Flying with the Conchords

Stand-up comedy is an art form that can either be brilliant or utterly painful to watch. Much like playing the guitar, when done properly, it seems effortless. A pro looks as if he is on stage being himself, and he just happens to be hysterical. But it's a long, hard road to that, and as Lewis Black said in a book of his that I read some time ago, in the early days you're gonna crash and burn and hate yourself and hate your life. But if you can endure through that, you could actually get somewhere.

So for that reason, I have respect for those who dare to grab a microphone and stand before a crowd. However, before this past weekend I had only seen one stand-up show live (the previously mentioned Lewis Black). Having some old college chums passing through the area, I decided I'd give it another go, and we hit up the Punch Line club in San Francisco. 12 local comics hitting the stage. It was entertaining, affordable, and I got some pointers on what does and does not work.

(Sorry for the blurry picture, it's all I could snag before the bouncer yelled at me.)

So I'd go back and do it again, but that's beside the point. That adventure was just a warm-up to tonight's, which I'd been looking forward to for some time. Yes, Flight of the Conchords, a comedy act that has an excellent show on HBO (funniest on TV, according to Time), came to Berkeley for two shows, both of which sold out during the internet pre-sale. Fortunately my brother paid the extra fee to snag 'em, because I was left high and dry when they actually went on sale (they said "on sale at 10 am"... how the hell is it sold out?!).

Outsiders may be confused by their awkward interactions, bizarre songs and terrible singing voices... but those were few and far between at the Berkeley Community Theater tonight. These guys have a rabid underground following, which was apparent from the moment that they hit the stage adorned in cheap robot costumes to crank out their new classic, "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor".

The laughs were plentiful from the adoring crowd, as they plowed through their 90-minute-or-so set of song, awkward banter, song, awkward banter. I laughed my ass off, even to the songs that I knew by heart. I understand that there is a fine line with this type of humor, and it can be really hit-or-miss with some people, but for my money, I was quite pleased.

The guy next to me, a lanky fellow with his lady friend, seemed less impressed. Not once did I see him laugh, and I was well aware of his reactions, as I was leaning awkwardly close to him in order to see around the gigantic man sitting in front of me. Right around the time the band drove into a powerhouse drum-driven version of their hip-hop classic Hiphopopotamus VS. Rhymenoceros, they gathered up their things and called it a night. Works for me, since I could shift over and stop spending the evening trying in vain to peep around Gigantor's head, but given the fact that these tickets were so hard to come by, I can't help but wonder what they thought they were getting themselves into when they bought their pre-sale tickets. I guess the Conchord brand of humor isn't for everybody, but damnit, it's for me!

There were certainly a few lulls during the show... songs that aren't all that funny and seem to go on for too long, such as Bowie's in Space and Foux Du Fa Fa. Meanwhile, my personal favorite of theirs, the outrageously out-of-control love song If You're Into It, was notably absent (despite having a miniature red piano on stage). The track was also left off their full length CD that was released last summer, which I feel is a terrible tragedy.

Overall though, the show was goddamn hysterical. These goofy New Zealanders have really got one hell of an act, and I encourage you to check out the first season of their self-titled show. I'd tell you to see them live, but you probably won't be able to get tickets.

But here's one of the songs from tonight's show, a little diddy that's hoping to corner the robot music niche once machines take over the world. I must note, though, that I did not shoot this (a drunk coworker broke the zoom on my camera during a previous adventure), but it was made available by way of YouTube:

Good stuff. Good goddamn stuff.