The Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords
Jemaine Clement (left) and Bret McKenzie (right) performing at Gramercy Theatre in New York on 14 June 2007
Background information
Origin	Wellington, New Zealand
Genres	Comedy alternative rock acoustic parody folk hip hop
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Sub Pop Flight of the Conchords Music BBC Audiobooks
Associated acts	So You're a Man The Black Seeds The Humourbeasts Rhys Darby Kristen Schaal Arj Barker
Website	flightoftheconchords.co.nz
Members	Jemaine Clement Bret McKenzie

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand-based comedy band composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series that aired for two seasons on HBO. They used to refer to themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", but now speak of themselves as "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand."

They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and they received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe for their show at Edinburgh venue The Caves. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following.

McKenzie and Clement were flatmates at Victoria University of Wellington, where they were studying film and theatre before forming Flight of the Conchords in 1998. They first performed as part of a five-man group called So You're a Man, which included Taika Waititi and debuted at Wellington's iconic BATS Theatre, garnering a small but loyal following in New Zealand and Australia.

The band first performed on television over four nights (3–6 May 2000) on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station "Channel 7" (later renamed "WTV"). The songs, in order, were "Bowie", "Ladies of the World", "Petrov, Yelyena and Me", and "Hotties".

They performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002 and 2003, when they were nominated for the Perrier Award. They also performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival where they won the Best Newcomer Award. They were later featured in a 2004 campaign for British mobile phone retailer Phones 4U and in the show Stand Up! on Australia's ABC TV