Storm by Tim Minchin

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  • @davidschmidt6013
    @davidschmidt6013 4 роки тому +380

    Take this from someone who used to play in bars and had to sing 30+ songs a night....that's a lot of words, but NOTHING can compare to a 9.5 minute recitation, with (forgive me) 'rap-like' inflections to get the balance (the scansion) right...this was one of the most amazing "spoken-word" performances I've ever seen. I've been a fan of Tim's since the first time I accidentally found one of his vids. HE continues to amaze. He didn't get that Honorary Doctorate of Letters from NSW Univ for nothing...

    • @lisacrofts
      @lisacrofts 3 роки тому +1

      Are you referring to his speech at UWA the University of Western Australia? Tim Minchin is from Perth and went to UWA and WAAPA before moving to Melbourne.

    • @JanG_GC
      @JanG_GC 2 роки тому +8

      If you get the chance to see him live, do! It's incredible. Tour just finished was over 2 hours with lots of talking in between songs, such as a 12.5 minute rant about confirmation bias, online tribalism and more, plus the wordiest songs you ever heard. All wrapped up in enormously entertaining musicianship/performing. One of a kind.

    • @lisacrofts
      @lisacrofts 2 роки тому +3

      @@JanG_GC agreed. We have seen him twice. Fantastic show both times

    • @ginamcdonald7854
      @ginamcdonald7854 2 роки тому +1

      I really hope he will return to the states and be close enough I can see him in person!

    • @stanroach2842
      @stanroach2842 2 роки тому

      He has 2 Honorary Doctorate of Letters - 1 from The University of Western Aus & 1 from the Mountview Academy of Theater Arts in London

  • @Tiai42
    @Tiai42 9 років тому +433

    'Storm' should be in the school curriculum for all students to study & discuss. Absolute brilliance!

    • @GadgetAndKite
      @GadgetAndKite 9 років тому +6

      +Viola Smith I don't even know her and I already despise her. Lesson learned.

    • @anthonybourdainsuperfan1241
      @anthonybourdainsuperfan1241 9 років тому +6

      +Viola Smith I completely agree! I'm currently in high school and I would LOVE to watch and sinus this with my peers. Tim Minchin is truly a genius.

    • @ivx8345
      @ivx8345 4 роки тому

      Exactly!

  • @Gstrangeman96
    @Gstrangeman96 9 років тому +528

    I love how he sounds increasingly drunk as he carries the story on.

    • @allanfloyd8103
      @allanfloyd8103 9 років тому +9

      Gstrangeman96 TBH, he's probably done this bit a hundred times... ;)

    • @youdisgustme919
      @youdisgustme919 9 років тому +17

      +Allan Floyd are these replies supposed too rhyme? or is it just this mind of mine?

    • @allanfloyd8103
      @allanfloyd8103 9 років тому +10

      I can't think of a rhyme, so I think I'll whine. ;)

    • @happyhoney2000
      @happyhoney2000 9 років тому +18

      Well we can all agree this video is sublime.

    • @12301231234
      @12301231234 9 років тому +17

      +L And yet in all the infinite excesses of time
      Is there anything quite so beautiful as a lime?
      Or a grape turning sunlight into wine?
      Terry Pratchett was divine

  • @GadgetAndKite
    @GadgetAndKite 9 років тому +1453

    "Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed, faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved."

    • @tomasxfranco
      @tomasxfranco 6 років тому +49

      *its

    • @pmaphl
      @pmaphl 6 років тому +12

      Amen

    • @Christian-ev1zu
      @Christian-ev1zu 5 років тому +4

      Fun fact about that line: Homeopathie "works":
      smw.ch/en/article/doi/smw.2019.20071/
      Turns out some nanograms of Arsenic is enough to make a person ill.

    • @fonsarelli4936
      @fonsarelli4936 5 років тому +6

      @@tomasxfrancoYou're wrong. The apostrophe is used for possession

    • @Pavium
      @Pavium 5 років тому +65

      @@fonsarelli4936 For every other word, yes. "Its" is the exception as "it's" is an contraction of "It is." Welcome to English. Where every rule has an exception, and some "rules" have more exceptions than applications of the actual rule.

  • @mlemleh
    @mlemleh 10 років тому +623

    That sure didn't feel like 9 minutes and 49 seconds.

    • @meow353
      @meow353 8 років тому +16

      Because it was 9 and 50 ;)
      Haha

    • @gakeye
      @gakeye 5 років тому +1

      Chloe I was gonna say the same thing

    • @antera77
      @antera77 5 років тому +5

      @@gakeye I wasted time downloading this, and opening it in QuickTime / Mac OS X shows its duration to be 9 min 50.16 seconds (4 frames @25fps = 0.16sec)

  • @PatrickElliottPizzanui
    @PatrickElliottPizzanui 8 років тому +746

    Just to clarify for my American friends: Tim uses the word "pissed" twice in this poem, but by that he DOES NOT mean "angry". He means "drunk". That's what it means in Australia, as well as some other English-speaking parts of the world. This had me confused for so long that I thought it was worth sharing.

    • @92Roar
      @92Roar 8 років тому +9

      Patrick Elliott NZ too

    • @themanfromhell24
      @themanfromhell24 7 років тому +21

      ...and england

    • @NebulaAstrali
      @NebulaAstrali 7 років тому +15

      I forget that it meant that, and I live in Australia

    • @adambartlett114
      @adambartlett114 6 років тому +3

      Grow up chris, English is spoken/written/learned/understood in a myriad of ways, far more than just your sheltered perspective & frankly, you are not the arbiter of what's the proper use of the English language.

    • @jordacheleroux4512
      @jordacheleroux4512 6 років тому +11

      @@adambartlett114 Who is Chris?

  • @LJY08
    @LJY08 8 років тому +523

    Can you believe he's memorised this shit? I always think that of his songs as well. How does he cram it all into his brain, and play the piano as well? The word genius gets thrown around far too much in this world (especially in America), but this guy has got an incredible brain and may just qualify for genius status.

