, like it's it's a little easier for somebody to be memorable. It doesn't just have to be memorable in terms of comedy, memorable in terms of the like there are some of these songs I'm gonna go back and listen to just as songs, just out of context, out of this special, um, just because they were cool. And um, and there is a level of comedy within them, but um, but I also think there's that sing-along ability to it. So, um, so that that pushed me to an eight out of ten.
SPEAKER_06I just want to say thank you, God, for healing the cataracts of Sam's mom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Okay, have you guys heard of or seen uh Matilda, the stage show?
SPEAKER_06No, I've heard of I know I've heard of it directly.
SPEAKER_00Well he he wrote it, he wrote the the music and the lyrics for it. So he is like a genuine composer.
SPEAKER_04That makes sense because that was one of my comments that I was gonna say that this is this whole thing came like a lot of his stuff comes off very musical theater because like it could be a song in a musical because it's that kind of like telling a story within that, like that that the thank you, God, you know, for healing the cataract, that that kind of thing. I could picture that in the context of some musical that hasn't been written yet. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Just like hey, we have a probably written by the creators of South Park, yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_04So anyway. All right.
SPEAKER_06Well, go go ahead, Hannah. What what uh what was your score for impact in memorabilia?
SPEAKER_00I gave seven um because I would have liked to watch it again to really feel like I recognized everything in it, and maybe that's a reflection on the the density and the length rather than on the memorability, particularly. I think if it was an hour long, it would have been easier for some of that material to be memorable and not need a second look. But I feel like I wanted to watch it again, which I guess is a good thing, uh, to really like remember all of the the smaller parts of it. I feel like I I got all the the big hits and the big songs, but I suspect I'm not gonna be able to remember some of the bits in between.
SPEAKER_06I um I gave an eight out of ten, same as Brian. I think for kind of the same reason. I mean it the more the more emotion you feel, the more memorable anything's gonna be. Rhymes make things more memorable, music makes things more memorable. He's he's got all of that going on in all two hours of it. So just that that's probably why I just gave that one lyric, because that song's been stuck in my head for several days now. Um so yeah, I gave it an eight out of ten. All right. Callbacks. How um this is my phrasing, how effectively did the comedian sprinkle callbacks in?
SPEAKER_00So I wasn't familiar with this as a com like as a term in comedy. I realize what you meant, or I think I realize what you meant, like making a joke related to something that has already been like talked about earlier in the set, but I I I it's not something that I ever come across before. So they can't have you back on, I'm sorry. We're gonna have to end the podcast here.
SPEAKER_06Sorry, Hannah.
SPEAKER_00Science of comedy is over my head.
SPEAKER_06Maybe it's beneath you. That's why it's hard for you. It's all good. So but it sounds like you figured it out through context clues and you know incredible intellect. Um so so what did how would you rate Tim Minshin's use of callbacks?
SPEAKER_00I gave him four because the question was how effectively he executed the callbacks rather than how many callbacks there were. So I agree with Brian that there were not many callbacks, but I guess there was the theme of the glossary. I don't know if you would call that a callback or a theme. Yeah. But that was a well-executed recurring um point.
SPEAKER_06I would agree with that assessment that it's a callback, and I didn't notice that one personally.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't know. I I think that I was thinking about that. So like technically you talking about the glossary and then saying the stuff in the song is a callback to the glossary, like because you're sort of making fun of it. So like technically it's but it's the same thing as like when we have the word of the day in Toastmasters and you just say the word of the day and try to get credit. Right, exactly. Yeah, you don't use it, it's just like you're just saying it. So, like to me, I'm not counting that as an actual like well-executed or effective callback, um, even though it is an effective theme, like you said. I liked it. I actually really like it, I thought it was hilarious that he kept on doing it every single time. And he's like, There's gonna be some terms in here that you might not understand, and you know, things like that. So um I gave him a two out of five on callbacks. Uh, I only counted one actual legitimate callback, and unfortunately, I can't remember. It was he said something in one of the times that he had banter in between songs, and then those the lyrics in the song made reference to that. I'd not direct reference, it was just the same use of words. But I took it as a callback, yeah. And the bell curve.
