Ship Happens

As Kiwi comic Rhys Darby explains, there is a decidedly fantastical feel to his new show’s storyline.

“It’s autobiographical, but it has a sci-fi ending,” says Rhys. “The show starts off with me in space, and I’m in a rocket. I wake up from hyper-sleep, and the voice of the spaceship – played by Jemaine Clement from Flight Of The Conchords – says to me, ‘Wake up!’ Then I freak out and try to work out why I’m on a spaceship. As it turns out, the world’s ended – it’s 2012, the Mayans were right, and the VIPs took off in a ship, which somehow I made it onto. The rest of the show is me trying to work out how.
“So I look back on my life, and then it’s a whole collection of stories from my youth, and on into adulthood. I try to figure out what I did right, and then essentially I offer advice on fashion, dancing and social etiquette.”
And what have been Rhys’ outstanding achievements in those spheres?
“Well, with fashion, it was always ‘be original’,” he replies. “I decided instead of going down to the surf shops and buying the usual labelled stuff, as they tend to do in the South Pacific, I would go to thrift stores and army surplus places, and buy clothing from yesteryear that people have been killed in. It wasn’t necessarily, ‘Has someone been killed in this? Is it on special? There’s a bit of blood on the collar.’ But I went for things that were original-looking, with interesting patterns and so on.
“So it was about standing out, and once I’d stood out, I needed to back that up by having the conversational skills at parties. So I do a bit on how to talk up any boring situation, which often happens at house parties. Men tend to congregate in the kitchen and talk about politics, while women are often in the lounge area, sitting around listening to music and wanting to dance, but no-one wants to make the first move. So what I used to do was make my way down the hallway, walking in cadence to the beat. I’d slowly turn my walk into a dance, and then appear in the lounge, and just break into some moves.”
Did that prove popular at parties?
“Well in my head I believed it was!” chuckles Rhys. “I think that’s the key. Believe in yourself, go for it, and what have you got to lose? The worst that can happen is that you get kicked out of a party. And yes, that happens on occasion – ‘No dancing around here mate!’ But usually, for me anyway, the opposite sex was crucial. If they loved me, I was pleasant to be around. Too many men are too blokey around other men.”
Being brought up in a matriarchal household – his father having left shortly after he was born, Rhys lived with his mother, grandmother, three sisters and just one brother – led Darby to seek a more male-oriented environment and thus, aged 17, he joined the army. One can’t imagine that the New Zealand forces are engaged in warfare all that often.
“Not at all, although I did rescue some sheep in the great winter of 2002,” recalls Rhys. “Sheep are hard to find in the snow. We got sent into various farms in our vehicles to rescue sheep that were stranded. New Zealanders do get involved in the UN and so on, but we don’t touch anything in the Middle East. We went first time around, and then when other people came onboard, we said ‘no’, which I thought was quite good. The thing was, I was about 17 or 18 back then, and the only thing we wanted to do was get a bit of service, but thank god we didn’t, because I don’t think I would have lasted!”
Having left the army, Darby soon turned his hand to performing comedy, which had always been an ambition of his. Although he had crossed paths occasionally with Flight Of The Conchords in New Zealand, it wasn’t until both acts went to Edinburgh that they really got to know each other.
“It was maybe 2002, and we helped each other out,” reflects Rhys. “We had no money – we spent so much money going over there that we struggled when we arrived. I think they had about 40 flyers, so they photocopied some and we ended up handing them out. I had to get the flyers off the people we’d handed them to, because we didn’t have any more. It was like, ‘Are you actually going to come to the show, because I need that flyer.’ It was that desperate.”
The eventual success of the Conchords’ BBC radio show and HBO TV series led to Rhys working alongside all manner of A-list stars. He acted opposite Jim Carrey in Yes Man, appeared in a Nike ad with Roger Federer, and also featured in The Boat That Rocked with, amongst others, Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Darby was particularly impressed by Hoffman’s excellence at his craft.
“He’s an amazing actor and an amazing guy,” enthuses Rhys. “He impressed me because he’s very down-to-earth. He was very much a tradesman. He’d be reading the paper – he’s interested in his sports – or having a beer or whatever, and then when he had to go and act, he’d just drop what he was doing. He’s a very regular kind of guy. But like I say, he’d leave what he was doing, and then all of a sudden he’d be this character and you’d think, ‘Fuck, who the hell are you?’ His career had a slow progression, and I think he just loved doing these character bits. Of course, he’s really into his directing, he directs theatre and all sorts of things. He just loves the art of it. It was lovely to meet that calibre of a guy.”