    • @lexsmithee652
      @lexsmithee652 5 років тому +42

      Think about how many songs you can sing. The human brain is incredible, and can remember long stretches of text, especially if it has a rhythm or something

    • @lucay16
      @lucay16 5 років тому +36

      I honestly believe Tim Minchin is an absolute genius but not because he can memorize something like that..

    • @XFeuerFestX
      @XFeuerFestX 5 років тому +36

      He has written that, probably spending hours upon hours refining it. It has rhythm, rhyme and is thematically coherent. Honestly, I'd be more surprised if he didn't have it memorized. Which is of course not to say that he isn't brilliant for coming up with it in the first place, writing the perfect background music and delivering it so well

    • @freethrice
      @freethrice 5 років тому +2

      Ya Think????????????????

    • @annakowalczyk5763
      @annakowalczyk5763 4 роки тому +2

      That's the power of repetition, my dear friend, that's how we memorise things.

  • @lavenderandred_
    @lavenderandred_ 8 років тому +467

    I think everyone knows someone like Storm

    • @CriticalBrony
      @CriticalBrony 8 років тому +20

      Know them? I live with a few. XD

    • @clivemakongo
      @clivemakongo 8 років тому +4

      +The Brony Critic live with a few? I am a few.

    • @donaldasayers
      @donaldasayers 5 років тому +1

      I know one, his name is Storm...

    • @icannotchoose
      @icannotchoose 5 років тому +1

      My dad

    • @jilliansmith7123
      @jilliansmith7123 5 років тому

      Thomas Anholm: not you, too! I'm sorry to hear that. But I feel less alone now. Have a good weekend.

  • @nicstroud
    @nicstroud 9 років тому +277

    I could ramble on all day about Tim Minchin but I won't.
    Musical and lyrical genius. Enough said!

    • @Raven-ul9gt
      @Raven-ul9gt 8 років тому +10

      Mentally ill person with an audience*

    • @max-beckett
      @max-beckett 8 років тому +1

      Raven you okay?

    • @Raven-ul9gt
      @Raven-ul9gt 8 років тому +3

      Max Beckett Yeah i`m fine it was a reference to something Tim said

    • @max-beckett
      @max-beckett 8 років тому +1

      Raven ah, my apologies lol

    • @Raven-ul9gt
      @Raven-ul9gt 8 років тому +1

      Max Beckett dw

  • @TheWellHungPony
    @TheWellHungPony 10 років тому +501

    All those near sips had me almost screaming "JUST DRINK THE WINE ALREADY!" at my screen.

    • @Sgarnoncunce
      @Sgarnoncunce 6 років тому +22

      I cannot believe it was not deliberate. Drinking can be good, Tim has said himself that he has a few to relax. But when the choice is between drinking and ascertaining positive things and truth? The choice is obvious

    • @612Tiberius
      @612Tiberius 6 років тому +43

      It's part of the act; like George Burns' ever-present but never smoked cigar. Besides, him taking a sip would interfere with his keeping in time with the music...

    • @annashaw1232
      @annashaw1232 5 років тому +6

      Glad im not the only one 😂

    • @jilliansmith7123
      @jilliansmith7123 5 років тому +27

      mate Johnson: I felt it was very deliberate, part of building the tension in us to further identify with the tension he felt trying to be nice while listening to Storm opine her little clichés.

    • @RobMacKendrick
      @RobMacKendrick 5 років тому +28

      That's it. Every time he goes to take a drink, he's interrupted by another sally. Shows the evening is being busted by the argument.

  • @basosz
    @basosz 4 роки тому +107

    I've heard of voice actors but Tim is an eye actor. It's quite striking how much he can communicate with his expressions

  • @stevedawson8017
    @stevedawson8017 4 роки тому +35

    'Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition' is one of my very favourite Tim Minchin lines...

  • @christinarusso2997
    @christinarusso2997 5 років тому +53

    This is one of my favorite pieces of art. This is unfortunate for my friends and family. I’ve ruined many a dinner party.

    • @NiaLaLa_V
      @NiaLaLa_V 4 роки тому

      Don't feel bad. Nothing you do at a dinner party can be as bad as what us vegans do to dinners. Your family just doesn't know how lucky they are to have you, instead of me. :)

  • @ChrisUhlik
    @ChrisUhlik 9 років тому +97

    You sir are a fabulous genius. The world is even more interesting because you are in it. Thanks!

  • @ABetterWeapon
    @ABetterWeapon 9 років тому +101

    I've clicked 'like' a hundred times,
    but youtube thinks only one 'like's mine.
    I've fought and fought, but it seems to be,
    that one like is all you can get from me.

    • @mandaloriancrusader3746
      @mandaloriancrusader3746 6 років тому +3

      If you click it 100 hundred times it just ends up canceling​ out so you actually have not liked at all...

    • @hammerfel
      @hammerfel 6 років тому +6

      WHOOSH!

    • @jilliansmith7123
      @jilliansmith7123 5 років тому

      Only "odd" clicks count....but all "odd" clicks = one like from you, total. Pedantic panda here.

  • @davidschmidt6013
    @davidschmidt6013 5 років тому +31

    One of the most impressive pieces of spoken art I've ever had the fortune to hear. Tim, you're simply amazing...

  • @maryfitzpatrick3252
    @maryfitzpatrick3252 2 роки тому +4

    My favorite critical thinker and humanist. Half of 🇺🇸 USA adores this clever humanist.

  • @lancethrustworthy
    @lancethrustworthy 5 років тому +5

    'STORM' is Tim's greatest contribution to humankind.

  • @alfedge9527
    @alfedge9527 3 роки тому +14

    He’s so humble. It’s not just any 9.5 minute jazz backed beat poem about critical thinking, it’s one of the best in that genre.

    • @blindmown
      @blindmown 9 місяців тому

      I could release a new 9.5 minute jazz backed beat poem about critical thinking today and it would be the second best piece of work in the genre, and I have never played an instrument or written a poem.