SPEAKER_06Oh, that was at the end at the end of his F sharp and F F um major song, he made reference to the bell curve talking about the kind of audience or the kind of appreciation people have of the song. Yeah. Like there's uh one tail and the other tail in the middle. Um and then in it's in the lyric of another song later. I think it was the Mitsubishi cult. Um yeah. So I don't know if that's what you were thinking of.
SPEAKER_04It might have been.
SPEAKER_06The one there was a physical callback that he made um when he was talking about I think this was during a glossary of terms, but he said that all all of our pornograph was still, and he he made a made the microphone. Oh yeah, yeah. Um and then later, when he's picking on Christian references and you know, come into me, oh Lord, and um kneel before I'm on my knees. Yeah, I'm on my knees before Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06He made the same kind of reference. Um and and to be clear, when like at first I kind of felt like call back. Like when he gave me the definition of Botox and then used the word Botox in the song immediately after he's given us the glossary. I don't count that as a callback, and I think that's what you were talking about, right?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_06But him repeatedly going back to the glossary of terms and picking on himself for having a glossary, yeah, that in itself I think is a callback that I'm not recognizing.
SPEAKER_00Um, some of the repetition of the like the age-inappropriate trousers as well, and kind of physical callbacks, like inappropriate stretches whilst wearing the age-inappropriate trousers.
SPEAKER_04I just love I just love that on that note that that he was talking about. You know, are you guys aware that there are some people on this earth that were born after and he called it like 20 I can't remember how he used it, but to the year 2000?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the the 20 hundreds. Yeah, the 20 hundreds, yeah, 200. And they they have kids, they they can vote they can vote, they can own a gun.
SPEAKER_04They're like, you know, like grown-ups. And then he's like, he's like you were not welcome here. Yeah, and then he just goes, you know what? I just it's I just want to tell you that's gross. That's he's like, ew, that's gross. He's like, you're not welcome here. And by here, I don't mean in this theater, I mean on this planet.
SPEAKER_06All right, how would you give rate his style quality, Brian? Good and keep going.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, how effective was the comedian's style? Uh I give him a seven out of ten. He did an awesome job. Uh, this is this is To me, this is sort of the does the comedian feel or the performer feel comfortable in their own skin and he knows who he is, he knows what he is. I think he's not apologetic about it. And uh, you know, he's doing his own thing, he's writing his own stuff. I think you're right though, Hannah, that he's been doing this long enough, and if we take him at his truth that he's like very, very wealthy, um, that he's like, Yeah, I can buy your child, I can buy your child, and you know, I but I won't because it's illegal, you know, that kind of thing. Um, some of it was like self self-aggrandizing or self um, you know, like uh it's not self-fulfilling, but it's like self-indulgent.
SPEAKER_06Self-indulgent, thank you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And and I think I think that came through a little bit um with it, which probably knocked it down a little bit for me, just because yeah, I think uh and qu granted, I don't know if that's part of the act or if that's you know, or if it's not, he's being legit, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00The internet claims he has a net worth of 25 million dollars.
SPEAKER_06Okay, could he could buy my unborn child. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So he's doing pretty well for himself.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, that was that by the way, this this uh special was like at the beginning, had like the full movie, like the you know, like Universal Studios, like it was yeah, so it was it wasn't like hey, I got on Netflix, which nothing against Netflix, but you know, uh, because people I'm sure Netflix pays a lot of money for their com comedic specials, but like that seems like the next level. Like it seems like a produced kind of thing that a stud of a a movie studio has bought into. You know what I mean? So I mean Netflix has its own studio too, so I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. So anyway, go ahead.
SPEAKER_06I know what you mean.
SPEAKER_04It's it's definitely more pomp and fanfare to have that Universal Studios scroll across and all that trumpets and music going um as a Netflix's it reminds me of, and we haven't done this yet, but like you know, back in the day, like Eddie Murphy Raw, like one of the first you know, pioneering things that you could go to a movie theater and go watch that in a theater. So it reminds me of that. Like you wouldn't necessarily go watch a Netflix special in a movie theater, like go pay money at an AMC or whatever else and sit down and get popcorn and watch it. But with that, when that comes across, you can feel maybe, yeah, maybe I would go to a theater and watch this. It's two and it's two hours and 12 minutes long. It's like going to a concert, it's you know, it's got everything in it. So anyway.
