Rhys Darby - It's Rhys Darby Night

First published on 3 Sep 2010. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

"It's a chance for geeks to be rock stars, really. Otherwise I'd never be on the stage." That's Rhys Darby talking about stand-up comedy, his saving grace and his strongest suit. Despite cutting his teeth with a hit role in HBO's Flight of the Conchords as the duo's hapless manager Murray and appearing in movies including Yes Man and The Boat that Rocked, Darbys' first love is stand-up. This ginger-haired Nu Zulinda has been in the comedy game since 1996, and his love for it has yet to falter. "It's that instant gratification from a public about your ideas: you know straight away if something's funny or it doesn't work. It's exciting."

Darby enjoyed a sell-out Australian tour last year. So what can we expect from the new show (It's Rhys Darby Night!)? "My life is such a rollercoaster of crazy shit. I'll be using ridiculous things that happen to me; there's some biographical stuff. And I do characters too, because people know me for that. And I couldn't do a show without doing the sound effects. As a kid I used to play on the back lawn with my action figures, make sounds, but I got carried away with it. I learnt I had a weird skill, so now I use it in my performances." 

Darby has toured the new show throughout the UK, but it's not like we're getting sloppy seconds: in fact, it works to our advantage. "Well, comedy is an organic process. You might improvise something one night and it goes down a treat, so the next night it becomes part of the show, so each night gets better. You guys will see essentially the same show I did in London a year ago but way better because I've honed it, improved it, added to it and sorted out the crap bits."

After a slew of bit parts, Darby's has shot his first leading role in the US romantic comedy Coming and Going. The film, directed by Sophia Loren's son Edoardo Ponti, reteams him with his Yes Man co-star Sasha Alexander. "It's about a regular guy who has really bad luck with women, so that was quite easy to relate to," he says.

While he may seem busy he has no plans to abandon his first love. "I'm happy to do film, TV and stand-up because I enjoy all three and it keeps you alive. The thing with stand-up is it's still the most fun. You see big comic names going back to the stage too – Robin Williams, John Cleese – because they always remember the spark they had. So I think it's important to keep it going underneath everything else you've got going on." Thomas Mitchell