Tim Minchin announces mother’s death during Sydney show

Tim Minchin announced his mother’s death during a recent show in Sydney.

The musical comedy star was performing at the State Theatre on Friday (November 10) for his show, An Unfunny Evening With Tim Minchin And His Piano when he told the crowd of his loss.

“My mum died yesterday,” he explained to the audience before he went on to say that he felt he must go ahead with the performance despite the tragic loss, and then launched into his tune ‘White Wine In The Sun’, according to news.com.au.

According to the outlet, his voice also briefly faltered as he sang, “I’ll be seeing my dad, my brother and sisters, my gran and my mum… they’ll be drinking white wine in the sun.”

Earlier in the show, he had revealed that his mother, Ros, had been diagnosed with terminal blood cancer back in 2020.

He closed the show with a cover of Leonard Cohen‘s ‘Hallelujah’, which saw the audience singing along to the track.

Following the show, Minchin shared a photograph of his mother on Instagram, simply captioned: “So it goes.”

He frequently previously discussed his parents in both his comedy and his songwriting.

“Mum and Dad had high expectations of us as human beings – it wasn’t just about education,” Minchin told The Guardian in a 2017 interview.

“It’s a fantastic way to go about parenting, and I aspire to that. Things have taken a huge change – I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say ‘I love you’ to their children now, but my parents’ dedication and love to us was unquestionable.

He is currently touring Australia, with shows planned across the country before he ends with eight days in Perth in February and March 2024.