Weekend Rewind: Flight of the Conchords: The early years

Flight of the Conchords. Photo / Supplied

Jemaine Clement recently revealed that he has started writing a Flight of the Conchords movie with Bret McKenzie. NZ On Screen’s Nicky Harrop celebrates the news with a look back at some early on-screen moments from "New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-comedy duo."

Clement and McKenzie first met at Wellington's Victoria University, forming Flight of the Conchords in 1998. Fame awaited them with a top HBO series, hit album, Emmy nods and a Grammy win. But the success wasn't overnight. The pair paid their dues with many years of live stand-up, television and festival performances, as captured in the following footage.

Pulp Comedy

This episode of stand-up comedy series Pulp Comedy shows the Conchords performing early takes on songs that would later surface on their self-titled TV show and album. Ladies of the World sees things getting "a little bit sexy in your earholes," while Bowie pays homage to the Thin White Duke's space years.

See The Living Room

These excerpts from arts series The Living Room follow the boys from Wellington to the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A pre-takeoff encounter with Jonah Lomu is followed by comparisons to Masterton on arrival at Heathrow, while manager Larry Pritchard is brilliantly played by Taika Waititi (a role soon to be reprised by Rhys Darby as the hapless Murray Hewitt).

Frontseat

Later arts show Frontseat captures more great Edinburgh footage of the duo, this time from 2004. Highlights include a fantastic version of Business Time, but while the show is a sellout, they modestly play down their efforts, dubbing it "a shambles."

Fizz

Over the years, both Conchords have also appeared in a number of individual projects. Made in 1999 (for an impressive $2000), short film Fizz sees Jemaine stalked by a vending machine through wintry Wellington streets.

Dawnskate 88

Bret has been a member of both The Black Seeds and the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra, and debuted his musical solo project The Video Kid with a 2004 album. The video for single Dawnskate 88 appropriately finds him early morning skateboarding.

What We Do in the Shadows

But while a Flight of the Conchords movie is much anticipated, Jemaine has admitted his announcement may be somewhat premature. Fans may have to content themselves with another project that Clement has recently hinted at - a TV spinoff following police characters introduced in the film What We Do in the Shadows. See Jemaine playing 862-year old Vladislav in the trailer for the vampire comedy.

Find more great footage of Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie and Flight of the Conchords in this NZ On Screen Spotlight collection.