Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand-based comedy band composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series that aired for two seasons on HBO. They used to refer to themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", but now speak of themselves as "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand."^[1]

They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and they received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for their show at Edinburgh venue The Caves. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following.^[2]

Career history

McKenzie and Clement were flatmates at Victoria University of Wellington, where they were studying film and theatre before forming Flight of the Conchords in 1998. They first performed as part of a five-man group called So You're a Man, which included Taika Waititi and debuted at Wellington's iconic BATS Theatre, garnering a small but loyal following in New Zealand and Australia.^[3]

Appearances

The band first performed on television over four nights (3–6 May 2000) on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station "Channel 7" (later renamed "WTV"). The songs, in order, were "Bowie", "Ladies of the World", "Petrov, Yelyena and Me", and "Hotties".^[4]

They performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002 and 2003, when they were nominated for the Perrier Award.^[5] They also performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival where they won the Best Newcomer Award. They were later featured in a 2004 campaign for British mobile phone retailer Phones 4U^[6] and in the show Stand Up! on Australia's ABC TV^[7]

HBO gave the group a special on their Friday night half-hour stand-up comedy series One Night Stand. They then headlined at the opening weekend at Comix comedy club, where they recorded two tracks included on 2007's "The Distant Future". They also performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. While in Texas, they recorded a documentary titled Flight of the Conchords: A Texan Odyssey, which aired on New Zealand's TV3 in late 2006.^[8]

In June 2007, the band performed on the Late Show with David Letterman^[9] and were interviewed by Terry Gross on the NPR radio show Fresh Air. They appeared at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.^[10] On 19 June 2007, they appeared as the musical guests on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[11] Their EP The Distant Future, produced by Mickey Petralia and recorded in Los Angeles and New York by Petralia and engineer Matt Shane, was released on 7 August 2007; the live portions were taken from concerts at Comix comedy club in New York City.

In January 2008, the band spoke and performed as part of Comcast's presentation at CES 2008.^[12] On 10 February 2008, they were awarded the Grammy for best comedy album, for The Distant Future.^[13]

On 13 February 2008, Flight of the Conchords had their first post-Grammy concert, a freebie show, at a small Wellington video store called Aro Video.^[14] On 5 March 2008, they performed at a private show at 'The Depot' in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2008 Omniture web analytics conference, and the following day in Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University. On 24 April 2008, they gave a free show at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California. On 28 May 2008, they performed at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. They performed on the Main Stage of the Sasquatch! Music Festival on Monday, 26 May 2008 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington State. On 12 July 2008, they performed at Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Music Festival. On 31 March 2009, the duo performed in Masterton, New Zealand, to 2000 locals as a benefit for Jemaine's old college Makoura College raising around NZ$80,000 prior to setting off on a 50 date tour of the US. They also appeared on the season four finale of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, briefly replacing Tim and Eric during a high-stakes game of tennis.

Flight of the Conchords performing at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2010.

The duo guest-starred as a pair of camp counselors in "Elementary School Musical", the season premiere of the 22nd season of The Simpsons, which aired 26 September 2010.^[15]

On 23 August 2013, Flight of the Conchords co-headlined the Oddball & Curiosity Festival with Dave Chappelle, kicking off the tour in Austin, Texas.

BBC radio series

In 2004, the band created a radio series for BBC Radio 2.^[16] Largely improvised, the series was based on the band's search for commercial success in London. It featured Rob Brydon as their narrator,^[16] Rhys Darby as their manager and Jimmy Carr as a devoted fan called Kipper. The radio series is clearly a progenitor of the television series: the plot is similar — the band arriving in a foreign country to make their fortune, Rhys Darby playing their manager and calling band meetings— and many of the songs were later used in the television series.^[17]

The BBC Radio 2 series won the duo the Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for comedy.^[18]

HBO television series

The duo starred in a television series for HBO, titled Flight of the Conchords, which premiered in the United States in June 2007. The series simultaneously premiered in Canada on The Movie Network and Movie Central, and was also shown on The Comedy Network.