SPEAKER_06Okay, boomer. Hannah, what's your score?
SPEAKER_04Dude, wow. Oh gosh. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I gave moving along. Let's not have this deteriorate into a Nick and Brian insult trading post. Right, right, exactly. I gave him nine out of ten and I wrote beyond am I allowed to use curse words?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I wrote beyond confident to I don't give a fuck. He is so confident and master, such a master of his style that he doesn't give a fuck anymore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I would say.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's that's fair, definitely.
SPEAKER_06Well, that's how he introduced it, right? It's like what he's the songs he's gonna do are an combination of old songs, new songs, and FU songs.
SPEAKER_00Like, um so that's fair.
SPEAKER_06My my score, I gave him a 10 out of 10. And I I think again that that has some to do with uh me having gone a while without consuming much of his content. Uh so I was overdue for it. And he I would you know, the the description is they have mastered their style for sure. I think that's true. I think yeah, it was a self-indulgent of my favorite songs, but I think they were the favorite songs of his audience too, and I really liked them as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So that's my only perfect score of oh nope, I take that back. A rare perfect score for any of the criteria for me for sure. Uh timing and pacing better than ours.
SPEAKER_00I would hope so. This is that's a full-time job.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I I gave him a five out of five. I think he definitely paced things perfectly to maximize humor. He paused at the right time, he made the coy little face to the audience at the right times, whether he was singing or speaking. Um he had the right kind of timing, and probably has a lot to do with the fact that he's a musician. First, comedian second.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06What about you, Hannah? What did you put?
SPEAKER_00I gave him a four. I feel like I would have liked things to move along quicker, maybe so it would be less than two hours. And so in terms of timing every joke, no problem, but I feel like the general pacing of the whole performance, I would have preferred a a more Allegro than Undante.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Him taking a moment to sweep musical references.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, him taking a moment to sweep wasn't charming for you, I guess. I think it's uh I I enjoyed that. Um, what about you?
SPEAKER_04I give a four out of five as well. I think it took me a while to get into the beginning. I think if I had to if if I had to break these up as as the interval or the intermission, as I would call it, that after the intermission, I liked I liked the pacing better there, I liked the songs there, I liked, I mean, mainly because there was the cheese rock opera there also. But um, but like at the beginning, it took me a while to get into like get into it. It just like it was like clunky a little bit, but then the pattern built a little bit, and with the you know, hey, I'm gonna do a song, I'm gonna do a little banter, I'm gonna do this glossary, and then we're gonna go into another song, or or a song, or a poem, or whatever he was gonna go into. And um, and so I feel like that knocked me down a little bit, uh, but I still think it was well paid. Like I said, once once you get the rhythm of it, um no pun intended, um, it will, you know, I think it, I think it I settled into it after a while and sort of got it. I also did listen to this twice, um, watch it twice, and the second time it was better than the first because I was I knew what I was getting into, I knew what I was expecting. And so I that leads me to believe that the pacing is good. I just maybe it's me that needs to I you know.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I agree. Like the first couple of songs, I thought it was an interesting choice of starting song if this plane goes down, which is it's not laugh out loud funny. And if you are not already very familiar with Tim Minchin, you're not already bought in. Yeah, I'm not sure that would engage new fans in the same way as some more upbeat laugh out loud funny songs would do. And F sharp, I thought was hilarious, but I am at that end of the bell curve where I hear the discordance uh tone and find it hilarious. But I wonder if the people at the other end of the bell curve, if they weren't already familiar to mention that would be two songs in, and they might be thinking, Oh, what is this?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I I think that the first one is the tie-in to the last, um, when he was talking about um well, he has that the encore is carry carry you. Um, and you know, that's sort of a sad song about you know death. But I took also white wine in the sun. Uh I know that's uh supposed to be a song about Christmas, and it like he was saying it like, Oh, it's Christmas, which also I will make a comment too here. It's funny the difference in Australian Christmas songs versus American Christmas songs because like they're like we're drinking white wine in the sun on Christmas Day, you know, and we're like we're bundling up, it's no longer.
