Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
The C.A.M.P. (Circus And Magic Partnership) program organized by the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival runs a Northern C.A.M.P. for a week and another in Winnipeg the week following. For the Northern run, instructors fly into Winnipeg and take a tour bus North bringing with them a ton of circus props that end up being left in the community so that students get to use the equipment and continue to work on the skills they’ve learned even after the program packs up and head to Winnipeg. For the instructors the trip North is a multi-hour experience which can become a bit mind numbing… Not this year though… Someone from the crew brought a copy of the First Season of an HBO TV Series called ‘The Flight of the Conchords.’ and everyone got sucked into the unique charms the New Zealand Comic Musical Duo comprised of Jermaine Clement and Bret Mckenzie, their hapless manager Murray and the small cast of supporting roles.
I wasn’t actually on the Northern trip this year though, so all I got while I was in Winnipeg was references to a show that most of the instructors had seen, but didn’t mean a thing to me… Until now… After joining the STAR Princess a week ago I finally sat down and made my way through the first season of The Flight of the Conchords HBO TV Series.
Suddenly all of the references made sense and the reasons this quirky TV show had such an appeal to the happy family of misfits that staff C.A.M.P. became apparent. The show is funny. The relationship between the characters works, the comedy songs that are liberally sprinkled through out the episodes and the goofy choreography that goes along with them is just the right mix of ridiculousness combined with an underlying respect to the genre being parodied. I found myself laughing out loud again and again.
It’s not a series for everyone… I watched episode #1 with my wife and she got to the end of it and didn’t need to watch another, but I think for anyone who’s worked as a performer the fun and irony of the situations that are portrayed in the series are well worth the time to check out.