  • @KarolinePCosta
    @KarolinePCosta 10 років тому +62

    My whole family together composes the structure of a gigant imbecil human conscience as Storm... At least I live alone now and don't have to deal with these snipers armed to the teeth with bullocks! :D
    Anyway, congratulations, Tim. You're awesome and i think we all hope that you will inspire more artists to follow the path against stupidity!
    Thank you, very much!

  • @omg-rtfm
    @omg-rtfm Рік тому +2

    I cannot stress enough how frigging brilliant this is. Clever, funny and dead on.

  • @chrisclarke754
    @chrisclarke754 10 років тому +17

    This never gets old. I love it

  • @TwoPercentViking
    @TwoPercentViking 10 років тому +135

    Is it just me that's always searching for new stuff? I know Tim's done tours in America for example but there's hardly any footage!

    • @BHShaman
      @BHShaman 10 років тому +3

      Love TM. Hope he comes out with a new album or new concert tour sometime soon. Missed the last go round.

    • @aussiechick00
      @aussiechick00 10 років тому +1

      He's probz writing a new musical or something, I feel like since he wrote Matilda he's starting to get into writing musical scores...

    • @mshoneybadger9
      @mshoneybadger9 10 років тому +6

      BHShaman He's just done Jesus Christ Superstar. Amazing though he is, cut the guy a bit of slack will you

    • @amiejones860
      @amiejones860 10 років тому +2

      He's writing a new musical. And, with that taking up time, new comedic material will take longer to write, perfect and perform. :)

    • @TwoPercentViking
      @TwoPercentViking 10 років тому +1

      Yeah but he's done so many gigs since his DVD releases. Can't believe nobody has filmed anything heh.

  • @cathbeeston2311
    @cathbeeston2311 3 роки тому +2

    I was in the church choir. I went to church camp, and was part of a church leadership program. I even taught Sunday school. But I didn’t truly know what faith was until I took organic chemistry in college.

  • @scottcharman5033
    @scottcharman5033 9 років тому +13

    Always loved Tim Minchin from the first time I heard his material and I've yet to be disappointed. YOU GREW ON ME has moved me so many times and the more I hear of Tim the more I am enthrallled by his genius...

  • @lolus8974
    @lolus8974 6 років тому +11

    I just love that right at the end Tim finally gets his drink that he’s been trying to get a sip of throughout the song. So many brilliant parts to this work of genius.

  • @Pengalor
    @Pengalor 9 років тому +12

    Seems like every day I see something in the news that makes me realize how important the message of this is.

  • @Piarou
    @Piarou 10 років тому +25

    I can't remember how often I used "Storm" to try and get a point come across. Seriously one of my favourite pieces of art, dear sir.

    • @ivx8345
      @ivx8345 4 роки тому +1

      Same here.

  • @Crumbs_Crumbs
    @Crumbs_Crumbs 10 років тому +96

    I know too much of this off by heart.

    • @DianaLDiehl
      @DianaLDiehl 10 років тому +10

      You can never know too much of this!

  • @MrWylis
    @MrWylis 8 років тому +35

    This is a fucking masterpiece.

  • @MrEdwardCollins
    @MrEdwardCollins 5 років тому +6

    Just now finding this... in June of 2019.
    It's my loss for not finding it earlier... yet I'm glad I found it at all.
    I just finished watching it for a second time.
    About yet I'm about ready to watch it again.
    I expect to watch it again many more times in the upcoming years.
    Thanks Tim. Good work.

    • @paulgraham2483
      @paulgraham2483 5 років тому

      Make sure to catch the animated version too. The live version is great for the way he manages to sound more progressively drunk despite never getting that FUCKING SIP OF WINE he keeps trying for...but the animation is clever as hell too.

  • @alexl0923
    @alexl0923 9 років тому +13

    Still by far my favorite piece that Tim does. I wish i could have stood up in high school in English class and performed this, in front of my peers. Most of which were sheep that believed anything that was big in the media, without looking into other world issues of the time. I lived in a weird hippie town that didn't allow for much free thought and it would have been freeing to try to open their mind to something different.

    • @RayneSaltair
      @RayneSaltair 9 років тому +3

      +OmegaKai They wouldn't have listened. I performed the sin of wearing colored sneakers that matched my outfits back in high school instead of plain white. Girl kept following me around bugging me telling me my shoes were wrong. Imagine some adult put out a commercial or something that you were only cool if you wore white to sell their product to mindless drones.

  • @chiddiddychip123
    @chiddiddychip123 8 років тому +42

    "Science adjust it's views base on what's observed, faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved" I recently quote this to a friend of mine to drive a point home.

    • @zacharyradford5552
      @zacharyradford5552 3 роки тому +3

      Science can also adjust its views based on who signs the check.

    • @Maziony
      @Maziony 3 роки тому

      @@zacharyradford5552 No.

  • @biancacastilho3602
    @biancacastilho3602 3 роки тому +9

    I don't even know how I got here, but damn this is a fucking masterpiece,this was one of the funniest and brillant poems I've ever seen in my life it made feel so stupid but I loved it,he is a genius and totally my new idol

  • @sheryl-6101
    @sheryl-6101 8 років тому +31

    How does he remember all of this perfectly?!

    • @meow353
      @meow353 8 років тому +4

      He's insane :p

    • @jameshilton8898
      @jameshilton8898 8 років тому +11

      I'm doing this for my HSC drama monologue, I have to Remember this

    • @oogenesis
      @oogenesis 7 років тому +10

      he's an actor and this is a monologue he wrote, that's how :D

    • @cornifer_lv
      @cornifer_lv 6 років тому

      The trick is you dont see the script so he can change some stuff.
      Listen to other recordings and youll hear they are a bit diffrent

    • @stargazer7644
      @stargazer7644 5 років тому +2

      He wrote it. How does he remember the tens of thousands of notes in all of the songs he plays on the piano?