SPEAKER_00Roasting chestnuts on the open fire.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. We're taking sleigh rides and all this stuff, and they're like, we're drinking white wine, you know, like they're both rust roasting chestnuts, they're just right, right different chestnuts. So I took that also as a weird, and I don't know if he meant this or not, I took that as a weird veiled um thing for going to heaven. Like that you're like if there's an afterlife, you're going there and everyone's drinking white wine in the sun, and the like he talks about people waiting, people are waiting there for you, and you're gonna get to see mom and you're gonna get to see all your people and stuff like that. So if you believe in an afterlife or the people that do believe in afterlife, that's what they talk about. They talk about like, oh, I'm gonna see my all the people that have gone before me, you know, like that kind of thing. I I don't know that he meant that because obviously he's not he's not really that way. Obviously.
SPEAKER_00He certainly doesn't have Christian beliefs.
SPEAKER_04Right, right. But I I sort of took it that way a little bit just because I was like, well, that could be it could be interpreted in that way. And so um, like I said I guess I so anyway, the reason I tied those two together is like if this plane goes down, he's talking about like what if I die, what if I and all this stuff, and then that that last song to me, it like tied together in my head for some reason. So that's probably my own weird way of thinking about it. But anyway.
SPEAKER_00And then Christian terms, um, with those songs, his afterlife is probably gonna be in a very hot place.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Maybe not.
SPEAKER_04In one of the songs, he's like, I'm gonna be in 80s or something like that. Anyway. So yeah. Okay, where were we?
SPEAKER_06Did everybody go on timing? I think Hannah, maybe you haven't talked about timing and pacing yet, have you?
SPEAKER_00Um I gave him Oh yes, I did. Yeah, she did. I thought it was a little overall slow paced, but the comedic timing was good.
SPEAKER_06Okay, so now we're on to physical comedy out of five. Uh Hanna, what what the what number did you give him?
SPEAKER_00I now I know I can use decimals. I'm gonna do 4.25. 4.5. All right. So um there was a lot of physical movement around the piano and the stretching in the age-appropriate trousers and the microphone as uh porno prop. Yeah, right, right. And we we concluded that he must own the piano, it is not a piano that they and they must move that around with them because no venue is gonna let somebody do the things to the piano that he and his band did climbing on top of it and jumping off it, playing it with his feet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So then I then I got into like how do you move a grand piano around? You must have to retune it every single night.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00Um maybe that's a rabbit hole.
SPEAKER_04But I mean, he's worth $25 million. He can afford a piano tip.
SPEAKER_06Sure. Physical comedy, Brian.
SPEAKER_04Uh I said I gave him a three out of five. Um, some some physical elements well used. I I counted the uh the taking a tequila shot and as part of the show, and then the broken glass also as part of the show. And I think you're right, Nick. I think he probably in other shows threw that and never knew whether it was gonna break or not. And that one did break. So um I think I don't think that was intentional. Like I think it was just okay, well, that that broke that night. So um but yeah, I think all the other things Hannah said as well. Just just moving around the piano and uh a lot with the pants and things like that. So yeah.
SPEAKER_06Nice. I I did a I get put down four out of five. Strong physical performance. Um yeah, he just he got acrobatic. I think when when he did the white wine in the sun, I I think he messed up some of the lyrics. He he admit he said that he would have trouble remembering, and part of I think the shame he felt for messing some bits up is he he like slinked off the bench and did a almost like a half backflip off of the uh the bench.
SPEAKER_00I think he gets a five out of five just for being flexible enough to do that. Yeah, yeah, 50 plus year old.