The fictional series revolves around the pair as they try to achieve success as a band in New York City and try to develop an American fan base. The regular cast includes fellow comedians Rhys Darby as Murray, Arj Barker as Dave, and Kristen Schaal as their obsessed fan Mel. This show also features many other comedians in guest starring roles. Their songs are woven into the plot of each episode. The first season consisted of 12 episodes. The show received an Emmy nomination for Best Comedy.^[19] The show was shot primarily in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan.

The second season started on HBO on 18 January 2009. The first episode premiered online on Funny or Die a few weeks early, on 17 December 2008,^[20] and on 21 December was made available for online viewing on a variety of additional platforms including HBO.com, iTunes and HBO's YouTube channel.^[21] The second season consisted of 10 episodes.

On 10 December 2009, the duo and co-creator/director James Bobin announced via their website that the show would not return for a third season.^[22]

Surprisingly, given their success outside New Zealand, McKenzie and Clement are rumoured to have had project proposals continually denied funding by New Zealand public television. As Brannavan Gnanalingam notes in The Lumiere Reader, rumour has it that NZ TV3 denied funding because their humour was deemed "too Wellington", meaning their humour would not work with the average New Zealander outside of Wellington.^[23]

Film appearances

Both McKenzie and Clement appeared alongside Rhys Darby in a horror comedy titled Diagnosis: Death, though not as Flight of the Conchords. The film was released on 3 August 2009. They have also each appeared in several films separately: Clement in Men in Black 3, Eagle vs Shark, Dinner for Schmucks, Gentlemen Broncos, and Muppets Most Wanted, and McKenzie in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Austenland. The song "I'm Not Crying" appears in the film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. In 2014, both Jemaine and Rhys Darby starred in the horror comedy mockumentary titled What We Do in the Shadows, directed by Clement and Taika Waititi.

Web

Extra video content can be seen on the HBO Flight of the Conchords site, for example Dave's Pawn Shop Video.^[24] In May 2010, Bret and Jemaine also appeared in a web video on bbc.co.uk in which they officially opened the BBC's Comedy website.^[25]

Reunion, tour, and film

In an interview with Vulture, Bret said that plans were in the works for a reunion tour in 2012 and that he and Jemaine were discussing a Flight of the Conchords movie.^[26] On 28 November 2011, he stated that efforts were being made to bring the comedy folk duo to the big screen: "We're going to try and do a movie. We just need a story".^[27] However, HBO has stated they themselves do not have plans for such a film.^[28]

It was confirmed in March 2012, that a full 10-show tour of larger New Zealand venues was in place for June 2012. Tickets went on sale on 23 March, with the premium seats at each venue available only in person at the box office, to prevent scalping. All original shows sold out within 10 minutes once they were released on general sale.

For Red Nose Day 2012, the duo recorded a charity single composed of lyrics volunteered by Auckland and Wellington school children, titled "Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)".^[29][30] The song features performances from other New Zealand celebrities, including Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Boh Runga, Sam Scott, Luke Buda, Savage, Young Sid, Tyree, Deach, PNC, Zowie, Ruby Frost, Kids of 88, Rikki Morris, Moana Maniapoto, Nathan King, Maitereya, Victoria Girling-Butcher, Elizabeth Marvelly, Peter Urlich and Cherie Mathieson.^[31][32] The song entered at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart, becoming their first number one and was certified Platinum, selling over 15,000 copies in its first week.^[33]

In an interview published in Indiewire in August 2015, Clement said that a Flight of the Conchords movie was being written, although he indicated that it is still in the early phases.^[34]

Awards

Discography

• Flight of the Conchords (2008)
• I Told You I Was Freaky (2009)

References

External links

• Official website
• Flight of the Conchords at DMOZ
• Early footage of Flight of the Conchords at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in clip 1 and clip 2 on NZ On Screen. (Requires Adobe Flash)