"I listen to Donovan from time to time." To the Conchords, folk just means acoustic. So are the pair folk fans? "Only a little bit," says Clement. "One's named after Peter Jackson," Clement tells me, "and one's named after Bret." He shows me a photograph of two Hebridean dolphins that the Scottish Tolkien Society has sponsored. "It's because of my elvish looks," McKenzie suggests. Although he is on screen for only a handful of seconds, Figwit has scores of websites dedicated to him. McKenzie also enjoys cult status as the background elf Figwit in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. But it doesn't pay their way, and both have other lives: Clement as an actor, McKenzie in non-comic band The Black Seeds. They are now "one of the major comedy acts in New Zealand", they say. "We were supposed to be supplying the music for a comedy night," says McKenzie, "but - and I can't remember how it happened - we ended up being one of the acts." But if you make up your own, who's gonna pull you up for being wrong?" It is characteristic that their move from music to musical comedy was accidental. "It takes ages to learn somebody else's song because you have to remember it all. "We decided to form a band," says Clement. The double-act came together when, as struggling young actors, the two flatmates began learning guitar. "We're surprised," he says, "that people like it so much." And they think this year's show inferior to its predecessor. "You can tell when we've learned a new chord," says Clement, "because we'll use it in our next three songs." They didn't even want to play Edinburgh this year. This pair are Kiwis through and through: laid-back, unfazed by their success and clueless about what to do with it. "Kiwis are pretty understated and dry," says McKenzie. It's hard to connect the Conchords in person with the blazing talents on stage. And there's more, from Ennio Morricone to acoustic electronica and beyond. The musicianship is impressive: Clement and McKenzie's folk-rap crossover, The Hiphopopotamus Meets the Rhymenoceros, sounds like a beatbox Bohemian Rhapsody. High on Folk, the pair's 2003 offering, comprises about a dozen comedy songs played on acoustic guitar and digital glockenspiel. "They liked it," says McKenzie, "because it was quite different to what they do." "I guess we were quite surprised," says Clement. When the stand-ups who preceded them in their Gilded Balloon venue started staying behind to watch Clement and McKenzie, word spread, and "we became a kind of show for other comedians to see after their shows", says McKenzie. It all started with the duo's British debut at last year's fringe. And yet Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are this year's buzz comedy act. If they have any posters in Edinburgh, I haven't seen them. Their show is tucked under a railway arch on Cowgate, in the dead of night. Flight of the Conchords are "the fourth most popular folk parodist act in New Zealand". I t wasn't the obvious hot ticket at this year's fringe.
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