  • @xepher42
    @xepher42 5 років тому +8

    How have I never seen this until now? This was brilliant! Beautiful, lyrical poetry, on top of hard truths and realities. Just amazing!

  • @JosefinBorgman
    @JosefinBorgman 10 років тому +6

    This one never gets old.

  • @MichaelLasotaMusic
    @MichaelLasotaMusic 2 роки тому +2

    I can't imagine..... this guy is awesome. I can't believe I've missed him all this time and just learned of him. And if he's doing this for real without a prompter? Holy crap. Pretty cool.

  • @AvoirJoseph
    @AvoirJoseph 3 роки тому +57

    Inner North London, top floor flat
    All white walls, white carpet, white cat
    Rice paper partitions
    Modern art and ambition
    The host's a physician
    Bright bloke, has his own practice
    His girlfriend's an actress
    An old mate of ours from home
    And they're always great fun
    So to dinner we've come
    The fifth guest is an unknown
    The hosts have just thrown
    Us together for a favour
    Cause this girl's just arrived from Australia
    And has moved to North London
    And she's the sister of someone
    Or has some connection
    As we make introductions
    I'm struck by her beauty
    She's irrefutably fair
    With dark eyes and dark hair
    But as she sits
    I admit I'm a little bit wary
    Because I notice the tip of the wing of a fairy
    Tattooed on that popular area
    Just above the derrière
    And when she says "I'm Sagittarian"
    I confess a pigeonhole starts to form
    And is immediately filled with pigeon
    When she says her name is Storm
    Conversation is initially bright and lighthearted
    But it's not long before Storm gets started:
    "You can't know anything
    Knowledge is merely opinion"
    She opines, over her Cabernet Sauvignon
    Vis-à-vis
    Some unhippily
    Empirical comment made by me
    "Not a good start", I think
    We're only on pre-dinner drinks
    And across the room, my wife
    Widens her eyes
    Silently begs me: "Be nice"
    A matrimonial warning
    Not worth ignoring
    So I resist the urge to ask Storm
    Whether knowledge is so loose-weave
    Of a morning
    When deciding whether to leave
    Her apartment by the front door
    Or the window on her second floor
    The food is delicious and Storm
    Whilst avoiding all meat
    Happily sits and eats
    While the good doctor slightly pissedly
    Holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history
    When Storm suddenly insists:
    "But the human body is a mystery!
    Science just falls in a hole
    When it tries to explain the nature of the soul"
    My hostess throws me a glance
    She, like my wife, knows there's a chance
    That I'll be off on one of my rare but fun rants
    But I shan't, my lips are sealed
    I just want to enjoy the meal
    And although Storm is starting to get my goat
    I have no intention of rocking the boat
    Although it's becoming a bit of a wrestle
    Because - like her meteorological namesake -
    Storm has no such concerns for our vessel:
    "Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy
    They promote drug dependency
    At the cost of the natural remedies
    That are all our bodies need
    They are immoral and driven by greed
    Why take drugs
    When herbs can solve it?
    Why use chemicals
    When homeopathic solvents
    Can resolve it?
    I think it's time we all return to live
    With natural medical alternatives."
    And try as I like
    A small crack appears
    In my diplomacy dyke.
    "By definition," I begin
    "Alternative Medicine," I continue
    "Has either not been proved to work
    Or been proved not to work
    Do you know what they call alternative medicine
    That's been proved to work?
    Medicine."
    "So you don't believe
    In any natural remedies?"
    "On the contrary, Storm; actually:
    Before I came to tea
    I took a remedy
    Derived from the bark of a willow tree
    A painkiller that's virtually side-effect free
    It's got a weird name
    Darling, what was it again?
    Maspirin?
    Baspirin?
    Oh yes, aspirin!
    Which I paid about a buck for
    Down at the local drugstore."
    The debate briefly abates
    As my hosts collect plates
    But when they return with desserts
    Storm pertly asserts
    "Shakespeare said it first:
    There are more things in heaven and earth
    Than exist in your philosophy
    Science is just how we're trained to look at reality
    It doesn't explain love or spirituality
    How does science explain psychics?
    Auras, the afterlife, the power of prayer?"
    I'm becoming aware
    That I'm staring
    I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped
    In the blinding headlights of vacuous crap
    Maybe it's the Hamlet she just misquothed
    Or the fifth glass of wine I just quaffed
    But my diplomacy dyke groans
    And the arsehole held back by its stones
    Can be held back no more:
    "Look, Storm, sorry, I don't mean to bore ya
    But there's no such thing as an aura!
    Reading auras is like reading minds
    Or tea leaves, or star signs, or meridian lines
    These people aren't plying a skill
    They're either lying or mentally ill!
    Same goes for people who claim they can hear God's demands
    Or spiritual healers who think they've got magic hands
    "By the way
    Why do we think it's okay
    For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
    Isn't that totally fucked in the head
    Lying to some crying woman whose child has died
    And telling her you're in touch with the other side?
    I think that's fundamentally sick
    Do we need to clarify here that there's no such thing as a psychic?
    "What, are we fucking two?
    Do we actually think that Horton heard a Who?
    Do we still believe that Santa brings us gifts?
    That Michael Jackson didn't have facelifts?
    Are we still so stunned by circus tricks
    That we think that the dead would
    Wanna talk to pricks
    Like John Edward?"
    Storm, to her credit, despite my derision
    Keeps firing off clichés with startling precision
    Like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition
    "You're so sure of your position
    But you're just closed-minded
    I think you'll find
    That your faith in science and tests
    Is just as blind
    As the faith of any fundamentalist."
    "Wow, that's a good point, let me think for a bit...
    Oh wait, my mistake, that's absolute bullshit.
    Science adjusts its views based on what's observed;
    Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved
    If you show me that, say, homeopathy works
    Then I will change my mind
    I will spin on a fucking dime
    I'll be as embarrassed as hell
    Yet I will run through the streets yelling
    'It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
    Water has memory!
    And whilst its memory of a long lost drop of onion juice seems infinite
    It somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it!'
    "You show me that it works and how it works
    And when I've recovered from the shock
    I will take a compass and carve 'Fancy That' on the side of my cock!"
    Everyone is just staring now
    But I'm pretty pissed and I've dug this far down
    So I figure, in for a penny, in for a pound:
    "Life is full of mysteries, yeah
    But there are answers out there
    And they won't be found
    By people sitting around
    Looking serious
    And saying 'Isn't life mysterious?'
    Let's sit here and hope
    Let's call up the fucking Pope
    Let's go watch Oprah
    Interview Deepak Chopra
    "If you wanna watch telly, you should watch Scooby Doo
    That show was so cool
    Because every time there was a church with a ghoul
    Or a ghost in a school
    They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
    The fucking janitor or the dude who ran the waterslide
    Because throughout history
    Every mystery
    Ever solved has turned out to be
    Not magic
    "Does the idea that there might be knowledge
    Frighten you?
    Does the idea that one afternoon
    On Wiki-fucking-pedia might enlighten you
    Frighten you?
    Does the notion that there may not be a supernatural
    So blow your hippy noodle
    That you would rather just stand in the fog
    Of your inability to Google?
    "Isn't this enough?
    Just this world?
    "Just this beautiful, complex
    Wonderfully unfathomable, natural world?
    How does it so fail to hold our attention
    That we have to diminish it with the invention
    Of cheap, man-made myths and monsters?
    If you're so into your Shakespeare
    Lend me your ear:
    To gild refined gold, to paint the lily
    To throw perfume on the violet is just fucking silly
    Or something like that
    Or what about Satchmo?!
    I see trees of green
    Red roses too
    And fine, if you wish to
    Glorify Krishna and Vishnu
    In a post-colonial, condescending
    Bottled-up and labeled kind of way
    Then whatever, that's okay
    But here's what gives me a hard-on:
    I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon
    I have one life, and it is short
    And unimportant
    But thanks to recent scientific advances
    I get to live twice as long
    As my great great great great uncleses and auntses
    Twice as long to live this life of mine
    Twice as long to love this wife of mine
    Twice as many years of friends and wine
    Of sharing curries and getting shitty
    At good-looking hippies
    With fairies on their spines
    And butterflies on their titties
    "And if perchance I have offended
    Think but this and all is mended:
    We'd as well be 10 minutes back in time
    For all the chance you'll change your mind."

