Every now and then, someone describes Tim Minchin as a Vegemite artist: people either love him or hate him. And he hates that. “I don’t want people to fucking hate me,” he says, bewildered. “They don’t have to give a shit about me. Shouldn’t we love art and be not that fussed by other art? Who the hell hates art?”
Child abuse, homophobia, racism, religion, cancel culture: Minchin is not known for shying away from speaking about topics that might cause people to hate him. Just this week Minchin reportedly got on stage in Canberra and criticised a group of Sydney Theatre Company actors who showed support for Palestine by donning keffiyehs during curtain call. There was no audio of Minchin, no direct quotes, just reports from punters generating plenty of headlines claiming Minchin had railed against “leftie bubbles”. When I ask him about it on Thursday, six weeks after we met for this interview, he declines to say more.
