Feature - Upfront
Rhys Darby
by Sarah Barnett
Who’d have thought that civil servant Murray would steal the show? As New Zealand’s “deputy cultural attaché” to New York and band manager in the Flight of the Conchords’ hit HBO show, Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby might be saying goodbye to stand-up in the UK after moving there in 2003.
After the bold move to London, did you have to get a day job? My wife and I both delivered sandwiches by bicycle in London. I got sick of it. You tow a big trailer and I came off in the snow – stopped traffic. Sandwiches everywhere. And that’s when I decided, “Enough!”
How did you get to know the Conchords? I already knew them at home, but we hung out in Edinburgh the first time they were at the Fringe Festival. They were cult straight away, the act that all the other comics went to see after their shows. I think the Naked Samoans were there, too, getting their five-star reviews and sell-out crowds, as they always do.
You need “naked” in your show title. Or to be a big hunky Samoan guy!
You played their manager in the BBC2 radio series in 2004 – was it a given that you’d reprise the role for TV? No, but the guys played the radio show for James Bobin [the director] and he said, “You have to get him to play the manager”, which was great, because HBO had no idea who I was. I ended up being the first international actor they brought in for a TV series. When they rang me to come over for the pilot, I was like, “I dunno, I’m quite busy, got some shows in Portsmouth …”
With a second season confirmed, will you move to the States? We want to come back to New Zealand and get a base. And now that we’ve got a little boy, we wouldn’t bring him up in any other country – that’s not fair to him! He’s a Kiwi, even if he was born in London. But I’ll see what other opportunities there are – I got a call the other day from Peyton Reed, who’s directing the next Jim Carrey movie, asking me to put my audition on tape! Jim Carrey’s one of my idols.
Does Murray get to sing? Murray has a song! It’s in the seventh episode, which Taika Waititi directed and wrote, and it’s getting a following as being the best show from the series, it’s just so beautifully shot. I’d never sung before, so I was quite nervous, but I went into the studio and sang and the guy said I had quite a sweet voice.
Who gets to keep the props? No one! The art department keeps a pretty tight grip on those. Especially the “tourism” posters in my office. “New Zealand Rocks!”, “It’s just like Lord of the Rings”, have you seen that?
Yeah, I love the one that says “Don’t expect too much, you will love it.” [Laughs] I think we’ll do only two seasons, so after that there’ll be a big grab for all that stuff – it’ll be worth a lot on eBay. As for the wardrobe, the guys keep a lot of their stuff, but I don’t, as you’d guess, ’cause it’s shit. We went to an op shop and I picked out all the dorky things I’d expect my character to wear.
How tightly is the show scripted? As we went on, it got quite a bit looser. The Conchords are executive producers, so they had quite a lot of say over the script. So we’ll quite often improvise, but the guys will laugh – Jemaine’s the worst! Say anything unexpected and he’ll just crack up. They often have to leave the room and I have to sit there by myself, delivering the lines.
That’s the kind of thing Murray would do anyway – sit alone in his office, practising jokes. That’s right, with his little book, dreaming of when he can see the guys again.
Flight of the Conchords, Prime, Monday, 10.00pm.
