From his early days as Murray the manager on Flight of the Conchords to his latest role as the “gentleman pirate” in Taika Waititi’s HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death, comedian Rhys Darby has never stopped being the funniest part of whatever he’s doing.
In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, the New Zealander talks about how he first hooked up with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, how he felt when they decided to end their seminal HBO show after just two seasons, and whether he can imagine a reboot down the line. We also get into what it was like to star opposite Jim Carrey in his first movie, hilarious stories about his failed auditions for dramas like Westworld and True Detective, and a lot more.
Our Flag Means Death marks Darby’s first lead role in a major TV comedy, and the character of Stede Bonnet would seem tailor-made for his specific comedic skill set—if he wasn’t a real historical figure. As the actor explains, Bonnet was a “very wealthy landowner living in the 18th century in Barbados” who “had a midlife crisis” and abandoned his wife and children for a life of piracy, even installing a library on his ship so he could still get his daily reading done.
“He took all his clothing and all his fancy garments, hired a crew, paid them a wage, and then hit the high seas for adventure,” Darby says. “So it’s pretty ridiculous, but it really happened.”
When I ask the comedian if he can relate at all to someone who would leave their family for an unpredictable adventure, he quickly replies, “Yeah, absolutely. I think we all think about that now and again. Especially when you get to a midlife situation where you think, ‘Is this it? Gosh, I’m running out of life here. Maybe I can just suddenly do an abrupt right turn and take off and live again.’ And of course you never really do it.”
Darby first came across Waititi, who also co-stars in the series as the fearsome pirate Blackbeard, during a small comedy festival in New Zealand about 20 years ago. At the time, Waititi was part of a duo with Clement, who would go on to develop Flight of the Conchords with McKenzie—first as a radio show on the BBC and then as a TV series for HBO.
“They were called the Humourbeasts and they did really fantastic, weird sketch stuff on stage,” Darby recalls. All four men ended up performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2002. “We were all completely out of our depth, but used each other for support,” he says. “So that’s where we started our brotherhood, really, of us against the world.”
Below is an edited excerpt from our conversation. You can listen to the whole thing—including how ‘Flight of the Conchords’ transformed his career and more about his long working relationship with Taika Waititi—right now by subscribing to The Last Laugh on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts, and be the first to hear new episodes when they are released every Tuesday.
How did it happen that Flight of the Conchords went from this little radio show on the BBC to an HBO series? And what was your reaction at the time when you realized that you were going to be part of that?
Edinburgh was the key, because scouts come to that festival from all over the world, including the U.S. They then got to do the Aspen Comedy Festival, which isn’t a thing anymore. But back in the day, that was a big deal. They got invited to that, and it was there that they were approached by a number of networks. I think NBC or CBS, one of those, as well as HBO. And they had a few people banging on their door, asking for a pilot pitch for a show. So they had a few options. Now, they ended up going with HBO, and why wouldn’t you? Just a lot more freedom to create and not have too many people breathing down your neck and changing what you do. And so they ended up getting to make a pilot and they decided to call back on me. I was in the U.K., just back on the stand-up circuit at the time. And they said, “Hey, come over and be in the TV version of this thing.” And I was really shocked because I thought, if they’re going to make it in America, they’re not going to want me alongside them. They’ll have a U.S. manager managing them, with an American voice, you know? But their co-creator James Bobin also flagged me. He decided, for one reason or another, that my voice and my style was equally as funny and had to be part of the package. So next thing you know, I’m on a plane and I’m in New York and we’re making it.
How would you describe the character of Murray, even down to his look? Was that something that you developed or how did that happen?
That was Jemaine. He decided that I should have a goatee. He thought that it would make me look a little older because I needed to feel as though I’m older than they are. Or more responsible. I’ve got an actual job.
Yeah, you’ve got an office.
I’m at the consulate, I’ve got an office, and I’ve got bad ’70s suits. And this is the kind of thing where people perceive New Zealand as being a little bit dated in its ideas. Maybe not quite up with the fast trends of fashion.
Somehow it made sense that he’d be dressed like he was from the ’70s.
Yeah, like we only just got Star Wars. We’re so far from every other country that we’re behind. Of course, this isn’t true, but it makes it funny. So there I am with this look and we made use of that joke, that their characters thought I was a lot older than I actually was. And that’s in the show as well. I think back then, they thought I was 42 when actually I was 32.
The band meeting scenes were always so brilliant and so funny. And those were mostly improvised, right?
Yeah, they started off scripted and then we realized they were way more fun and way more comedy can come out of them when we just make it up. So normally there was one thing in the band meeting that we had to get to, that kept the story going, that’s why we were having a meeting. And then the rest of it could just be made up. And especially in the second season, it just became a fun test to see how we could crack each other up. And half the time those two guys would have to go and sit out of the room because they were just laughing so much at the stuff I was coming up with.
I remember reading that you had to shoot your side of the scene separately sometimes because they couldn’t hold it together.
Yeah, I’d be doing it to two empty chairs and I could still hear them laughing down by the monitors because I’d be watching it. And I’d say, “I can still hear you! You need to leave the building!” Those were the days.
It was such a great show and I remember being disappointed when it ended after two seasons. And I believe Bret and Jemaine decided to end it because they were kind of done making it. How did you feel about it when the show went away?
I was sad because I was sort of going from strength to strength. I really loved playing that character. And I really felt that as we went on, it was more about the three of us, not just the two of them and the additional characters. And I felt that was great. And they loved writing for my character as well. So when they announced that they’d had enough, I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ But you know, you can’t have too much of a good thing. And we were used to watching British shows that really only do two seasons, sometimes only do six episodes and then do another six and you’re done. We knew this show wasn’t going to go on for as long as M*A*S*H or Cheers. The story was pretty much told. And it was really down to the amount of music they had to provide and how much work they had to do. They bit off almost more than they could chew. So then they ran out of chew.
We now live in this era where every show that anyone ever loved or anyone ever watched, even if it wasn’t that many people, is coming back. Shows are being revived all the time. Could you imagine Flight of the Conchords coming back in some form?
Always. I can always imagine it, but it’s never up to me. It’s up to the other two. And I really don’t know how they feel about that. I know that they keep the Conchords going by live touring now and again. So you never say never, but there’s definitely no plans. We haven’t spoken about it for years. This question comes up all the time. It’s always just people’s wishful thinking. And as soon as I say, “you never know,” people start publishing that idea and it doesn’t help. Because if it happens, it happens. But I think the idea is you create something, it’s a great work of art, you put it up on the wall, you can return to it anytime. And then you go on and you make other things. And you can work with those same people, which we do quite a lot, and you can create new things. That’s just the way it goes. People sort of yearn for that same thing or that thing that they really love. They want it back again, or they want a new version of it. But it’s never as good. And every time they come back, it never works as well. I can’t think of a single show where it’s like, “Oh, finally, they’re back again!” And they’ll end up doing one or two seasons and people go, “Eh.”
“Not as good as it used to be.”
Yeah. And so you don’t want to fall into that trap. I think we’re too clever for that.
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