Las Vegas Weekly

February 3, 2009 · 4:12 PM

Flight of the kiwi comic folk duo (and a Vegas landing)

By Sarah Feldberg

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement - the Flight of the Conchords - will be playing at the new Joint at the Hard Rock on May 23.

Not every show has what it takes to be Entertainment Weekly’s seventh best TV show of 2007. Landing in that sweet spot, the seven, takes a certain comedic irreverence, a nonchalant confidence of purpose and message and, of course, a charismatic star. Make that two appealing stars with scraggly beards, charming foreign accents and a tendency to sing about prostitution and man hos – Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of HBO hit Flight of the Conchords.

On HBO, the comedic folk duo from New Zealand injects their songs right into the scenery to create a musical TV show for the hipster generation complete with spontaneous group dance numbers and song writing that is comedy set to acoustic guitar.

This spring, they’ll be comparing their nether regions to sugar cubes and singing about the hiphopopotamus all over North America on a tour that will bring them to Las Vegas for a single night in May.

While Conchords the show features the sounds of Conchords the band, the pair’s totally ridiculous lyrics easily stand on their own with only McKenzie and Clement’s deadpan delivery as decoration.

“Is it cold out in space, Bowie?/You can borrow my jumper if you like, Bowie/Does the cold of deep space make your nipples go pointed, Bowie?/Do you use your pointy nipples as telescopic antennae to transmit data back to earth?/I bet you do/You freaky old bastard you.”

Gold. Pure, sequined, unshaven gold.

FOTC’s cheeky songwriting and catchy tunes earned them a best comedic album Grammy for 2007’s The Distant Future, and McKenzie and Clement are up for the award again in 2008 for their self-titled follow up.

The duo will land at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on May 23 before wrapping up their tour in California, likely garnering a few new comparisons to The Beatles along the way.

“The Beatles?” you say.

According to their Web site, FOTC has already been mentioned in the same sentence as the Fab Four on two occasions: Once when Jemaine Clement’s grandma saw a picture of the band and said, “Oh you two look a bit like The Beatles in that one, they used to get really hairy too,” and again when Jemaine said to Bret, "Have you noticed that ‘Clement and McKenzie’ sounds a bit like ‘Lennon and Mcartney’?"

If you ask me, the Conchords are just as cute as the Beatles, too. There’s number three for ya, guys.

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