Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - MINI: Rhys Darby On His 25th Anniversary Comedy Tour

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

Jono & Ben catch up with Rhys Darby to chat all things Prince Harry, Liam Gallagher, unique Kiwi humour and 25 years in the game!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rhys, it's lovely to see you. You too. How are you? Good. You look like you're in some sort of shady hotel room. What's going on? I've fallen on hard times, guys. Things aren't good at home, guys.

I'll only be a couple of minutes, please. Just need to borrow your house. It is so nice to see you. Now, Rhys Darby, 25 years, no disrespect, but I thought you were slightly older than that. But hey, it's great. No, no, honestly. You've got to lie about your age. Celebrating 25 years of comedy with three specials here in New Zealand

that you're doing, which is awesome. But it's kind of like the best of some of your comedy bits from what I understand. But was it kind of strange looking back at some of your earlier comedy? Yeah. Back in the day I was very, um, I think style over substance. We've continued with that throughout our whole career. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when you're young, you know,

you do what you think is funny and you do what, you know, that you have your full capacity of what you think is, is, is comedic or is, is, you know, it's going to make people laugh. And then as you get older, you have more experiences. And so, you know, definitely, you know, it's, it's pretty obvious with comedy that you get better the more you do it and the longer you stay in the game for sure, because you need experiences and you need more stuff to talk about. In the early days, it's kind of just impressions of, you know, family members or dinosaurs or robots. You know, that was the very first kind of thing and then that stuff always got laughs and i i really was confused as to why people were really laughing at uh my movements and my and my sound effects because i kind of

figured back in those days anyone could do that kind of thing you know and then as time progressed i was no one else was really doing it and i thought well why am i the only one doing this kind of stuff another well because i was reading the only one doing this kind of stuff? Well, because I was reading the Ed Friends in America that came and saw your new show, which, you know, looking back at some of that stuff and they're like, oh, he does sound effects. They didn't quite realise. Yeah, they didn't even know. Because a lot of technology nowadays, if you're writing material,

you'll probably just like write down notes on your phone or anything like that. But going back 25 years to the vault, where did you have all this stored? Where did you have all your material stored? Is it just in your head? Back in the day? Yeah. Well, now, like how can you remember what you were doing 25 years ago? Oh yeah, absolutely. No, it's fully installed in the head, but I've got to go back and pull it through. And that's been a real fun process, actually. Obviously, this has happened through watching a lot of YouTube stuff, going back. Because after I finished Our Flag Means Death, this whole new wave of fans in this in the states found me and um definitely the lgbtq plus community is a big wave on that no you've had a little like you've had a big win

there i've had a big win there and they they really sort of came to the party and they were hungry and still are uh or thirsty one might say, for any part of me. And so that I found that I was watching clips that they were showing going, gosh, that's old stuff. And they're really, they're, you know, finding this old stuff. And I thought, well, I wonder if I can even do that stuff anymore, because it's quite physical and weird. And so I decided to uh upon looking at it i realized i had been around for 25 years and i've done actually done five specials guys not not three like you just said he's always underselling you three in new zealand but that's fine sorry yeah

yeah they might be yeah that's right now you're right i recorded three here. And so there's a lot of material. And so I just went through it and found my favorite bits, stuff that I, because I have to enjoy doing it when I'm on stage because you don't want to be just, you know, going, doing old stuff just for the sake of it. So I picked the best stuff that I enjoyed doing and it ended up being basically not just an anthology, but kind of, uh, uh, showing the progression from me being very young and doing a robot impression

to right up to the point where I'm doing quite, um, intricate stories, uh, that involve multiple characters. And, and so my acting progressed over time and so that's yeah it was a real journey and and uh i'm pretty happy i got there in the end is there some that you look back you're like oh that doesn't stack up in 2022 yes yes there are some things that i just was like oh that is no i can't say that anymore um and and including a few impressions that look a bit on the nose you know and so i uh you know i had to be picky for sure now he talks about our flag means death which is such a great show but there's so many so many fans around the world which you mentioned before

but liam gallagher uh from oasis as well and now he just tweeted a couple of days ago saying it's biblical that show and you were about to go to his concert. You're a big fan of him. That must be, is that still surreal for you? I mean, you've acted with so many amazing people and met so many people, but is that surreal? That one is really surreal, guys, because I'm a massive LG fan. And, you know, obviously Oasis was big for me,

but I then followed both the brothers with their solo careers. And I love them both. And I never thought in a million years that he would know who the hell I even was, let alone that he thought the show was biblical. So yeah, that was, that was really special to me. And it just goes to show that either this whole universe is a manifestation from my head and i'm controlling it

or or you know uh if you keep positive and keep things in your head and wish for things and show a lot of love and and and want things to happen then maybe those things might happen if you if you stay on course, how long have you been wanting Liam Gallagher to tweet you? Yeah. Very specific. Yeah. Well,

he's cool, man. That's so awesome. I mean, the people that you, you work with is incredible, but recently one of the princes as well, Prince Harry.