  • @datdom34
    @datdom34 3 місяці тому

    Wow, can't honestly believe I've not seen this before. It was a real ride. Thanks Tim.

  • @dong.7519
    @dong.7519 8 років тому +10

    creative writing at its finest

  • @LeadonMacDuff
    @LeadonMacDuff 2 місяці тому

    Just seen this, absolutely brilliant. Incredible creative ability to highlight the nonsense of faith based beliefs so compellingly and skilfully. Articulates my view perfectly, thank you. This is great art.

  • @IceMetalPunk
    @IceMetalPunk 10 років тому +70

    Not that I mind listening to Storm again (I could NEVER mind that!), but isn't there anything new from Tim over the past couple years that I could watch?

    • @21nickik
      @21nickik 10 років тому +6

      Califronication season 5

    • @IceMetalPunk
      @IceMetalPunk 10 років тому +3

      21nickik
      Oh, shit! I had no idea he was on a TV show!

    • @samamar4570
      @samamar4570 10 років тому

      the youtube wouldn't put up his latest stuff because he'd want you to buy his dvd's, i'm guessing

    • @Earitol
      @Earitol 10 років тому +1

      Sam Amar Also, they uploaded this because he's publishing an animated book of Storm. So this is a promotional upload.

    • @TomDufall
      @TomDufall 6 років тому +1

      He's also been behind the soundtracks of a few musicals recently, e.g. Matilda.

  • @marksieving7925
    @marksieving7925 8 років тому +5

    Absolutely my favorite bit from Tim Minchin, and I like quite a lot of his material.

  • @drbobinski1
    @drbobinski1 3 роки тому +1

    First introduced to Tim on the Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss. When he was placed with the likes of Darwin and Einstein I wondered why LK would have supported such affiliations. I cried foul. So I began my research into Tim here on UA-cam. I now regret not having had him in my life for the past 10 years. Wow what genius. Just subscribed.

  • @475093845034580
    @475093845034580 5 років тому +7

    It's been 8 years since I first heard this poem and I just now understood the last line of it. It's a clever assumption.

  • @dalemiller5893
    @dalemiller5893 4 роки тому +4

    This man is one hell of a enclopedia.

    • @BoopTheSynth
      @BoopTheSynth 4 роки тому +1

      wikipedia the free encyclopedia at en.wikipedia.org

  • @hazardsigns
    @hazardsigns 10 років тому +2

    I love this poem. My favourite Tim Minchin creation

  • @randomcommenter550
    @randomcommenter550 8 років тому +11

    Tim really needs to go on tour in the States. And visit the Southeast. North Carolina. Specifically Charlotte. Or Raleigh. Or Greensboro. Or somewhere else within reasonable driving distance. I REALLY want to see him live.

    • @ukusrule
      @ukusrule 8 років тому +5

      You mean you want to see him killed. :-P

    • @randomcommenter550
      @randomcommenter550 8 років тому +2

      No! As long as he stays in the cities, he'll be fine. If not, well....

  • @JCurtisDrums
    @JCurtisDrums 7 років тому +2

    This is a stunning performance. His lyrical weaving is mesmerising.

  • @DonHammonds
    @DonHammonds 4 роки тому +1

    Thanks, Tim.

