Bret McKenzie
Elaborate musical pastiche played by a deeply unbothered man.
1 special · 2001
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Bret McKenzie does not command a stage. He occupies it, usually sitting on a stool, staring placidly into the middle distance while tuning a guitar. His banter is almost whispered. He delivers mild complaints with the cadence of a quiet conversation in a library. When the song starts, his posture remains frozen. He will execute a complex acoustic progression while singing a gentle, breathy harmony about a minor dispute over a utility bill.
Specials
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Pulp Comedy Presents: Cal Wilson and Friends with Cal Wilson & Jemaine Clement
Early character work and acoustic comedy from the New Zealand stand-up scene.
TV3 (New Zealand)
On stage
As one half of Flight of the Conchords, he reshaped how musical comedy works. The form used to rely on direct parodies or loud clowning. McKenzie and Jemaine Clement showed you could get a bigger laugh by playing precise, faithful versions of synth-pop or space rock, all while projecting the apologetic, fumbling energy of a bad open mic. They treated the music as a straight man to the lyrics.
The joke sits in the gap between how the track sounds and the guy playing it. Whether he is mimicking R&B or folk, the vocals are arranged and sung with total earnestness. He refuses to wink. On his solo tours, he carries that same bewildered energy into the quiet moments between songs. He will stop a show to tell a meandering, genuine story about visiting a midwestern chain restaurant, or ask the crowd for a mundane detail from their day to turn into an improvised ballad. He treats ridiculous ideas as if they are fragile acoustic standards.
This habit of treating absurd subjects with unblinking musical respect translated perfectly to film, earning him an Academy Award for his songwriting on The Muppets. He writes for a puppet exactly how he writes for himself on stage: by playing the music completely straight.
Turning points
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Internet Cult Following as Elf Figwit
After appearing as an unnamed background extra in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien fans dubbed him 'Figwit' (Frodo Is Great, Who Is That?), prompting Jackson to give him spoken dialogue in The Return of the King.
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Grammy Win for The Distant Future
Flight of the Conchords won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for their Sub Pop EP, cementing their commercial breakthrough in the United States.
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Academy Award for Best Original Song
Serving as music supervisor for the feature film The Muppets, McKenzie won the Oscar for writing the comedic ballad 'Man or Muppet'.
At a glance
- Born
- , Wellington, New Zealand
- On stage
- since 1994
- Style
- musical comedy, folk, parody
- Breakout
- Flight of the Conchords
- Influences
- Leonard Cohen, Steely Dan, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Wikipedia
Fans also like
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Jemaine ClementClement is McKenzie's partner and co-star in Flight of the Conchords, sharing the exact same deadpan delivery and folk-parody songwriting sensibilities.
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Rhys DarbyDarby starred alongside McKenzie as band manager Murray Hewitt in Flight of the Conchords and shares the same distinct New Zealand comedic timing.
Also on screen
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- 2007–2009
- Flight of the Conchords
- The Simpsons
- The Hobbit
- Two Little Boys
A clip to start with
A Gender Reversal Reversal | Flight of the Conchords: Live in London (2018) | HBO