The Star Online - September 2, 2008

Taking off
By RIZAL JOHAN

From cult status to international acclaim, New Zealand’s latest export are a music duo known as Flight of the Conchords who have their own hit TV comedy series of the same name.
IF laughter is the best medicine, then you’re going to enjoy a heavy dose of the latest musical comedy sitcom, Flight of the Conchords, which makes its debut tomorrow.

It’s from HBO, the people who brought you ground-breaking and award- winning shows like The Sopranos, Rome and Entourage. As such, audiences can expect something completely different from Flight of the Conchords, which chronicles the lives of two struggling musicians from New Zealand, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who have landed in New York in order to make it big in America.

Interestingly, Flight of the Conchords is an actual band from New Zealand and Clement and McKenzie play naive, fictionalised versions of themselves. The show has elements of cult-hit mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, as the guys break into song and dance at a moment’s notice and use this opportunity to spoof popular music artistes and their videos as well.

More often than not, it’s about the relationship between Clement and McKenzie who share a small apartment and their awkward misadventures with women, getting gigs, personal in-fighting and their elusive efforts in trying to break into the American music industry.

The lads are not completely alone in their efforts to break into the music industry. The show has three supporting characters who are always around – the band’s manager Murray (Rhys Darby), the band’s only fan and stalker Mel (Kristen Schaal) and their friend and advisor Dave (Arj Barker).

In an interview with the show’s co-creator, executive producer and director, James Bobin (who previously served as writer and director for Da Ali G Show and The 11 O’clock Show), he revealed how Flight of the Conchords took off and landed on HBO.

“I met Bret and Jemaine at the Edinburgh Festival of Comedy in 2003 – it’s a very big international comedy festival they have up there every year – they were doing a live show there because The Flight of the Conchords existed as a band for the past eight years or so.

“I watched their show and I thought it was fantastic. Their show at that time was an hour long. It had about 10 songs, all of which were really funny. And between the songs, they sort of talk to each other quite a lot.

“Sort of banter about their role in the band and how the band worked, and their friendship.

“And I thought at that time, watching the live show, this would be a good TV show in terms of turning the live songs into music videos and having their banter become a narrative story about these two guys and their lives,” said Bobin.

He also explained that this is unlike the sitcoms people are used to watching like Friends or Seinfeld.

“You’re right, it’s not a typical American sitcom. It’s quite downbeat, they’re quite poor, they’re not very aspirational. They don’t have nice cars.

“They don’t have any cars! They walk everywhere! It’s a very unusual show. I think, in a way, it’s partly because I’m English and they’re New Zealanders;
there’s a different world view,” said Bobin.

Part of the charm and challenge of Flight of the Conchords was incorporating the music videos as part of the show and Bobin explained that music and song serve as a better medium to express the main characters’ feelings.

“Hopefully people can recognise the idea that sometimes you want to say something but you’re either too awkward or shy, or often polite to say it.

“But somehow if you can sing it, it seems okay and I think that is a very recognisable feeling from people all over the world, so hopefully that’s why people will love the show.

“And the guys are very likeable and very unassuming, and they’re not boastful or arrogant. They’re very humble and I think people will find them appealing,” said Bobin.

If you want a clearer picture of what the music videos are like and can’t wait for the show to start tomorrow, you can check out their quirky music videos on the YouTube website.

Bobin related his favourite Flight of the Conchords song and the most accessed music video. “I like the song called Ladies of the World, which I think is a very funny song which comes out in episode 10. I’ve always liked Bret’s You’ve Got it Going On, which is a song Jemaine sings about Bret, about their time together on the road. I think it’s just fantastic and it’s a funny song.

“Obviously, people really seem to like the song Business Time. Go to YouTube and Google it; check out the hit from there. It’s got about three and a half million (views). That’s the most popular song.”

Flight of the Conchords premieres on HBO (Astro channel 411) tomorrow at 10.30pm. The repeat is on Sunday at 2.30pm.

Goodies up for grabs

HERE’S your chance to make your own home-made music video ala Flight of the Conchords and the three winners will get their videos shown on TV before and after the Flight of the Conchords season finale on Nov 19.

HBO Asia is organising the “I love Flight of the Conchords Video Contest” via You-Tube, the first of its kind to be done.

To show their love for the two Kiwis, fans are encouraged to send in a 30-second home-made trailer for the series from now till Nov 5.

The best three entries will get to see their masterpiece trailers played on air before and after the season’s finale episode premiere on Nov 19 and the encore on Nov 23. Visit for more information about the contest and other exciting new features.