  • @rchuso
    @rchuso 10 років тому +8

    Tim is _most_ entertaining. I love the Midsummer Night's Dream conclusion. :-)

  • @KyKypyD3o
    @KyKypyD3o 6 років тому +161

    Inner North London, top floor flat
    All white walls, white carpet, white cat,
    Rice Paper partitions, modern art and ambition
    The host's a physician,
    Bright bloke, has his own practice
    His girlfriend's an actress, an old mate of ours from home
    And they're always great fun, so to dinner we've come.
    The 5th guest is an unknown,
    The hosts have just thrown us together for a favour 'cause this girl's just arrived from Australia
    And she's moved to North London and she's the sister of someone or has some connection.
    As we make introductions I'm struck by her beauty
    She's irrefutably fair with dark eyes and dark hair
    But as she sits, I admit I'm a little bit wary 'cause I notice the tip of the wing of a fairy tattooed on that popular area just above the derrière
    And when she says "I'm Sagittarian", I confess a pigeonhole starts to form
    And is immediately filled with pigeon when she says her name is Storm.
    Conversation is initially bright and light hearted but it's not long before Storm gets started:
    "You can't know anything, knowledge is merely opinion!"
    She opines, over her Cabernet Sauvignon, vis-à-vis some unhippily empirical comment by me.
    "Not a good start" I think
    We're only on pre-dinner drinks
    And across the room, my wife widens her eyes, silently begs me: "Be Nice"
    A matrimonial warning not worth ignoring
    So I resist the urge to ask Storm whether knowledge is so loose-weave of a morning when deciding whether to leave her apartment by the front door
    Or the window on her second floor.
    The food is delicious and Storm, whilst avoiding all meat happily sits and eats
    As the good doctor, slightly pissedly holds court on some anachronistic aspect of medical history
    When Storm suddenly insists:
    "But the human body is a mystery! Science just falls in a hole when it tries to explain the nature of the soul."
    My hostess throws me a glance
    She, like my wife, knows there's a chance I'll be off on one of my rare but fun rants but I shan't
    My lips are sealed, I just wanna enjoy the meal
    And although Storm is starting to get my goat I have no intention of rocking the boat
    Although it's becoming a bit of a wrestle because - like her meteorological namesake - Storm has no such concerns for our vessel:
    "Pharmaceutical companies are the enemy
    They promote drug dependency at the cost of the natural remedies that are all our bodies need
    They are immoral and driven by greed.
    Why take drugs when herbs can solve it?
    Why use chemicals when homeopathic solvents can resolve it?
    I think it's time we all return-to-live with natural medical alternatives."
    And try as I like, a small crack appears in my diplomacy-dike.
    "By definition", I begin,
    "Alternative Medicine", I continue,
    "Has either not been proved to work, or been proved not to work.
    Do you know what they call 'alternative medicine' that's been proved to work?
    Medicine."
    "So you don't believe in any natural remedies?"
    "On the contrary Storm, actually
    Before I came to tea, I took a remedy derived from the bark of a willow tree
    A painkiller that's virtually side-effect free
    It's got a weird name, Darling, what was it again?
    M-masprin? Basprin? Oh yeah! Asprin!
    Which I paid about a buck for down at the local drugstore.
    The debate briefly abates as our hosts collects plates
    But as they return with desserts Storm pertly asserts:
    "Shakespeare said it first:
    There are more things in heaven and earth than exist in your philosophy...
    Science is just how we're trained to look at reality,
    It doesn't explain love or spirituality.
    How does science explain psychics? Auras? The afterlife? The power of prayer?"
    I'm becoming aware that I'm staring, I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap.
    Maybe it's the Hamlet she just misquothed or the 5th glass of wine I just quaffed
    But my diplomacy dike groans and the arsehole held back by its stones can be held back no more:
    "Look, Storm, sorry I don't mean to bore you but there's no such thing as an aura!
    Reading Auras is like reading minds or tea-leaves or star-signs or meridian lines
    These people aren't applying a skill, they're either lying or mentally ill.
    Same goes for people who claim they hear God's demands or Spiritual healers who think they've magic hands.
    By the way, why do we think it is it OK for people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
    Isn't that totally fucked in the head?
    Lying to some crying woman whose child has died and telling her you're in touch with the other side?
    I think that's fundamentally sick
    Do we need to clarify here that there's no such thing as a psychic?
    What are we, fucking 2?
    Do we actually think that Horton Heard a Who?
    Do we still believe that Santa brings us gifts?
    That Michael Jackson didn't had facelifts?
    Are we still so stunned by circus tricks that we think that the dead would wanna talk to pricks like John Edwards?
    Storm to her credit despite my derision keeps firing off clichés with startling precision like a sniper using bollocks for ammunition
    "You're so sure of your position but you're just closed-minded
    I think you'll find that your faith in Science and Tests is just as blind as the faith of any fundamentalist"
    "Wow that's a good point, let me think for a bit.
    Oh wait, my mistake, that's absolute bullshit.
    Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
    If you show me that, say, homeopathy works, then I will change my mind
    I'll spin on a fucking dime
    I'll be embarrassed as hell, but I will run through the streets yelling
    'It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
    Water has memory! And while it's memory of a long lost drop of onion juice seems Infinite
    It somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it!'
    You show me that it works and how it works
    And when I've recovered from the shock
    I will take a compass and carve 'Fancy That' on the side of my cock."
    Everyone's just staring now,
    But I'm pretty pissed and I've dug this far down,
    So I figure, in for penny, in for a pound:
    "Life is full of mysteries, yeah
    But there are answers out there
    And they won't be found by people sitting around looking serious and saying 'Isn't life mysterious?'
    'Let's sit here and hope.
    Let's call up the fucking Pope.
    Let's go watch Oprah interview Deepak Chopra.'
    If you wanna watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo.
    That show was so cool because every time there was a church with a ghoul or a ghost in a school
    They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
    The fucking janitor or the dude who ran the waterslide.
    Because throughout history every mystery ever solved has turned out to be
    Not Magic.
    Does the idea that there might be knowledge frighten you?
    Does the idea that one afternoon on Wiki-fucking-pedia might enlighten you frighten you?
    Does the notion that there may not be a supernatural so blow your hippy noodle that you'd rather just stand in the fog of your inability to Google?
    Isn't this enough?
    Just this world?
    Just this beautiful, complex, wonderfully unfathomable, natural world?
    How does it so fail to hold our attention that we have to diminish it with the invention of cheap, man-made myths and monsters?
    If you're so into your Shakespeare, lend me your ear:
    "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet... is just fucking silly"
    Or something like that.
    Or what about Satchmo?!
    "I see trees of Green,
    Red roses too,"
    And fine, if you wish to glorify Krishna and Vishnu in a post-colonial, condescending bottled-up and labeled kind of way then whatever, that's ok.
    But here's what gives me a hard-on:
    I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant bit of carbon.
    I have one life, and it is short and unimportant...
    But thanks to recent scientific advances I get to live twice as long as my great great great great uncleses and auntses.
    Twice as long to live this life of mine
    Twice as long to love this wife of mine
    Twice as many years of friends and wine
    Of sharing curries and getting shitty at good-looking hippies with fairies on their spines and butterflies on their titties.
    And if perchance I have offended
    Think but this and all is mended:
    We'd as well be 10 minutes back in time, for all the chance you'll change your mind.

