Taking flight:
The
return of Flight Of The Conchords.
They walked away from a hit TV show because they weren’t looking for fame but Flight Of The Conchords have became fan favourites worldwide. James Rampton takes a look at the musical comedy duo who return to SoHo this week in Flight Of The Conchords Live In London.
One reason why spoof music duo Flight Of The Conchords are so popular is because they obviously have no desire to be popular. Their indifference to fame has only served to make them more famous. So despite huge international acclaim and two lauded series on HBO, in 2009 the New Zealand double act of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie turned their backs on global renown and returned to a quieter life in their native Wellington. Even now, they joke that Flight Of The Conchords was never their principal job. “I mean, this was all just a side project to learn guitar,” Clement says. “My entire career is a side project,” McKenzie, 42, interjects before going on to explain their rather tepid reaction to the whole idea of worldwide celebrity. “The first time I went to London and New York, I realised, ‘Oh my God, you need so much money to live in these places’. Whereas in New Zealand, at least when we were growing up there, money was not part of the equation, not in the same way. “So making money is not such an imperative part of life.” They walked away from a lucrative third series with HBO, McKenzie reveals, because, “It basically stopped being fun.” The musician, who in 2012 won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for his track Man Or Muppet, adds that, “It really wasn’t a decision about money. It was definitely a decision about enjoying our lives.” That reluctance to flaunt their fame and fortune cohered with their brilliantly
understated brand of comedy. When Flight Of The Conchords first made it big in the early 2000s, their humour was part of the prevailing fashion for the comedy of embarrassment, as seen on shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office.
But unlike many of the other practitioners of the comedy of embarrassment, Flight Of The Conchords displayed no cynicism in their humour.
“There was no pessimism about it,” cohort Rhys Darby says. “It was more of a naive happiness. They were from another world.”
But like it or not, McKenzie and Clement – who refer to themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo” – continue to be hugely in demand.
The enduring success of Flight Of The Conchords is borne out by the fact that they have just recorded an HBO special at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, which screens on SoHo this week.
Clement, who met McKenzie when they were both students at Victoria University, says that the new show reflects the degree to which Flight Of The Conchords have matured since their last HBO series.
“We’ve grown up,” he says. “We’re not the characters from the TV show.”
The 44-year-old performer, who has also appeared in Men In Black 3 and wrote, directed and starred in the mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows (now being made into an American TV series), continues that, “In real life we’re dads now and listen to different kinds of music.
“The trickiest thing about touring again is getting used to your instrument again.
“Usually, I take my guitar in the van on the way to work to get used to it.”
Despite their appealing diffidence, Flight Of The Conchords are obliged to accept that they are highly successful and can fill arenas right across the globe.
All the same, McKenzie says he prefers playing smaller venues. “I like an opera hall … 1500 people.”
“Fame is only an impediment,” Clement chips in.
So does nothing positive come from fame?
Clement ponders before replying, “Mmm … sometimes someone gives you a free ice-cream.”
“It really wasn’t a decision about money. It was definitely a decision about enjoying our lives.”
– Bret McKenzie on leaving HBO