Taking Flight From The Conchords

He relocated to Los Angeles about a year ago and Rhys Darby reckons he’s already “pretty popular in the neighbourhood”. “We do a bit of the white trash water park out on the front lawn,” he continues. “It’s quite hot here so a lot of the locals were a bit worried at first, but then they got to know me and they’ve since seen me pop up on various shows over here and so there’s a bit of respect, a bit of regard. I still kick around in my shorts and flip flops, though, you know.” When asked whether he gets recognised on the streets, Darby offers, “Oh, they know me down at the local Starbucks, the guy there always says, ‘It’s Rhys,’ as I come in and writes my name on my cup.”

Darby is endearingly self-deprecating and responds to questions thoughtfully, unlike a lot of comedians who, as interview subjects, tend to ignore the questions in favour of rolling out their latest string of jokes to ensure they ‘read’ funny via your finished copy. “I forget some people recognise me,” Darby admits. “So I’ll be just wandering around with my family – at a shopping mall or something – and someone’ll come up to me, out of the blue. It happens every now and again and you go, ‘Oh, what do you want?’ And then you sort of remember, ‘Oh, that’s right, I’ve been on TV a few times.’ So it always surprises me. It’s such a big world here, you know, you can really go undetected quite easily having the small cult status I have,” he laughs.

You get a sense that Darby isn’t too far removed from band manager Murray Hewitt (his Flight Of The Conchords character) and a lot of his real life experiences translate easily into material for his side-splitting stand-up. “I guess being military trained, as a soldier, they just said one of our things was, ‘You have to adapt and overcome,’ and so, therefore, you know: ‘Don’t expect too much, and you’ll love it’ – there’s another phrase, hahaha… I think that was on one of the tourism posters on Murray’s wall… As long as you have that kind of mantra then you’ll do fine. It’s when you start expecting too much, expecting things to be brilliant or amazing, to run smoothly, that you’ll only get yourself upset.”

This mantra would have served Darby well during filming of the first season of Flight Of The Conchords. “I never had a trailer at all,” he recalls. “We had such a small budget for that and it was everyone’s kind of first TV show. I think that Jemaine [Clement] had done something back in New Zealand, but I certainly hadn’t done anything. And so there I was in New York and there was one trailer that they had for hair, make-up and it had, like, a tiny wardrobe where the boys could get dressed, and it was their show and I had nothing. I used to just sit on the steps and kind of go into the bathroom to get changed. And so Season 2 we had dressing rooms, and it was quite a shock, really, to have my own room.

"That’s a role I was born to play, I think, being such a manly man.”

“Then other work I’ve had since then – ‘cause I’ve got good agents over here, they always broker a good deal for me to have a trailer or whatever and, ah, I’ve never taken anything for granted. Since then I’ve always just quite liked the idea of – especially working in comedy – that you’re sort of lucky to be there and the rougher surroundings that you’re in, the more that you can bring… It works in that way that it’s better not to have too much luxury otherwise you get lazy and, you know, you put your feet up and you think, ‘Right, here we go, where’s my grapes? What’s goin’ on? I can’t be bothered doin’ my lines’. So to that end, yeah! It’s sort of worked out quite nicely that I’m still roughing it in a way.”  
Darby reunited with one of his Flight Of The Conchords co-stars (Clement) for a small (but extremely memorable) part in the New Zealand-based vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows. On how this masterful project came together, Darby tells, “Well these guys – Taika [Waititi] and Jemaine, Jonny Brugh – had made a short of this idea about eight years ago, I think, about these vampires living in Wellington who were just the focus of a documentary. They made a short, and they enjoyed themselves, and they vowed that they would one day make a feature from it. And one thing didn’t really lead to another – it took eight years – and finally they got around to making it, and it’s a real hoot! [Laughs] They actually wrote the script at my beach house, they stayed at my place, and I think that’s one of the reasons they gave me a part. They sort of owed me, you know. I said, ‘Oh, how’s that film that you’ve written in my house? How’s that coming along? Any chance of a part in that? That you wrote in my house with my pen?’ And Jemaine I think literally said, ‘Oh, alright. Oh, well, we’ve got some werewolf characters and I think you’d be good for that.’ So anyway it turns out I’m Anton, the leader of the wolf pack! So that’s a role I was born to play, I think, being such a manly man.”

Was Darby just a little bit gutted that they didn’t cast him as a vampire given that they’re the glamorous ones? “They are the glamorous ones,” he allows, “but, you know, the wolf pack are the underdogs and, of course, as I say, they just recast who they used in the original short anyway. So it was something they basically reshot and, well, reworked from the beginning. They already had the names down [of] who were gonna be the vamps, so I was just lucky to be in there at all and of course I jumped in there. The whole thing was improvised, so it was really my cup of tea. They just chose the best comic actors that they could find, who turned out to be a lot of their friends. I mean, these guys could’ve used big names and things so full credit to them for using people in New Zealand that haven’t had much exposure that now, thanks to this film, will get some great exposure all over the world. You’ll see, when you see [the film], how funny some of these people are and it’s a real blessing because it’s hard to get a break – especially if you’re living in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand – so good on them for getting these names in it.”

"I’ve just gotta keep making the funny, I guess."

Although Darby says, “I’m pretty early in my career,” he’s already had the privilege of working with one of his idols. “Working with Jim Carrey was a huge deal for me ‘cause he was a massive inspiration,” Darby shares. “And I watched every film of his and I hoped that one day I might meet the guy – you know, on a red carpet or something – but I got offered my first movie role to be working with him [in Yes Man as Norman, the boss to Carrey’s character] and it was kind of surreal. I had to pinch myself, and he was lovely, and he went on to say great things about me. And it’s things like that that make the whole planet seem a lot smaller than you imagine it is, and [remind us] that we’re all connected, and it’s kind of like anything could be possible. So that’s why I’m still here in America thinking that who knows what’s around the next corner? Who knows what’s the next thing I’m gonna do that might be amazing? I’ve just gotta keep the spirits up, be optimistic and keep rollin’.”

Fortunately for Darby, comedians can potentially have long careers because “you never really lose your funny”. Not only does Darby hope to be “inspirational to young comedians, to make people laugh all over the world”, he’s more ambitious than that: “I’d love to go down as one of the greats one day, but I’m so far away from that. I’ve just gotta keep making the funny, I guess.”