Rhys Darby, most famous for portraying Murray the Manager in the HBO TV show Flight of the Conchords, has acted alongside Jim Carrey in Yes Man, Bill Nighy in The Boat that Rocked and is perhaps the best thing to come out of New Zealand since… well, Lord of the Rings.
To his fellow Kiwis he is a God, and this year he won the Fred award at the NZ International Comedy Festival for best stand up show. Despite this, unless you know your fringe comics from your Michael McIntyres, you probably aren’t familiar with Rhys’ comedy. Which, as it happens, is world class. His two DVD releases Imagine That! and, more recently, It’s Rhys Darby Night! combine physical comedy with mime, sound effects and brilliant storytelling to create a futuristically lovable show which will have you practising your best robot impression for weeks to come. Rhys is currently touring internationally, sharing a hotel with One Direction in LA (unplanned, I think) and is coming to the UK in a few days to carry on gigging his new show This Way To Spaceship which doubles up with the release of his book of the same name. It’s part apocalypse survival guide, part autobiographical musings. And if that doesn’t interest you, then nothing will. I caught up with him in LA with an early morning phone call.
Laura: Morning Rhys, Sorry to get you up so early! Late night last night partying with One Direction?
Rhys: No, I could hear all the girls screaming outside the hotel though.
L: That’s for you, surely?
R: Could be, I’ve gone down though and they ignore me when I get down there, so unless they’re playing some sort of game…
L: That’s probably it. So Question time… Who would play you in a movie about your life?
R: That’s a good question…well, the obvious one would be Brad Pitt… but, there’s no one like me really. What about Edward Norton… I could imagine him playing me.
L: What would be your ultimate super power?
R: To be multi-dimensional, yeah so that means I can transcend into other dimensions. So I can… cross worlds just by essentially opening wormholes with my hands.
L: Any particular worlds?
R: No, I would explore them all…
L: If you could spend the rest of your life listening to one song, what would it be?
R: On loop the whole time?! …What about White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane?
L: How does that one go? Can you sing it to me?
R: (And he does! Very well actually...) Pretty good eh?
L: Ha, yes! Well I’d definitely listen to your version on loop. So, if the world ended tomorrow, how would you spend today?
R: I’m in LA so I’d probably go to Disneyland. No, well ultimately I would go back to New Zealand but if all the planes and everything weren’t working then I’d go to Disneyland.
L: What is the craziest, rock and roll thing you’ve ever done on tour?
R: Probably jumping off a balcony, landing on stage. The comedian was so bad, he was just dying, the audience were just terribly frozen with silence…so I broke that silence by leaping off the balcony and landing on stage.
L: You sacrificed yourself.
R: Yeah, I sacrificed myself for the people. I’ve also jumped off various speaker stacks during music festivals from a comedy tent... I quite like jumping off things.
L: Yeah, it does sound like that. Did you hurt yourself?
R: No… with my army training I always land correctly.
L:Thank God for that army training. So, who is your comic icon?
R: I have a few… Jim Carrey. But if can only have one it would be Peter Sellers… I’m a big fan of the Pink Panther series.
L: Pub question. Would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?
R: I would rather have…hands for feet. It would be weird having feet for hands, you know, that would make things difficult for meeting people and writing.
L: You could learn though?
R: You’d learn yeah, but you’d still look weird… People wouldn’t take me seriously [laughs].
L: What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
R: I was a rickshaw driver in Christchurch. So I used to ride around on a Friday and Saturday night and give drunk people lifts.
L: Thighs of steel...
R: [Laughs] Yeah, that’s right. I had huge thighs, which made it very difficult to get into those skinny jeans.
L: So, how do you feel about your heartthrob status, probably, in part, thanks to those thighs of steel?
R: I’m very comfortable being a heartthrob. Yeah, it suits me. It was very awkward when I wasn’t a heartthrob because I was like ‘Jeez, I should be a heartthrob, why am I not a heartthrob?’ And now that I am one it’s just like ‘I’m a heartthrob, that’s good. I’m a heartthrob now thank you, bye, I’m a heartthrob!’
L: What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be the next big fringe comedian?
R: Think outside the box… but perform in the box. Know what I mean? You’ve got to be original, but you’ve got to be accessible… the trick is to be crazy but not too crazy, that’s means the mass audience can follow you, otherwise you’ll always be just outside the box…. It’s a lot of box logic.
L: If you had to be chained to another comedian for a year, who would it be?
R: I would quite happily be chained to… Jarred Christmas. He’s a good friend of mine and we’ve got a similar sense of humour, so I wouldn’t mind. My wife and I discovered him in Christchurch and he came and did comedy for the first time in front of us so we helped launch his career.
L: What is your best chat up line, obviously from before you were married?
R: It would’ve been… I used to be a soldier, but I got kicked out for dancing. So that gives the lady an idea that, you know, I’ve got a few skills if shit goes down, but really I’m a sensitive heart. Know what I mean? Which is really what a lady wants.
L: I think that would work on most people. Have you ever gotten an indecent proposal from a fan?
R: No not really, no threesomes offered or anything like that.
L: No pants in the post?
R: No, no pants in the post [laughs]. Just interesting gifts… nothing untoward. Someone sent me a bust of the Murray head which was handmade and painted… that was pretty amazing.
L: Still got it?
R: Yes, it’s at home.
L: On the mantelpiece.
R: Yeah on the mantelpiece. (laughs)
L: If you weren’t a comedian/international movie star, what would you be?
R: I’d probably be a park ranger. I’m really into wildlife and the outdoors.
L: Favourite animal?
R: I’m really into cats. Big cats. So, favourite big cat would probably be a tiger.
L: And who would you like to collaborate with next?
R: A tiger. [laughs] No… over here [America] I’d love to collaborate with Will Ferrell. He’s very funny, a great improviser and one hell of a nice guy… so I’m told.
