The Conchords Take Flight

For Mother’s Day, we got tickets for the comedy singing duo, Flight of the Conchords—or, as they describe themselves, New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-comedy duo, ranked just below a Flight of the Conchords tribute band, Like of the Conchords (who they said were only better because they practice more).

Made up of actors/comedians Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, the team were coaxed by Netflix to reunite for this year’s Netflix is a Joke Fest held all over in L.A. May 4-10. The show was held at the open air Greek Theatre, up in the hills of Griffith Park here in L.A. (Originally billed for one show, a second night was added due to the demand. I posted last week that we saw a small show at the Comedy Store as part of the festival. In addition, at last year’s Fest, we saw Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, and Nat Bargatze at the Hollywood Bowl.)

This is their first appearance together since 2018—though, in preparation, they performed several tune up shows that included a few shows in L.A. locally last week at the small smaller supper club venue, Café Largo. Joking at the start of the show that they had to re-learn the music and lyrics of their old songs, there were occasional false starts and miscues that were part of the fun and charm of the show. (You can see a couple of these miscues in the video clip below lol.) A lot of the show was obviously ad-libbed, particularly in the interactions with the audience.

Like many people, I discovered the duo through their self-titled two-season 2007–09 HBO series—last night’s show included “surprise” appearances of series cast members Arj Barker, who performed his stand up act to open the show, and actors Rhys Darby and Kristen Schall in character as, respectively, their hapless manager, Murray, and sole, obsessed fan, Mel (proudly telling the audience she was their only fan before there was OnlyFans). My wife actually spotted Schall in the venue prior to the show.

Though I wondered whether there’d be new material as in their 2018 special, the show consisted primarily of their back catalog, opening with “The Humans Are Dead” (updated to reference AI) and “Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring.” It closed with “Bowie's in Space” and, as their encore, their rap battle, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros.” In between, there was plenty of funny chatter. My only disappointment was that they didn’t perform “The Summer of 1353”—one of my favorite lines from that song being, “That haircut’s a little 1351.” It was a rapturous audience and a hilarious, fun evening.