Flight of the Conchords
is a Grammy Award-winning New Zealand comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Billing themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", [1] the group uses a combination of witty observation, characterisation and acoustic folk guitars. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords
.
They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and they received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following. [2]
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FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS TICKETS
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Career history
Bret and Jemaine were flatmates at
Victoria University of Wellington, where they were studying film and theatre before forming Flight of the Conchords in 1998. They have since developed a mass cult following. They first performed as part of a five-man group called
So You're a Man, which included
Taika Waititi, and had a small but loyal following in New Zealand and Australia.
[3]
Appearances
The band performed its first televised performances over four nights (May 3-6 2000) on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station "Channel 7" (later renamed "WTV"). The songs, in order, were "Bowie", "Ladies of the World", "Petrov, Yelyena and Me", and "Hotties"
[4]
They performed at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in
2002 and
2003, when they were nominated for the
Perrier Award.
[5] 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.
[6] They were also featured on Australia's
ABC TV in the show
Stand Up!
[7]
HBO gave the group a special on their Friday night half-hour
stand-up 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". They also performed at the
South by Southwest Music Festival in
Austin, Texas. During their visit to Texas, they recorded a documentary titled
Flight of the Conchords: A Texan Odyssey
, which aired on New Zealand's
TV3 in late 2006.
[8]
In June 2007, the band performed on
David Letterman's
Late Show
[9] and were also interviewed by
Terry Gross on the
NPR radio show
Fresh Air. The band appeared at the 2007
Bonnaroo Music Festival in
Manchester, Tennessee.
[10] The EP
The Distant Future
was released. It was produced by
Mickey Petralia and recorded in
Los Angeles and
New York by Petralia and engineer
Matt Shane. The live portions were taken from concerts at
Comix comedy club in New York City. On October 24, 2007, Flight of the Conchords appeared as the musical guests on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
.
In January 2008, the band spoke and performed as part of
Comcast's presentation at
CES 2008.
[11] On February 10, 2008, the band won the Grammy for best comedy album for
The Distant Future
.
[12]
On February 13, 2008, Flight of the Conchords had their first post-Grammy concert, a freebie show, at a small
Wellington video store called Aro Video.
[13] On March 5, 2008, Jemaine & Bret performed at a private show at 'The Depot' in Salt Lake City, Utah. The performance was for the 2008
Omniture (
Web analytics Conference). The following day, Flight of the Conchords performed in Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University. On April 24, 2008, Jemaine and Bret played a free show at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, CA. On May 28, 2008, Flight of the Conchords performed at the
Google I/O conference in
San Francisco. The band performed on the Main Stage of the Sasquatch! Music Festival on Monday 26 May 2008 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington State. On July 12, 2008, Flight of the Conchords performed at
Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Music Festival. On 31 March 2009 the duo performed in
Masterton New Zealand to 2000 locals as a benefit for Jemaine's old college
Makoura College raising around NZ$80,000 prior to setting off on a 50 date tour of the US.
BBC radio series
In 2004, the band created a radio series for
BBC Radio 2.
[14] Largely improvised, the series was 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 BBC Radio 2 series won the duo the Bronze
Sony Radio Academy Award for comedy.
[15]
Television series
The duo star in a television series 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 is also currently playing on
The Comedy Network.
The fictional series revolves around 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,
Kristen Schaal as their excessively devoted and obsessed fan Mel,
David Costabile as Doug, Mel's tolerant husband, and
Eugene Mirman as Eugene, their landlord. This show also features many other comedians in guest starring roles. Their songs are woven into the plot of each episode. The first season consisted of 12 episodes.
The second season of
Flight of the Conchords
started on HBO on January 18, 2009. The first episode of the second season premiered online on
Funny or Die a few weeks early on December 17, 2008.
[16] On December 21, the first episode of Flight of the Conchords, season two, became available for online viewing on a variety of additional platforms including HBO.com, iTunes and HBO's YouTube channel.
[17] The second season consisted of 10 episodes.
Surprisingly, given their success outside of New Zealand, Bret and Jemaine are rumoured to have had project proposals continually denied funding by New Zealand public television. As Brannavan Gnanalingam notes in
The Lumiere Reader
, rumour has it that NZ TV3 denied funding because Bret and Jemaine's humour was deemed "too Wellington", meaning their humour would not work with the average New Zealander outside the nation's capital.
[18]
Film
Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie and Rhys Darby (the main trio from
Flight of the Conchords
) have appeared in a horror comedy titled
Diagnosis: Death. The film was released on August 3, 2009.
Jemaine Clement will also appear as novelist Ronald Chevalier in the upcoming 2009 comedy film
Gentlemen Broncos opposite Michael Angarano and Sam Rockwell.
Awards
Award
| Awarded for
| Awarded at
|
Bronze (Comedy)
| BBC Radio Series
| Sony Radio Academy Awards 2006
|
Grammy for Best Comedy Album
| The Distant Future
| 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards 2007
|
Album of the Year
| Flight of the Conchords
| New Zealand Music Awards 08
|
Best Group
| Flight of the Conchords
| New Zealand Music Awards 08
|
Breakthrough Artist of the Year
| Flight of the Conchords
| New Zealand Music Awards 08
|
International Achievement
| Flight of the Conchords
| New Zealand Music Awards 08
|
Other achievements
- On November 15, 2007, The Dominion Post awarded Clement and McKenzie with the 2007 Arts Wellys, and named them the 2007 Wellingtonians of the Year.
- Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 5 New TV Series of 2007, ranking it at #2
- Entertainment Weekly named Flight of the Conchords the seventh best show of 2007.
- Flight of the Conchords were nominated for two Emmys in 2008, for Best Writing (Comedy Series) and Best Directing (Comedy Series).
- Flight of the Conchords placed three songs in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2008. Business Time #19, The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room) #60, and Hiphopopotamus Vs Rhymenocerous #67.
Discography
Albums
Year
| Title
| UK
| U.S.
| NZ
| Aus
| Can
| Label
|
2002
| Folk the World Tour
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| Flight of the Conchords Music
|
2006
| The BBC Radio Series: Flight of the Conchords
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| BBC Audiobooks Ltd
|
2007
| The Distant Future
(EP)
| —
| 116
| 14
| —
| —
| Sub Pop
|
2008
| Flight of the Conchords
| 32
| 3
| 1
| 37
| 34
|
2009
| Pencils in the Wind (7" Single)
[19]
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
I Told You I Was Freaky
[20] [21]
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References
- Title Unavailable
- Conchords Take Flight on Prime
- New in Town, Talking Funny
- "Newtown Salad" Channel 7, Wellington
- if.comedy — Past winners
- What the Folk! - Vision
- Stand Up!
- Flight of the Conchords
- Monday, June 11, 2007: Show #2768
- Bonnaroo.com — Flight of the Conchords
- YouTube - Comcast / Flight of the Conchords at CES 2008
- GRAMMY.com
- Secret Conchords show packs tiny store (+photos, video) - New Zealand's source for entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz
- The Flight of the Conchords
- Radioawards.org
- 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords"
- [1]
- http://www.lumiere.net.nz/reader/item/1509 'Flight of the Conchords - Definitely in the Top 3'
- Title Unavailable
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