Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special Live in London in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album.
The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following, and they continue to tour periodically. They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. They have been twice-nominated for a Grammy Award—winning Best Comedy Album in 2008—and have received seven nominations for Emmy Awards.
Previously, they referred to themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo"; as of 2014, however, they refer to themselves as "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand".
Career history
1998–2006: early years
McKenzie and Clement were flatmates at Victoria University of Wellington, where they studied 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 BATS Theatre, garnering a small but loyal following in New Zealand and Australia.
The band first performed on television on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station "Channel 7" (later renamed "WTV"). They played two songs on the premiere episode in 1999 and then later appeared over four nights in 2000 (3–6 May); the songs, in order, were "Bowie", "Ladies of the World", "Petrov, Yelyena and Me", and "Hotties".
They performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002, 2003—when they were nominated for the Perrier Award—and 2004. 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 and in the show Stand Up! on Australia's ABC TV.
In 2005, HBO gave the group a special on their Friday night half-hour 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.
During this period, they had television development deals with Channel 4 in the UK, NBC in the United States, and TVNZ in New Zealand but, ultimately, shows were not produced. In 2006, they 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.
BBC radio series
In 2004, the band created a six-part radio series for BBC Radio 2. Largely improvised, the series was broadcast in September 2005 and based on the band's search for commercial success in London. It featured Rob Brydon as their narrator, 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.
The BBC Radio 2 series won the duo the Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for comedy.
2007–2010: HBO television sitcom and further acclaim
TV sitcom
The duo starred in a television sitcom 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 series revolves around a fictional version of 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 show received an Emmy nomination for Best Comedy. The show was shot primarily in the Two Bridges neighbourhood of Manhattan.