SPEAKER_06I mean dude dude was fit, like he's active and seriously, yeah. Uh but definitely a strong physical performance. I honestly I don't know what would make it a five out of five. Um maybe if uh it was more part of like like he actually I actually could if I could check, I felt like I could check the box back in style, saying that he he had a physical comedy style, then I might have given him a five, but it was just I don't know. He probably deserves a five, but I'm giving him a four.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_06Relatability out of ten. Did the material resonate with a broad audience? Ooh, this might have some uh some volleys. Uh we'll start with Brian because he's so diplomatic.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I I gave him I sort of like right down the middle a little bit. Um somewhere between somewhat relatable and strong relatability. I give him a six and a half, so just right outside of somewhat relatable to strong relatability. Um I think that I think that he there's multiple audiences that he would that he would resonate with um you know progressive audience, I think, uh a non-religious audience here too. I think um a well, I don't know, maybe maybe Hannah can comment on this. Like I feel like an Australian and English audience more so than an American, maybe. Um But you know, I think still he was relatively relatable in the subject matter that he was talking about. I think those are universal. Some of those things are universal that he's talking about being a dad and being a husband and you know telling that telling your wife that her body's like a a theme park, you know. And that hasn't been renovated and the kid, the kid, yeah, the kids, the kids came by and vandalized. Yeah, kids came by and vandalized the water slide, you know. And that that was so that part right into uh right into the the uh like I think it was near after that that he was taught he talked about the or he had the song If I didn't have you, and that was just like hilarious, where he's like, if I didn't have you, I'd probably have someone else. I mean someone else, maybe somebody that's like smarter than you or dumber but better in sports, or you know, like I mean, there's probably like uh one if you're if you're one in a million and then those other 900, nine to nine nine, there's probably someone else in that that I could take.
SPEAKER_00I love that because it's the antithesis to all of those like horrible, schmelzy love songs of like you're the only one for me.
SPEAKER_04It is it's like I'd probably be with someone else. I think that's relatable though. I think that's relatable to like a lot of people. So anyway.
SPEAKER_06Fair. Hannah, what would you say about relatability?
SPEAKER_00Oh my, I have lots of avenues to go down on this. I think riffing off what Brian said and the relationships and the wife, one of his songs was I'll take lonely tonight, where he was obviously had been propositioned by somebody he found very attractive and had decided that he was not going to engage with that person because he was married. And Sean, who is not not the kind of person to usually make like smart ass comments, said, Oh my god, you didn't cheat on your wife, just get over it. Because it is kind of like it should, yeah, yeah, it's making a huge deal out of something that like, what do you want? Like a medal.
SPEAKER_04It's supposed to not be like, yeah, exactly. What do you want? A cookie? You know to put it in Chris Rock terms.
SPEAKER_00Um but it it was a very heartfelt, emotional song.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but yeah, when he said that, I was like, you know what, you're right. So there was that element. Then I would like to hear from Gen Z Gen Z what they think. Because I misinterpreted this question, and I gave it a nine out of ten because I found it highly relatable. But a broad audience, I'm not sure that people born after 1985 would necessarily find it funny. I think they were the butt of some of the jokes, especially the glossary, and that made me feel old but wise when he was explaining all of those terms that younger people may or may not understand. So I'm not sure if like Gen Z would find it relatable. And then obviously there was the controversial topic, so I think that would potentially alienate a lot of people. I identify as a bleeding heart liberal snowflake, and so I thought everything you said was great, but people who are not of that political or ideological persuasion might not find it quite so engaging.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_06Still, though, you gave it a nine out of ten, so I think that's that was because I related to it.
SPEAKER_00I didn't read the question properly.
SPEAKER_06Oh I got it.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I I I was victim to the um RTFQ, as we like you sometimes say when you take an exam and get it wrong because you didn't spend long enough reading the F in question.
SPEAKER_02I got it. Okay. I was like, read the oh, okay.
SPEAKER_06So uh setting relatability aside for a second, the the way I make sense of the Take Lonely Tonight song is that it's a signal to all three parties involved what's gonna happen or not happen afterwards. There's actually there's four parties, but only three are involved. So he sings that song for himself to remind him of his commitment to his wife. He sings that song so his wife knows his commitment, and that he's keeping that commitment top of mind and conscious. Yeah, and then also to any would-be groupies or propositionists who might try, like it's it's a warning and kind of a frankly, some bait, like that may make him all the more alerting, like, oh, he's gonna resist, he's gonna put up in a fight. Yeah, if I can bag him, that's yeah, it's a challenge.
SPEAKER_00I wonder, like, I can't imagine if if I was in a relationship with somebody who sang that song, that was about I am sorely tempted, and I'm having to try hard to resist this, but I will.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh that yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there's a difference between guys and girls that we can't really talk about in the scope of this podcast. We could we can go into it maybe and help yourself, but we've sunset that um it's in the great beyond the cloud. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's still there. You can listen to it.
