Flight of the Conchords is a Grammy award-winning folk/pop/comedy duo comprised of bret mckenzie formerly of The Black Seeds, Video Kid, and Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra fame and Jemaine Clement formerly of The Humourbeasts, who met in 1998 while studying film and theatre in Wellington, New Zealand. Billing themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", the group uses a combination of witty banter and acoustic guitars to work the audience. Their EP The Distant Future won the 2007 Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
The band has released two records, Folk the World Tour - Live Album and a self titled album. In 2002 they performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time. Returning in 2003, with a new show, they were nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award.
Also performed there in 2004. In 2005, BBC Radio 2 broadcast their first radio series. Largely improvised, it features Rob Brydon as their narrator, rhys darby as their manager and Jimmy Carr as a devoted fan called Kipper.
Also in 2005, HBO gave the group a special on their Friday night half-hour stand-up comedy series One Night Stand. Jemaine Clement has appeared in 2006 television commercials for Outback Steakhouse in the U.S. This advertising campaign was launched during Superbowl XL. He also narrates the world famous in New Zealand television commercials for L&P.
The duo currently stars in their award winning television series, also entitled "Flight of the Conchords", which began on the American television channel HBO in June 2007. Its first season had 12 episodes and the second season - which began in January 2009 will have ten episodes. The show features rhys darby as their manager Murray, Kristen Schaal as obsessive fan Mel, Arj Barker as their friend Dave and Eugene Mirman as their landlord.