A Quote by Tim Minchin
In terms of comedy, I never did five-minute sets or clubs or anything. I just started doing shows. Coming from that theater background, it never crossed my mind that I should start doing five-minute sets.
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When people say, 'How did you start in comedy,' I say my family was kidnapped by ninjas when I was very young, and to get them released I had to do a killer five-minute set. And even after I did that, you know, I started doing comedy under tough circumstances, I still kept at it because I enjoyed it.
Doing five-minute sets on 'Conan' and things like that are fun and a great way to introduce yourself, but it's such a constricting time, and you usually have to cut bits down.
I started doing stand-up at the age of 20. This was back in 1976, around the time (coincidence?) that the first comedy clubs were starting. The young comedians of today gasp when I tell them how many shows I did that first year: 500. Five nights a week.
As far as I'm concerned, dance is a passion for me. I don't do homework and go to the sets. I believe in being impromptu. I just go on the sets and start doing whatever comes to my mind.
I think when YouTube first came out, everyone was thinking people were just going to watch five-minute shows from now on and that people didn't have the patience anymore to watch longer programmes. But instead, everyone is binge watching and consuming ten-hour programmes and box sets of shows, so it is really interesting.
I call it 'new forms'. When you're starting out, they ask you to do four or five minute sets, but once you're a headliner, you do like 90 minutes. I try to think of different things to divvy up the show, like doing drawings, playing music... I gotta carry the show, that's the problem.
In my mind, I am extraordinarily handy. But what that means is when I attempt to fix something, there's usually a five-minute period of experimentation, followed by a five-minute period of frustration, followed by a frantic phone call to a professional.
I grew up in the age of variety shows. 'Flip Wilson,' 'Carol Burnett,' 'Donny and Marie,' and 'Sonny and Cher' - I never missed an episode. These shows had it all: singing, dancing, and sketch comedy. One minute, they're ice-skating with pyrotechnics, the next they're doing a scene on a gigantic set. I just couldn't get enough.
Sometimes I'll do five minutes of skipping at the start of the day - one minute on and one minute off, and it's great, it really wakes up the system.
I started writing songs so late and I had so many day jobs - jobs just to pay the bills. So, when I started doing this, I said, "I'm never gonna do anything to corrupt this. Never try to "sell it." Never gonna do anything to make this a job." I can go five months without writing a song. Then something will happen and I'll write six songs in a week.
I started off doing plays as a theater actor. But I never thought of it in terms of it leading anywhere. I was just trying to be the best actor that I could be in the context of what I was doing.
You will never see me on the bike or treadmill for long periods of time; I just use them for one-minute sprints between sets.
It's not, like, how long you are on the screen, 'Karwaan' being the biggest the example. I may have had a five-minute role, but I know the appreciation that I got was a lot more than a five-minute role deserved probably.
No one set that I ever do is the same. I mean, if I go to a comedy club, and I perform three sets, all three sets are different because anything can happen in between sets.
The minute I started doing comedy, the doors opened.
I can always do five, five-minute rounds, any day, even if I was drinking yesterday or doing whatever. I'm a seasoned athlete, an endurance athlete, and I'm always working out.
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