    • @JohnJohnson-ok4gf
      @JohnJohnson-ok4gf 4 роки тому +9

      Now try to memorize it. :)

    • @ciaranbyrnedempsey2524
      @ciaranbyrnedempsey2524 4 роки тому +4

      Fucking hell

    • @juliehowe3
      @juliehowe3 4 роки тому +3

      John Johnson apparently “Mollie Star” (posted 5 years ago) did. She says she did it for her performing arts exam!

    • @furtado704
      @furtado704 4 роки тому +8

      People who put the lyrics/ text in the comments are just superior to other people. Or at least better than me, what is admitedly very little.

    • @basosz
      @basosz 4 роки тому +5

      @@JohnJohnson-ok4gf Took me a few tries, but yeah, I can recite this from beginning to end :D

  • @carloselerma
    @carloselerma 4 роки тому +3

    i love him and his poetry so damn much, i love how he thinks god damn it hes my idol

  • @kamranbanan5181
    @kamranbanan5181 4 роки тому +3

    I love it! I was just writing a 2 page angry rant to a supposedly PhD professor who thinks Homeopathy and other alternative medicine work and teaches us these things! and your song just cranked me up. just awesome

  • @SaintAdjacent
    @SaintAdjacent 3 роки тому +1

    MORE RELEVANT NOW THAN EVER.

  • @NiamhCarolan1
    @NiamhCarolan1 8 років тому +2

    I absolutely love this!

  • @riparianlife97701
    @riparianlife97701 10 років тому +135

    How does he do it? I can't memorize a phone number.

    • @thelolmaster1997
      @thelolmaster1997 10 років тому +10

      Generally you don't recite phone numbers hundreds of times across several years
      And they're not fun tales

    • @riparianlife97701
      @riparianlife97701 10 років тому +11

      thelolmaster1997 I still think the guy has an amazing talent. Keep in mind he's not only writing and memorizing all these words, he's performing them, producing a play, acting, and raising a daughter.

    • @voorp
      @voorp 10 років тому +13

      Docktor Jim Fun thing is, because this rhymes it's actually easier to remember than stories that don't rhyme

    • @thelolmaster1997
      @thelolmaster1997 10 років тому +1

      Docktor Jim You're right man, I'm not denying the talent, I'm just making a point

    • @Nyruami
      @Nyruami 10 років тому +5

      Well for a fact he IS a professional actor, and memorizing a 9 minute beat poem isn´t much harder, if at all, than memorizing the complete text he had as Jesus in JC-Superstar, which he hadn´t even written himself.

  • @stephaniemedina1848
    @stephaniemedina1848 3 роки тому +2

    I just have listened to him today what a talent🐱🌹🌷💃🌞🌈

  • @msg2099
    @msg2099 4 роки тому +2

    I love this!!!!!

  • @renatastarshyne9237
    @renatastarshyne9237 10 років тому +7

    You're simply awesome, I just don't know how to say what I feel when I watch to your videos. I am your mega fan! And I hope maybe someday to watch your show here in Brazil (in Porto Alegre, most specifically)! Ah, your acting in the movie "Two Fists, One Heart" was flawless and stainless! I loved it. Congrats and may your success keep growing more and more, 'cause you deserve it!

  • @shewholistensau
    @shewholistensau 4 роки тому +2

    You are an amazing pianist and a true creative mind absoloutly brilliant.

  • @tubetomarcato
    @tubetomarcato 6 років тому +1

    Brilliant and suddenly more relevant in these Stormy times

    • @dylanheraid4611
      @dylanheraid4611 4 роки тому

      Hey two years ago Antonio , what stormy times are you referring too

  • @JayVermaMusic
    @JayVermaMusic 10 років тому +9

    I wonder if Tim is preparing a bunch of new songs but I highly doubt it.. Its been years:/. THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER TIM MINCHIN

    • @j9rodgers
      @j9rodgers 10 років тому +1

      He is writing new songs, they are just for Groundhog Day musical and Larrikins for Dreamworks. Though I'm starting to think there will never be more 2 hour long fully written "comedy" shows. Probably just concerts, where I really think we'll get new music. Hopefully soon.

    • @ZoeyZwee
      @ZoeyZwee 10 років тому +2

      well in his defense, he did write a musical, and an amazing one at that

    • @ilyanamevis8999
      @ilyanamevis8999 6 років тому +1

      he now is, for his new tour "Back"

    • @stargazer7644
      @stargazer7644 5 років тому

      He's on tour in 2019 in the UK. Completely sold out.

  • @christopherkelly5822
    @christopherkelly5822 5 років тому

    This god of thought has preserved my beliefs. Thank you Sir.

  • @PHILPAF
    @PHILPAF 10 років тому

    One of the brightest minds living today!