I mean, that's another moment you guys were acting together in Aziz's travel ad. Yeah, that's just one of these opportunities that came about that tends to happen with me for one reason or another, but usually it's because of the, you know, they want me involved in a comedy aspect.

And that's the only reason let's be honest but I got to write that little script as well and so to have Harry act alongside me first of all obviously to meet him but then have him do my scripted piece and what an actor he was great he was awesome he completely nailed it you look at what he was doing there that was written stuff so he wasn't even it looks it looks he's so good it

looks like improv but yeah i was really impressed with that dude hey uh do you i'd be inside my head if i'm around a prince like how the protocol how to act yeah were you comfortable it's uh you know i've i've met and worked with a lot of big celebrity actors and it was different to that because there's something about the royal family there's something about us here in new zealand under the commonwealth and and knowing about about royalty and never expecting to ever sort of get that close to it that there was a different feeling but luckily i think it was harry rather than say william uh because harry's kind of the more relaxed one he's he's pushed off to the side he's pushed himself off to the side and he's kind of one of the one of the people you know and said that there

was that but then you know his manner and his poshness was still very much there and you find yourself talking um to the best of your ability when you're speaking with one. Are you just trying to pull out all sorts of sophisticated words that mean nothing? Yeah, I was pulling stuff out of my hair that I heard somewhere on The Crown on Netflix or something. Yeah, it's very rambunctious there, Prince. Yes, exactly. rambunctious there prince yes exactly one thing i love about you race is seeing you you know often you have your voice that you know it's you and you don't seem to change that no matter what role you know whether it's voicing something on the simpsons or uh jake and the neverland pirates or

our flagman's death have you tried have you been made to do an american accent or an english accent No, not at all. I mean, you know, the roles I get, they allow me to use my own voice because I think the characters I portray are unique and are either aliens or weirdos or someone from a world that no one believes in. New Zealand! believes in. And I think Taika mentioned it the other day when he came across this as well. He's always basically playing his own voice. And there's only a few of us Kiwis that are doing that. And you look at the entertainment business in the globe and there's thousands of Americans and thousands of English, British speakers, whatever, but there's not of americans and thousands of english uh british speakers whatever but there's not too many kiwi accents and so we're like let's do it let's put our voices in there let's not change them because we're all humans and we're all storytellers and on this planet and when we close the whole thing up in a few years and look back at it all um let's say

millions of years um you know we're gonna look and go oh remember those remember those five voices that were different they must have been from a far away unusual land haven't they get away with that speaking of taika i mean yourself and him i mean it must be pretty surreal for you guys coming through comedy in new zealand and then being where you are today do you just look at each other and go oh that's pretty cool what you guys are doing yeah we uh we're in a little bit of disbelief about it but i think when i think about it and i see him on social media every day and you know and and i think you know we've stuck to our guns and we haven't changed who we are. And we've both got very strong drive.

And we believe in ourselves. And we believe that the unique New Zealand comedy that we're creating is worth something. And we've been told, thankfully, through, you know, the bits of success that we've all had, including Flight of the Conchords, that it is something, you know. And so we're keeping it going and i think it's that thing again of uh you know we're we're from the western world but we are from this mythological place called new zealand and we're non-offensive and it's and it's weird and so people like that we are escapism to the the truckloads of americans and stuff that you see and and and whatnot yeah oh well you've done incredibly well and it just keeps on getting better and better we're very proud of

you all um and i guess if you did stop to think about it too much it could get inside your head like if you if you thought if you overthought the situation that That's why I haven't stopped. Just going to keep working till I die. I think so. Just get it over and done with. I'm like, I'm 25 years. Okay, that's the first marker. All right, we'll see you at the 50th.

Let's just keep rocking. Reece Darby, go see him. It's Christchurch on Saturday, and then Auckland next Friday, and the following Friday, oh, sorry, a couple of Fridays on the 19th in Wellington. Tickets, you can get them all from your website. Go see Reece Darby.

We're so proud of you, everything you do. It's so nice to catch up with you, buddy. Thanks so much, guys. Appreciate that.