Rhys Darby's Comedic Range Spans Oceans and Hemispheres

By Tamara Palmer Fri., Jul. 15 2011 at 4:47 PM

Categories: Comedy, Film

(Beware of video; does not end.)

Those who recognize Rhys Darby only from his first and breakout television role as dry cultural attaché and band manager Murray Hewitt in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords have yet to see the New Zealand actor's full comedic range. When performing standup -- as he'll do at Cobb's Comedy Club starting Monday -- Darby appears the polar opposite of the very contained and never-smiling Hewitt, sputtering lively impressions and sound effects and running around the stage with a seemingly boneless brand of physical comedy.

Back home, he has been building his name as a producer of live comedy shows with his company Awesomeness International and earlier this year starred in his first film, a romantic comedy called Love Birds in which he plays a jilted man who finds a sick duck and ends up falling in love with a bird expert. Darby is a supporting actor in How to Be a Gentleman, a new comedy slated to debut in the fall on CBS starring Kevin Dillon (Entourage). And by the looks of the extended preview airing on the network's website, he might actually be the funniest one on the program, his character sprinkled in at key moments when true comic relief (set to a horrible laugh track) is needed.

He performs at Cobb's Monday through Wednesday, July 18-20.

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