Interview: Rhys Darby on his unique brand of stand-up, The Rock's Presidential ambitions, cryptozoology, and almost dying on Mt. Kilimanjaro
Filed under: Kinda Sorta Maybe Like a Podcast
Rhys Darby may be best-known to audiences as Murray Hewitt on the acclaimed HBO series Flight of the Conchords, but the New Zealand Army veteran is also an accomplished stand-up comic, having worked all over the globe for nearly 2 decades and put out 3 stand-up specials. Blending sound effects, bizarre observations, and a style more associated with one-man shows, Darby regularly performs live, even as he's starring in films such as Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's brilliant vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and the upcoming Jumanji reboot or in American television.
A veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Montreal's Just for Laughs, Darby is now in the middle of JFL's Alternative Comedy Tour. Back in September, I saw him live as part of Toronto's JFL42, and the next day he was nice enough to answer questions on a wide range of topics from show preparation to his Jumanji co-star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson potentially running for President to his death-defying summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. He also discussed his interest in cryptozoology (the study of mythological creatures), which is the main topic of his podcast The Cryptoid Factor co-hosted with David Farrier and Leon "Buttons" Kirkbeck.
For tickets to the Western Canadian leg of the Alternative Comedy Tour, which runs through November 18, visit www.hahaha.com/alternative. You can also check out Rhys on Twitter for more tour information and other musings.
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When ShowbizMonkeys.com gets a chance to interview someone cool, then it falls to our long-running (and always insecure) Kinda Sorta Maybe Like a Podcast. With no discernible format besides a good conversation, we do get to check in with some really awesome folks, including some of the industry's top comedians, musicians, actors, and filmmakers.
Kinda Sorta Maybe has featured a rotating roster of hosts over the years, led by Managing Editor Paul Little and also including stand-up comic Andrew Lizotte, prolific podcaster Matthew Ardill, comedian J.D. Renaud, and film critic Mark McLeod, along with a few one-off special guest hosts.
Tags: Rhys Darby, Just for Laughs, JFL42, Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, Jumanji, The Rock, New Zealand, alternative comedy, stand-up comedy
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