SPEAKER_06But well, right, but there's not there's no active episodes that's correct. Uh I I did put eight out of ten. My my big call out for that is uh he was fairly indiscriminate in his picking picking on. Like he had things to say about liberals, he had things to say about conservatives. Um he didn't have anything to say against uh non-religious people. Um but he did pick on uh you know religion or certain perspectives in religion. Um so I felt like it had some relatability. And like you said, the glossary was a kind of bridge for anybody who you know might not be old enough to remember some of those terms and things. Yeah. It is a nice touch of condescension though that was a very good idea.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's what I wondered whether whether the people he was explaining things to would find it as funny as us oldsters.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_06All right. Innovative techniques out of ten. Uh Hannah.
SPEAKER_00I didn't write a score on this. I just realized I'm sorry. Let's see. No, I I think he is highly innovative. I will give him eight out of ten. He is a musical comedian, but the quality of his music and the lyrics is exceptional, and he blends that with the political leanings and getting very close to the the gray area of things. And I yeah, I think at least an eight, maybe eight and a half.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Brian.
SPEAKER_04I gave him a little bit lower. Um between some fresh ideas and highly innovative six and a half out of ten. Um I think that's uh it's I mean, I think he's got his own thing going that's different than many comedians, but also it's it's hard to as I said, this is a different animal because he's not like technically he's a comedian that plays music, if that makes sense. He's not technically a musical comedian, I mean, per se, I mean, ish. Um, it's it's like he's blurring the line between the two, but like just the fact that he actually does regular music that is just for the sake of doing music takes him out, I think takes him out of the comedy, like takes him out of the sphere of a purely musician comedian or musical comet concept.
SPEAKER_06Doesn't that make him innovative as a comedian?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but then you could be like doing something different than how you're like, yeah, that comedian does a lot of stuff and it's really not funny at all. No one laughs at it. So like he's being really innovative. So, like, as a comedian, you know, like I guess performance art or something like that. But anyway, I still give him a relatively good score, six and a half out of ten. I still think that he uh like I'd like to see more of his stuff. And the one that you sent me, uh Hannah, that's uh like introduced me to him, the one about there's a song about him being a ginger.
SPEAKER_00Oh, um just gave away the punchline, Brian. Anybody who has not listened to it. It is called Prejudice.
SPEAKER_04Prejudice, yeah. Okay, sorry. I'll bleep it out so nobody can it won't be a spoiler. And then people will be uh fully intrigued and they'll go look up Tim Minchin. Uh and yeah, Prejudice. So anyway.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for anyone listening out there who has not seen or listened to the Tim Minchin song Prejudice, yeah, I highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_04I really I really I really will go bleep it. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Very sad that that was not a part of this performance.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah. I I was expecting it to be.
SPEAKER_06He didn't match those expectations, so he was innovative. I I I keep defending him, but I I only gave him a seven out of ten as well. Um, and I I think that was down because this is was his greatest hits tour. Yeah, just not called that. Um again, not his greatest, his favorite hits. Um yeah. All right, cinematic quality. This is our our throw-in question out of five. How well was the performance filmed and edited? Gotta say it carefully. Brian, you you go first.
SPEAKER_04Uh I gave it a four out of five. I I like the way that it looked. I didn't I don't think that there was any distraction. I there wasn't anything that took me out of the performance, which is a key to editing. If you can if it if it if you don't notice it, then that's good. Uh if you don't notice like camera cuts and things like that that are distracting, then um that's good. I think I don't think it was perfect, uh, but I think four out of five is where I landed.
SPEAKER_06Nice. Hannah?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go three. I think it was not a distraction. I don't recall anything being beautiful, beautifully filmed or edited. I enjoyed the way it looked, but in a not distracting way. I didn't like at points there there was a camera on the back of the stage showing the band from the back, and I wasn't sure why that was it didn't seem to add any value to me. It was maybe just a different camera angle to keep it fast-paced and moving. But now that you mentioned it, uh mentioned um uh it's taken as one hour, ten minutes, and thirty seconds to get to that one. Right.
