Unlike some comedians who sing (and singers who act funny), this New Zealand duo's humor is just as entertaining as their infectious music. With just two guitars and a microphone they've reached rockstar status on YouTube, MySpace and HBO, making them the biggest thing since, well, "Dick in a Box."
Starting out in Wellington in New Zealand in the late 90's. Bret and Jemaine were flatmates back then and both dropped out of university. Bret "dribbled on for ages" studying English and music at Victoria University while Jemaine attempted to study film and theatre but eventually gave that up. In 1998, they were sharing an old villa in Mt Victoria and performing in local productions around town.J Jemaine was writing and performing in Skitz and also teamed up with fellow comedian, Taika Cohen (Taika Waititi), as Humourbeasts, a comedy production which won the Billy T comedy award in 1999. McKenzie was a keyboard player, but both flatmates decided they wanted to learn the guitar also, and started writing songs. Of their first gig at the Indigo bar Jemaine says "We thought we were going to be the band that played that night. We had about three songs we had written. But we just started being the comedy act. People were laughing at our songs and we went back every two weeks."