  • @bevcd3625
    @bevcd3625 4 роки тому +3

    Pure genius. 👏👏👏✌️

  • @LibRoseITM
    @LibRoseITM 3 роки тому +1

    Having been in both positions of "Storm" and Tim, I really, really appreciate this :'D It makes me cringe to think of how I used to be ToT

    • @allancox7489
      @allancox7489 3 роки тому +7

      No, you should be proud of the fact that you had the courage to put the truth above your ego and change your mind. This is a rare and valuable quality.

    • @LibRoseITM
      @LibRoseITM 3 роки тому +1

      @@allancox7489 awww, thank you!

  • @cheesewrapper2509
    @cheesewrapper2509 4 роки тому +6

    The only person who I've seen do a sort of slam poetry that doesn't make me cringe is Tm. what a talent.

  • @JCUDOS
    @JCUDOS Рік тому +1

    I'm in love!

  • @Nebol
    @Nebol 3 роки тому

    I'm in awe of how brilliant this is...

  • @StaceyStaser
    @StaceyStaser 3 роки тому +1

    his MEMORY

  • @DanteneNyx
    @DanteneNyx 5 років тому +1

    This is the best version of this poem that I’ve found

  • @rajanogray9088
    @rajanogray9088 5 років тому

    That was brilliant! A poet for our age!

  • @mandrewsvideos
    @mandrewsvideos 10 років тому +2

    PURE GENIUS

  • @SuperTwilightFanX
    @SuperTwilightFanX 10 років тому

    I'm proud to say I know this off by heart! Thanks Tim :)

  • @silvershocknicktail6638
    @silvershocknicktail6638 9 років тому +69

    There's something weird about the lighting that makes that microphone look like it's photoshopped in afterwards.

    • @avszefst2888
      @avszefst2888 9 років тому

      +Silvershock Nicktail I agree.

    • @wicket1800
      @wicket1800 8 років тому +4

      +Silvershock Nicktail really? you watched one of the most incredibly evocative performances ever and you're worried about if the mic was shopped?

    • @silvershocknicktail6638
      @silvershocknicktail6638 8 років тому +1

      wicket
      "Worried" is a weird word for it. I've heard "Storm" many times, so you'll forgive me if I'm not struck dumb by it.

    • @jilliansmith7123
      @jilliansmith7123 5 років тому

      Wasn't that a blue light? It also made the back half of his hair blue. There's a name for it that I can't remember right now, that kind of lighting..

  • @mattin_together1889
    @mattin_together1889 2 роки тому +1

    Here from Reddit.
    Awesome video!!!

    • @John-qo9hw
      @John-qo9hw 2 роки тому

      Which subreddit?

    • @mattin_together1889
      @mattin_together1889 2 роки тому

      @@John-qo9hw gawd I wish I could remember….it just started with one pressing saying a part of the stand up; then the next person shared the next line; so on and so on…. Maybe Elden Ring????

  • @reubenmood3890
    @reubenmood3890 3 роки тому

    Truly THE GREATEST (modern) BEAT POEM OF ALL!!!

  • @685Sunflake
    @685Sunflake 10 років тому +1

    My friends and I always tries to recite this when we're together!

  • @luckynater
    @luckynater 8 років тому

    couldn't agree more! love this bit

  • @marcushirt1232
    @marcushirt1232 3 роки тому

    Absolutely brilliant. :)

  • @rati0cination
    @rati0cination 5 років тому +2

    I honestly don’t give two sh*ts if I agree or disagree with any of this… This was absolutely brilliant and hilariously entertaining!

  • @eggmacthevegan2898
    @eggmacthevegan2898 4 роки тому +2

    Briliant

  • @574nc3
    @574nc3 10 років тому

    Brilliant. Love this piece.

  • @carritrj
    @carritrj 9 років тому +4

    Holly shit. I loved this. I have had one to many of these all to similar conversations and this had me feeling the emotions as if i were in the situation instead. I would not have been so able as to hold myself from response for that long though.

  • @PooleyX
    @PooleyX 4 роки тому +1

    This is *perfect*. That's a simple statement but it needs no embellishing.

  • @seren3797
    @seren3797 9 років тому

    Absolutely love this

  • @chadoistad
    @chadoistad 10 років тому

    Absolutely amazing. I wish I'd had Tim Minchin in my back pocket back when I was married to Storm. Only her name was Rachel... Glad that's fucking over...

  • @richardlasch8400
    @richardlasch8400 2 місяці тому +1

    Hes a genius.

  • @GrazerMagic
    @GrazerMagic 10 років тому +5

    Wowza. Five years ago and just now on UA-cam.

    • @sogghartha
      @sogghartha 10 років тому +6

      No, there's been more versions of this on youtube for quite some time. There's an animated version that is my favourite.

    • @gorillaguerillaDK
      @gorillaguerillaDK 10 років тому +1

      sogghartha it is just AWESOME...!
      I simply LOVE the animated version!
      (although watching Tim performing it is also pretty cool)

    • @stargazer7644
      @stargazer7644 5 років тому

      This has been all over youtube for quite a long time.

  • @metalshorty0
    @metalshorty0 5 років тому

    Amazing.

  • @TesterAnimal1
    @TesterAnimal1 3 роки тому

    12,000 👍🏻 vs 151 👎🏻 is restoring a little faith in humanity!

  • @birdbyod9372
    @birdbyod9372 5 років тому

    Ty, awsome

  • @marcmedina4376
    @marcmedina4376 Рік тому

    Freaking BRILLIANT!

  • @DianeCranson
    @DianeCranson 5 років тому

    I just love this

  • @JanetArnold1257
    @JanetArnold1257 6 років тому

    That was awesome!

  • @ivx8345
    @ivx8345 4 роки тому +1

    THIS NEEDS TO BE TAUGHT.

  • @Coastfog
    @Coastfog 10 років тому

    Beyond brilliant...

  • @steviepii1389
    @steviepii1389 8 років тому +3

    I love the animated short you did on this!! well done.