If there’s one thing I believe Oxford’s theatre scene is missing, it’s a button-down-shirt-wearing ex-zoology student with a penchant for writing songs about Pret A Manger. Thankfully, Jack McMinn exists to fulfil my very specific niche. I was lucky enough to sit down (on my couch and engage in an Instagram DM exchange) with Jack, to discover all there is to know about his new solo show, sperm-related songs, and the seductive power of Magdalen Street Tesco.
Some come out of the womb singing, but Jack seems to have started even before that. His first comedy song was “an entire parody of ‘Tik Tok’ by Ke$ha from the perspective of a sperm.” Since then, his life has been a busy one. Perhaps to avoid litigation from Ke$ha’s team, Jack immersed himself in academia and committed to the Cambridge-Oxford double bill, having recently graduated from his DPhil. A recurring member of the Oxford Revue and resident musician in the Oxford Imps, he also worked towards curating the Oxford Comedy Archive. The mammoth project details the careers of Oxford’s own comedy legends, icons such as Rowan Atkinson and Michael Palin, to more recent rising stars like Sophie Duker – and undoubtedly soon, Jack McMinn.
Jack spent the summer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – as all the best comedians and Cherwell reporters do – gigging in the city’s oddest locations. He reminisced on his favourite moment from the month: performing in a “beautiful two-storey Georgian vault. The inside basically looked like a castle complete with nooks, crannies, and an enormous vaulted ceiling – which is just as well because it sucked away any kind of atmosphere for comedy whatsoever”.
The location for Jack’s upcoming solo show, Curio Books and Culture, may lend itself better to McMinn’s brand of sharp musical comedy. Located below student favourite Common Ground, not a lot of people seem to know that Curio hosts regular book events, poetry readings, and shows like Jack’s. In fact, there are a whole host of little-known (or at least, little-reported on) cabaret comedy venues – Jack shouts out Hot Rats (based in The Library Pub, Cowley) and Undercover Comedy (in the Jolly Farmers) as two of Oxford’s alternative comedy essentials. He also founded the Live & Peculiar variety nights, often hosting them himself. Live & Peculiar certainly fulfils both of its titular adjectives – one eventful show ended with “a stand-up comic, an old woman drag act, and a burlesque performer post-strip, all sitting quietly in chairs onstage around some guy sitting on the floor playing a Greek lute”. As per.
When asked if we could expect another Live & Peculiar show any time soon, Jack commented: “You’re allowed to! I can’t stop you!” I suppose he’s right. His focus has undoubtedly turned to his other numerous projects. Fresh off the back of appearing in Channel 4’s The Piano and singing his way to second place at the 2025 Musical Comedy Awards, Jack is back in Oxford to spread a bit of cheer — lord knows we need it.
The tone of Jack’s solo show is illustrated perfectly by the poster graphic: a photo of McMinn in a suit atop an overflowing bin holding a tiny blue ukulele. The set will include, I’m told, “an hour of songs, skits, and a third thing beginning with S”. Then Jack backtracks. “Actually, I lied, there isn’t a third thing starting with S. The description just seemed lacking without it”. This bait-and-switch characterises much of our conversation, and seemingly a hefty proportion of his set too. Jack developed this show by “swapping [songs] in and out… I keep a big list of voice memos full of song ideas, and only some of them make it. Some of the rejects that you WON’T hear at the gig include ‘Baroque Obama’, ‘Dolphins Miss the 90s’, and ‘Bob Dylan Penne Blues’, mainly ‘cos I peaked with the titles”.
Suppressing my deep anguish at not being able to see ‘Baroque Obama’ live (maybe someday…), our conversation turns to something which we were both sure would unite, not only ourselves, but all of Cherwell’s readers: Love.
Love for the Magdalen Street Tesco escalator, that is. One of Jack’s earliest songs was an ode to the Tescolator, but when I ask about the subject, he bristles slightly: “It’s been a bit iffy between the Tescolator and I since the song dropped. A LOT of arguments about royalties. Turns out it’s difficult to sign non-disclosure agreements if you’re a piece of architecture without thumbs.” Having recently completed a similarly lengthy lawsuit with the Glink, I express my sympathy.
Audience members attending Jack’s show on the 28th January should not just expect songs about beloved Oxford infrastructure. Jack teases a “very very dumb experiment… which I really hope works. I REALLY hope it works. The last time I tried something like it, it failed twice, in front of 100+ people each time”. He then informs me that this happened in Cambridge, which allegedly explains the lacklustre response. As a representative of Cherwell, I cannot comment.
To avoid an inevitable battle with Cambridge’s legal team, I wrap up our (Instagram DM) interview. When asked to describe his solo show in anything but three words – because here at Cherwell we believe in bucking trends – Jack channels David Bowie at the Webbys: “Anything BUT? Um-.” His solo show will leave you similarly speechless.
An Evening Of Musical Comedy with Jack McMinn will be performed on the 28th January 2026, at Curio Books and Culture (basement of Common Ground), OX1 2HU.
