So not too long ago one of my friends posted a certain video on facebook of a comedian of Australian origin. I laughed, a lot. And of course, being the type of person I am, I then set about viewing practically everything that has ever come out of this person's mouth. If I like something, I binge. And this I like.
Anyone in Australia or the UK may well know who I mean just from that. Most people in the US will have no clue.
If I add that he is an atheist, a brilliant piano player, and uses both the most complex and base ends of the spectrum of the English language with equal frequency and aplomb, I'm sure everyone in Australia and the UK would know who I mean.
And some of us Americans and Canadians have figured this out. Hundreds of thousands of youtube hits can't all becoming from across the pond. And the friend who posted is Canadian.
Now, see I wouldn't necessarily post atheist on my forehead, but I have major issues with most organized religion and the need people seem to have to get it seeped into our government and schools. I was in medical school and a doctor giving a talk on strengthening relationships with patients explained how he would write Bible verses on prescription pads for his patients. And presented the bullshit science about directed prayer affecting medical outcomes. I was not the only one in the room with steam coming out my ears, there were definitely those of us who voiced concern that this practice is unethical, but there were also those who saw no problem with this. Can you guess what part of the country I went to medical school in?
I understand that it would be comforting at times to believe there is some grander plan, and that churches provide a supportive community which can be extremely helpful in troubled times, particularly in our current society which is so splintered, and where families grow distant emotionally secondary to the physical distance between them. If putting your life in the hands of a higher power is what you need to do to get off alcohol or drugs, by all means do it.
But keep religion the hell out of science classes. Keep god out of school period. Yes there is a separation of church and state in the first amendment Ms. O'Donnell. What lit the fire of revolution in this country may have been the persistent desire not to have to pay taxes, but the reason people bothered to come all the way across the ocean in the first place was to get people to stop shoving religion down their throats. Well, okay, I guess Virginia was mostly just adventuresome types. But Maryland was for the Catholics who didn't want to be Anglicans, and the Northeast was settled by the Puritans who similarly didn't like being told what they ought to believe.
I don't like being told what to do, let alone what to think or believe. (I still do try to do what I'm told. Well, okay, most of the time. Well, as long as there's a reason and it makes sense. I'm sort of subtle in my resistance though, so I wasn't as obnoxious a child as you would think. For one thing I did listen to reason. And if I didn't agree with the reason I just ignored the order. I didn't yell 'no' at anyone. At least not very often. I think.)
Anyway, intelligently poking fun at religion and all the other magical, spiritual, mystical nonsense is pretty much endlessly funny to me.
And my new idol does that frequently.
And being a scientist I am of course appreciative of someone who appreciates science and its ability to prove things one way or another, and to adjust when new information comes along that proves our old ideas wrong
However, also being a scientist, I know how much other crap gets in the way of us just doing science, and real progress is delayed years or even permanently by the concerns of money and egos. But, I think pretty much every field you can possibly work in has a problem with money and egos. We're not unique. We do however have a bunch of hypocrites who pretend that such concerns do not play a role in their science, and that they are as pure as snow and instead point fingers and attack others. This is horribly obnoxious in my opinion. In business its all about the money and whatever games you play to get there, that's part of the deal. They're fucking honest about their dishonesty. I can respect that.
Next up, music, my new idol is an amazing piano player and most of his comedy is played out through songs, which he writes. I don't actually listen to the radio, so I'm not sure what's on there, but its not talented artists who write their own material. I don't know, there might be some rappers, do they write their umm words? I don't know.
He has said that the best thing his parents did was let him quit piano lessons when they did. Then he learned on his own because he wanted to. I am one of those who was pushed hard to play classical piano. I love music, but that could never be the way that I love music because it was always a chore. I got my allowance if I practiced a certain amount. I didn't get yelled at if I practiced a certain amount. So singing kind of became my thing instead. This has had its advantages in that your voice is infinitely more portable than a piano. But its disadvantages in that every time you get sick, which I do a lot, your voice sounds funny or doesn't work at all. But I do miss having a piano around. Once you haven't played for a long time, your fingers lose their precision. You don't naturally land on the notes you expected to land on. You don't have the same control that you once did. I wonder now what would happen if I just sat down and improvised. Its not writing really, but I think some of the most fun I've had with music is just sitting down at a piano and just fiddling around. I never got a good basis in chord structure on the piano so I never really did songs, but my favorite key was C minor. I could just play for twenty minutes, whatever I felt like. Obviously when I actually did write music I did most of it on the piano. So I am constitutionally inclined to love a musical comedian.
So who do I mean?
A comedian who is a brilliant musician and wordsmith, hilarious, considers himself kind of a science nerd, has a lovely accent, and... is a GINGER!!!!
*Sigh* I'm pretty much in love, because there could be no more perfect man.
Okay, there could be a more perfect man for me because this one is happily married with two children. But so it goes, the good ones are all taken, right.
So why does it matter to me that he's a ginger? Well, first, for any Americans who don't know what a ginger is, because we don't really have a whole lot of them here, its that pale skin with freckles, blue eyes and light red hair. I adore gingers. Really, I just have a thing for red hair. It actually may be a bit genetic, because even though my mom didn't end up with one, her favored type is also red hair and blue eyes.
I have known that in addition to thinking that I like redheads rather much I clearly have found them at higher rates than their prevalence in the population. So, I counted up all the guys I have been involved with, all the way back to first big crush, a redhead. (Yes there are so few that this is possible). Half. Fully 50% had red hair. Admittedly not all of these men have been in the US where red hair is very rare, but even so, gingers just aren't that common elsewhere either. The funny thing is, I don't see a man and think, 'ooh red hair!' I see a man and think 'he's attractive' so I look at him for a few more seconds and realize he has red hair and recognize that that is probably the only reason I thought he was attractive in the first place. Weird huh?
So, I wish I could appropriately share the genius that is Tim Minchin.
The thing is, most songs, most standup bits, are funny for completely different reasons. There's nothing to say, this one is better than all the others. Or, this one is representative.
So, I'll just say...
Comedy:
Tony the Fish
Storm
If I didn't have you
Dark Side
Rock and Roll Nerd
Not so comedic but beautiful songs (these are the ones that make you cry and laugh instead of just laugh)
Not Perfect
White Wine in the Sun
Under-represented in my list is the slightly cruder ones. I can't help it. I like the intelligent word choice ones more. But I still laugh at the others.
And, he's just put up on his website a little widgety thing for people in the US to say where they want him to come! So, no guarantees that he's coming, but probably? maybe? He's got an Australian tour through the middle of next year, so it wouldn't be for quite a while now. Anywhere in the Northeast, or even eastern Canada and I'll find a way to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment