Flight of the Conchords

1998–2006: Early years

McKenzie and Clement were flatmates at Victoria University of Wellington, where they studied 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 BATS Theatre, garnering a small but loyal following in New Zealand and Australia.

The band first performed on television on Newtown Salad, a show on Wellington's short-lived local TV station Channel 7 (later renamed WTV). They played two songs on the premiere episode in 1999 and appeared over four nights from 3 to 6 May 2000; 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, 2003—when they were nominated for the Perrier Award—and 2004. 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.

In 2005, HBO gave the group a special on their Friday-night half-hour comedy series One Night Stand. They then headlined during the opening weekend of the Comix comedy club in New York City in September 2006.

During this period, they had television development deals in the United Kingdom, NBC in the United States, and TVNZ in New Zealand, but no shows were ultimately produced. In 2006, they performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. While in Texas, they recorded a documentary titled Flight of the Conchords: A Texan Odyssey, which aired on New Zealand's TV3 in late 2006.

2007–2010: HBO television sitcom and further acclaim

Appearances

In June 2007, the band performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and were interviewed by Terry Gross on the NPR radio show Fresh Air. They appeared at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. On 19 June 2007, they appeared as the musical guests on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In January 2008, the band spoke and performed as part of Comcast's presentation at CES 2008. On 13 February 2008, Flight of the Conchords had their first post-Grammy concert, a free show, at a small video store called Aro Video. On 5 March 2008, they performed at a private show at The Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2008 Omniture web analytics conference, and the following day at Cahn Auditorium at Northwestern University. On 24 April 2008, they gave a free show at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California. They performed on the main stage of the Sasquatch! Music Festival on 26 May 2008 at The Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington state. On 28 May 2008, they performed at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. On 12 July 2008, they performed at Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Music Festival.

The duo made a special guest appearance as the aliens in two episodes of The Drinky Crow Show on Cartoon Network's late-night television programming block Adult Swim. On 31 March 2009, the duo performed in Masterton, New Zealand, to 2,000 locals as a benefit for Clement's former secondary school, Makoura College, raising around NZ$80,000 prior to embarking on a 37-date North American tour. They also appeared on the season four finale of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, briefly replacing Tim and Eric during a high-stakes game of tennis. The duo guest-starred as a pair of camp counsellors in "Elementary School Musical", the season premiere of the 22nd season of The Simpsons, which aired 26 September 2010.

2011–present: Reunion, tours, and film

In an interview with Vulture on 28 November 2011, McKenzie said that plans were in the works for a reunion tour in 2012 and that he and Clement were discussing a Flight of the Conchords movie, stating: "We're going to try and do a movie. We just need a story." However, HBO stated that it had no plans for such a film. In an interview published in IndieWire in August 2015, Clement said that a Flight of the Conchords movie was being written, although he indicated that it was still in the early phases.

It was confirmed in March 2012 that a full 10-show tour of larger New Zealand venues was in place for June 2012. Tickets went on sale on 23 March, with the premium seats at each venue available only in person at the box office, to prevent scalping. All original shows sold out within 10 minutes once they were released on general sale.

For Red Nose Day 2012, the duo recorded a charity single composed of lyrics volunteered by Auckland and Wellington schoolchildren, titled "Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)". The song features performances from other New Zealand celebrities, including Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Boh Runga, Samuel Flynn Scott, Luke Buda, Savage, Young Sid, Tyree, Deach, PNC, Zowie, Ruby Frost, Kids of 88, Rikki Morris, Moana Maniapoto, Nathan King, Maitereya, Victoria Girling-Butcher, Elizabeth Marvelly, Peter Urlich and Cherie Mathieson. The song entered at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart, becoming their first number-one single, and was certified Platinum, selling over 15,000 copies in its first week.

On 23 August 2013, Flight of the Conchords co-headlined the Oddball & Curiosity Festival with Dave Chappelle, kicking off the tour in Austin, Texas. In 2016, the duo performed new songs alongside old favourites on a North American tour; they also appeared at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 2018, Flight of the Conchords reunited for Flight of the Conchords: Live in London, a one-hour TV special on HBO. The special was preceded by a tour in the United Kingdom and Ireland that year.

After an eight-year hiatus from live performances, the duo reunited in 2026 for four sold-out warm-up shows at Meow Nui in Wellington before headlining two nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, their first Los Angeles appearance since 2016.

Albums

• The Distant Future (EP, 2007)
• Flight of the Conchords (2008)
• I Told You I Was Freaky (2009)
• Live in London (live album, 2019)

Radio

• The BBC Radio Series: Flight of the Conchords (2006); broadcast 2005, 6 episodes