We must celebrate the complexities of humanity: Rhys Darby

When the comedian and actor Rhys Darby returns home to New Zealand every year, appreciates the grass. “I have a big tosaerba,” he says. “I love it. You have to take care of your lawn. And I also have two goats there.”

Today, Darby, 51 years old, is talking from the house of Los Angeles who shares with his wife Rosie Carnahan-Darby and his youngest son, Theo, 14 years old. His eldest son, Finn, 19 years old, musician, is studying in New York.

On the cusp of his first show standing in almost a decade, entitled Legend returns And Touring Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Darby is reflecting on the origins of his sense of self -control throughout his life, almost invincible. “He’s innate for me,” he says. “I don’t question it but I have it.”

It is partly the reason why, as 27 years old, he left three years of service in the New Zealand army and four years to study journalism at the University of Canterbury, to push the scene of the United Kingdom comedy, full of units and optimism at the head of the family.

Darby with Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement Flight of the Conchords.

His talent for high energy comedy, guided by the plot, often heavy, always using his voice, often playing “aliens and strange” while he says it, led to the success of the TV and the film. Shows such as the HBO series The flight of the Conchords Where he played the manager of the unfortunate band Murray Hewitt in Bret McKenzie and Pop-Music Duo of Bret Clement in New York.

Or the rich noble of real life stede bonnet, Whoever creates his fantasies of pirate adventure and finds a true unexpected love in the HBO series Our flag means death. In two decades, Darby was guided on the Nigel Billingsley camp in two Jumanji Sequel, Norman in Jim Carrey’s comedy Yes friendAnd he had other roles in The boat that shook, Hunt for Wilderpeople, The next goal wins and animation series including What ChristmaS, Kiff, Curses!, Monsters at work AND Blue.

“I don’t want to meet me as if I were a boy who knew he would do it, and he did it,” says Darby. “But there is certainly a little positive energy that you have to put on the universe if you want to reach. And surely I did it.”

He thinks that his confidence in himself, which is provided with a healthy dose of modesty, could come from his childhood. His parents separated when he was born and since there was a nine -year -old gap between him and the youngest of his four brothers, “he felt like an alien” as a child.

With Taika Waititi in Our flag means death.

“I was very loved and everyone mentioned me,” he says. “I’m not going to say that there are dad problems. But there is something that prompted me to believe that I can have anything, try to get anything, get to where I want to be and make my dreams come true.”

The comedy, in any form, became important at the beginning. Remember years of watching BBC’s TV comedies with his mom, from Dad’s army TO It’s not hot mom, Open all hours, The two Ronnies, Morecambe and essay AND Monty Python.

“I became obsessed,” he says. “I was like, I want to be one of these guys. I want to be part of this.”

Darby with his Hunt for Wilderpeople Co-protagonist Sam Neill, Julian Dennison and director Waititi.Credit: Getty images

Now he has returned to do live comedies, Darby is talking about the thing that threatens the careers of anyone who works on TV or film – artificial intelligence.

“It will be in my silly way but, in general, the IA has certainly struck me because I am in this sector here that it seems that it is slowly closing,” he says. “People are losing their jobs. People leave Los Angeles because the job is really reduced to a minimum.”

Darby has TV programs and projects in progress but its “great show”, Our flag means deathIt was canceled after the second season of 2024. “When it happened, I heard, like everyone else,” Oh, when will the next job happen? “It is complicated because they are art, and humans who create art and Ai, the great models of language and so on, are also a tool you use,” he says. “But it seems that people will use them to cheat and the artists will be removed.”

Darby thinks we should ask ourselves how much we should go with the IA. “How much are we extracting? We will end up watching a completely artificial intelligence film next year and not even noticing why they are becoming more and more real? As an artist, it is important for me to face that subject because I feel as if I were in the middle.”

Now it’s the perfect time to make a human comedy to human. “Seeing real people laugh in real life and do something that robots cannot do, which is human movement, mime and sound effects,” he says. “Things I don’t think robots will ever do.” (A delicious irony that Darby’s first comic career took off in 1998 because of his robot impression)

“At this moment, we must celebrate the complexities of humanity,” he says. “Our sense of humor. The way we can deride ourselves and deride the technology that we have created that it is slowly taking control of our work. I speak of robot and Elon Musk and his situation of Tesla. He thinks that we will have all these humanoid things in our home.

“I gently derive all technology because I think we could get to a point where some people have had enough, and go to live in their farms and make their own food.”

But then there is another group of people, he says, that “he will go down to the rabbit den and live online”. “You are already getting people who are constantly on social media and does not seem very healthy. Being 51, being a boy with two children, there is a lot to think about.”

Despite all this doomsassing, Darby is not someone who agitates excessively. “It doesn’t make sense to worry,” he says. “My wife does all this.”

Chuckle. “I am just trying to maintain a good sense of humor and make people laugh. We are on this journey, this crazy race called life and is not slowing down. Every day the news is rather horrible but you will give yourself an ulcer if you worry about it. Shit the news!”

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When he feels that the world has been too out of the way, or the IA completely takes control of the entertainment industry, he will flee to that property in Matakana, north of Auckland.
“We are lucky,” he says. “We have this option. Most Americans can’t.”

The only problem, admits, is how quickly it can bore. “I spent my life guiding myself to get to these places (in my career), to entertain and things,” he says. “And then the next thing you know, you’re walking for your property, repulsing the bushes and you are making the phone go out to start making small videos. I always want to make a comedy.”

And there is always the mowing to be done. And recovering the goats. “And good bread,” he says. “I miss New Zealand’s bread.”

It scuova the head of gray hair floppy. “There must be sugar -free bread somewhere in this vast, vast country …”

Rhys Darby: legend returns It is at Athenaeum Theater, 8-13 April and The Enmore Theater, April 24 Comedyfestival.com.au