SPEAKER_06Um there there were a number of times where like yeah, the camera seemed almost focused on the the background musicians, singers. And uh I don't know, I was distracted by it. Like I was almost fascinated, like, who are these people? How did he come to meet them? Or like are they has he been touring with them all before now? Like I I wanted to know all about them and it wasn't about Tim anymore. Um but yeah, I I gave it a four out of five. Um actually took it down uh based on Brian's review. You're welcome. Oh yeah, thank you. All right, we got everybody there, right? Yeah, so what was your favorite joke or bit in the special? I will start. Yeah, you can have two, but we have to be kind of quick about it. So um mine was thank you, God, for healing the cataracts of Sam's mom. There are plenty of others, but that one barely gets to the top. What about you, Hannah? What are your two favorite?
SPEAKER_00My two favorites. Uh my brain does not work very well on picking like one favorite bit out of anything. If someone asks me my favorite anything, I'm like, uh, I don't know. But I really liked F sharp. It made me cringe, but also made me entertained. And I like the glossary of terms. I think that was the funniest laugh out loud bit for me.
SPEAKER_06I particularly like the grungy, the growling glossary of terms. One is my favorite of the three.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Um, Brian, what about you? What was your favorite joker bit in the special?
SPEAKER_04Um, let's see here. I'm gonna, this is really, really tough. Of course, the uh rock opera about cheese. Come on. If you're gonna do 10 minutes about cheese, like you can't go wrong with that. Like the minute he started singing, and like the first like three lyrics were like just cheese, and then it was like 10 seconds later, cheese. You know, I was just like, okay, what where's this going? I like it.
SPEAKER_06Um when he was introducing it and he was like talking about I love my family, but there's something I love more than that.
SPEAKER_05Yes, here it comes!
SPEAKER_06Yes, I knew exactly. Um anything else about cheese though?
SPEAKER_04I mean, yeah, the building of that anticipation, as we already mentioned, that the Cam Cam Cam. I can barely Cam. I'm not gonna say it. I'm not gonna say it. I'm gonna leave it unfinished. Anticipation will build forever.
SPEAKER_06Okay. And what what was the most retellable joke?
SPEAKER_04For me?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, for you.
SPEAKER_04Uh so a couple things. It's hard to he doesn't have a lot of like retellables that you can like say, but like I mentioned it before, like the the bot I like the uh the body is a wonderland thing where he's talking about, and then the comeback of the wife. Like, well, you're like the you know, you're like the I forget what she said. Like he's like Thomas the Tank engine tank engine, you get you put five P in it and you get like 45 seconds of jutting motion or something like that, you know.
SPEAKER_06And and disappointment. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04You know what? It's uh sort of true. Anyway, um and then the people born after 2000 is my close second there, like just talking about because I uh I would say that to someone like if I would say, Oh, like what year were you born? And they're like, you know, 2001, I'd be like gross. I would say it and I would say it with like disdain like that as a joke, but like you know, sort of not as a joke, you know, like yeah. So anyway.
SPEAKER_06Hannah, what's your most retellable joke?
SPEAKER_00I think I agree with Brian that there are no cool one-liners that you can just grab and throw out there. I liked the the concept of the Mitsubishi cult beat poem that there's this douchebag guy who's super patronizing. It's like, oh well, I'm rich, but you know what? None of it really means anything, but it just I've done so well on everyone out of words. Maybe it's not redellable.
SPEAKER_05Right, right.
SPEAKER_00I'm uh trying to yeah, it's just a little nauseating, I think. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of guy, and he parodied it so well.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the the ice pack from where his fist met his mouth. Yeah, yes. He he does a good job of painting a picture with words while also rhyming. Uh I there was a I don't know if it was well, it was kind of an off-handed comment, sort of between songs, right? Where he said something like, I would rather see filth where none is intended. Oh, yes, than miss one single innuendo. The best. I'm like, that is that is me. Yes. Yes. That is the that's what she said joke for days. So yeah, that that's that's my most retellable thing statement that he made. Um yeah, so what were y'all's total scores if you added them up?
SPEAKER_00Oh god, no. Don't make me map back.
