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Tim Hume talks to the Conchords in the Sunday Star Times

So, I’m sitting here listening to Hall and Oates just racking my brain for something clever to say about this article. But clever just isn’t my style, I’ll leave clever and funny to the real writers.. Enjoy this first new Conchords article of 2008!

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Tim Hume talks to the Conchords in the Sunday Star Times.

Some interesting notes:

Of all the unsolicited advice the Flight of the Conchords have received for the second series of their cult HBO comedy, one suggestion crops up with stubborn regularity.
“So many times people come up to us with: `How about your Kiwi cousin comes over and stays on the couch?”‘ laughs Jemaine Clement.
“It’s not necessarily just comedians saying that, it’s often strangers in bars,” says Bret McKenzie

Only marginally more animated than their laconic onscreen characters, and every bit as droll (McKenzie drily says he “37%” resembles his TV persona; “27% for me,” says Clement. “You should put it on a pie graph”), the duo are understated about the changes their American success has meant for their lifestyles. They didn’t hang around and live it up off their newfound profile in the States; indeed, McKenzie is currently living with his mother.

The Conchords’ experience bears out the old dictum that local artists need to get recognition overseas before they find success here.
Clement says: “You probably know TVNZ didn’t put us on; in fact I’ve heard a lot of stories about people at TVNZ joking about how terrible we were. They don’t get it, that’s fine. But there’s other stuff as good, if not better than us, in New Zealand.”
Clement hopes his next side project, a film he is writing with Waititi and which will feature comedy duo Sugar and Spice, will bring more acclaim to the latter, whom he rates as one of his favourite acts in the world.
But, points out McKenzie, being snubbed by New Zealand’s television industry was hardly the worst thing that ever happened to them.
“It’s great we got to make it over there, because we probably got to make a much better show than we would have here.”

From: Sunday Star Times