Austin Zook
Audio By Carbonatix
Matthew McConaughey took the stage at Bass Concert Hall in Austin on Sunday and told the audience he was going to preach.
The Academy Award winner, who shouted out his pastor in attendance, talked about “dreamers,” “doers,” and plagiarizing an Ann Ashford poem to win a 7th Grade poetry competition. He also recited a poem he said was “probably” written after masturbating in a bathtub in Australia when he was a teenager.
When McConaughey is at the pulpit, nothing is off-limits.
The hometown show was the final stop of McConaughey’s Poems & Prayers book tour. The actor made five stops across the country to promote his latest work — each featured the Oscar winner performing a selection of his poetry in conversation with a musician he admires. Jon Bon Jovi joined him in Brooklyn, Lukas Nelson in Nashville, Zach Bryan in Tulsa and John Mayer in Los Angeles.
For the Austin show, McConaughey worked his spell on the crowd with aplomb, aided and abetted by the musical stylings of Jon Batiste. Batiste would play a simple tune on the piano that McConaughey would use to recite whatever poem he had coming up next. In between, the duo would chat casually about spiritual matters, grounding themselves with gratitude, art and family.
At one point, McConaughey’s son Levi joined them to play a tune on the guitar he wrote to accompany one of his father’s poems. Batiste also graced the crowd with live renditions of two songs from his latest album, Big Money, performing the title track and “MAYBE.”
The book and the show promoting it are representative of McConaughey’s ongoing maturation. Once upon a time, he was the kind of guy who spent his evenings smoking marijuana and playing bongos in the buff. Since those halcyon days, he has (supposedly) ditched the Devil’s lettuce, built a family, won an Oscar and acquired his own brand of tequila.
At the same time, he has fashioned himself into something halfway between “movie star” and “New Age self-help guru.”
Greenlights, McConaughey’s first book, hit shelves in 2020. It uses anecdotes from the actor’s life and career to help readers catch all of the “greenlights” on the road of life. Poems & Prayers ditches the prose for poetry, but serves as a sort of coda to Greenlights. One of the first poems in the book is actually designed to summarize the lessons from its predecessor.
As for the poetry itself, the rhymes are composed by a 55-year-old man meant to be featured on the Facebook pages of other 55-year-olds. McConaughey is undoubtedly sincere, talented and charming, but he is a poet the way Jeff Goldblum is a jazz musician or Francis Ford Coppola is a philosopher. He likes the idea of being a poet, has the name recognition to draw a crowd and the charisma to make the event worthwhile, even if the work itself sometimes falls short.
One of McConaughey’s poems is inspired by his problem with “participation trophies,” titled “Tips Included.” Another takes its cues from the predatory practices of free-to-play mobile apps (“Life and Candy Crush”). Many of his poems and musings have to do with the nature of “Truth.” He offers relationship advice, writing, “Best thing you can do / For your marriage / One way to surely / Get ahead / Is get rid of that King-size mattress / And sleep in a / Queen-size bed”.
Like we said, poetry by and for the middle-aged.
Live, though, his work seems to be for everyone. McConaughey is the ultimate personality, and it is impossible not to be won over by his off-kilter line readings, playfulness and willingness to engage and debate. We should consider ourselves lucky he contented himself with “self-help guru” instead of “cult leader,” and Greg Abbott should breathe a sigh of relief that McConaughey decided not to make that oft-mentioned run for governor.
The show featured silliness and spirituality in equal measure as McConaughey relished the energy of the crowd. A highlight came when the actor asked people to tell him what they would die for, and someone said they would die for him. Without missing a beat, he struck an auctioneer’s pose and roared, “Sold!”
The two-hour event had a shambling quality that could help or hinder it. When we arrived, an usher told us they were scheduled for three hours but may need to stay longer because McConaughey likes to go off-script. To his credit, the actor-turned-author did not overstay his welcome, but a little more structure might have aided the show.
When all is said and done, Poems & Prayers is exactly what you would expect it to be, and McConaughey’s live performance is exactly what you would want it to be. Humor, charm and a desire to help others carried the show through any lulls. The poetry itself is accessible and, if not always the most inspired, at least well-intentioned. We can almost forgive him for not making time for Dallas.