SPEAKER_04Wait, while she's mapping, I have a couple other like honorable mentions too. So like the the one that you just mentioned is one honorable mentions, really.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. That's the that's the third time you've said the word mention in as many minutes. So you know that, right? So anyway, go ahead. Yeah, honorable mentions. Let's let's hear them.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, you I think you already made reference to it once. The you know, I can tell that joke because many of my friends are Nazis. I I love jokes that um that are like you they're going a direction, and then at the last minute they have that turn. Yeah and you just like you're thinking it's gonna go one way and it goes another way. Um and then um the other thing I was gonna say is the the point that I was making before with you, Hannah, about the first, you know, the when the plane goes down, the actual last song before the encore was talk too much, stayed too long, which is another one that was hilarious, first of all, because that sounds like me at a party. I talked too much and I stayed too long. Um and the but that I thought that tied together with the first one. Like he did the like I felt like that might have been intentional. That was like, okay, so first one is about a plane going down. What are people gonna think of me? How are they gonna remember me? And then his last one was talking about the epitat on his you know gravestone and things like that, and maybe they should say talk too much, stay too long, kind of thing. So um, you know, I thought that was I thought that was a good tie together at the end. Um, but yeah, did you do your final score? 71.5, but I think I'm gonna add some Brian points to it. I'm gonna add four Brian points, so it's gonna be 75.
SPEAKER_00Discretionary Brian points.
SPEAKER_04So it's plus four, 75.5. That's what I'm giving you.
SPEAKER_06So, Hannah, what what's your honorable mentions if you have any and score?
SPEAKER_00I got 84. I actually did not like talk too much, stay too long. I felt it was a little self-indulgent. But we can agree to disagree.
SPEAKER_04No, it's I mean, it certainly is like a people love me. You know, like when I'm gone, people are gonna be like, yeah, it's like this thing, like people care about me. Like, like the whole thing, like what are your last words gonna be? And his last words were gonna be who's the world gonna revolve around now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess he it was like an ironic self-indulgent, but it was almost like uh an ironic ironic yeah. He took the irony too far and it became self-indulgent again.
SPEAKER_04Unless unless you have Botox, then your eyebrows don't work and you can't have them for that was great.
SPEAKER_00I did like that.
SPEAKER_04Eyebrows are required for irony.
SPEAKER_00The uh and I yeah, the the bit about the same people that get Botox, which is a toxin.
SPEAKER_03Are doing a detox. Yeah, yeah, they're doing a detox and then they get Botox.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was great.
SPEAKER_06Um all right, for me, my honorable mentions I like feminine rhymes, and he he loves to stuff those in his songs. Yeah. Um for those of you at home who aren't familiar, a feminine rhyme is where more than one syllable rhymes. So, like examples would be in his thank you, God, for healing the cataracts of Sam's mom. Um, he talks about being skeptical of the miracle, like so Ickle and ickle, like those there's two syllables there that rhyme. Um or great one was in the same song, um malaria with local area.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06Like just yeah, it's like bonus points of clever. Um, I really liked how he accused Tesla of being a steam-powered car.
SPEAKER_03Yes, that was hilarious.
SPEAKER_06And and how it's true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um missions free my ass, you know, like and then his song um 15 minutes of shame.
SPEAKER_06I like the the turn and how he set up the comment, like his commentary that set up that song at the end of it, I almost clapped. I'm like, oh wait, I'm just on my desk. Oh, so my my final score is 87 out of 100. And that's after down two points because of y'all's criticism, influential criticism, and the extra seven points for I like the guy, but the I like the guy points.
SPEAKER_00Maybe I should give him discretionary points because he has a fellow ginger, and having been through school and childhood as a ginger, I think you maybe deserve some extra points. From outside the choice.
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_06And he's your comedian. You picked him.
SPEAKER_01You you're supposed to like yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Hey, you know, you gotta uh you still gotta be real.
SPEAKER_06Yes. Well done, everyone.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. This is awesome. Thank you, Hannah B Hannah, for being here.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for inviting me. This has been great.
SPEAKER_06Hannah Banana. For some reason, they they said banana like three or four times in the two hours.
SPEAKER_00That was about maybe they had a bet on how many times they could say banana.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and did you hang out like that? You were saying thank you very much. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04Well, no, I was just gonna say, as as you said in your speech on Saturday, we don't know how to end this thing.
SPEAKER_00So um need a catch rate. Well you stay too much, and we stay too long. Alright, good callback.
SPEAKER_04All right, guys, we're out. See ya.
SPEAKER_00Bye.
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