Jemaine Clement
Band Reunion (Live in London)
Thank you
Thanks, London

Now you see the lights have come
Up a bit, you see it is us

And you probably noticed
That we're a bit older

Than, uh...
Than we were formally

We're not ill

We've been trying to stay young

We're trying to preserve ourselves
Like those sexy man-boys

That you saw
Ten years ago on the TV

Um... -'Cause we know that
People don't like characters

That they know
From television to get older
I think, to them, it's disturbing

I mean, it's difficult for us to see
You 'cause you're older as well

But the lights are quite dark, so
It's quite flattering on you guys

Yeah, but us being up here
And we remind you of your own

I guess, your own mortality

Sorry about that

Having said that, let's enjoy...

The fleeting moment. Yes!
The time we have left

Let's try and have a good time
Yeah

Anyway, you see how fast it's going

Yeah, it's gone. It's great
To be here in London
This is a bit of
A reunion gig for us

Uh, we haven't played
Since last night, and...

It's just great to have
The whole band here

Um... -We don't know if
You've heard these jokes

You might be exactly
The same people

We're one of the biggest
Bands in New Zealand now

Uh...
In terms of the number of members

Yeah
Yeah

We're a two-person band
Most bands in New Zealand
Are one-person bands

Um, you've probably heard of John

Jemaine: Rob
Bret: Lucy

Lucy's great
Yeah, yeah, brilliant

It's a very good band

Even our national orchestra's
A one-man band. It's very...

When we combined, we formed
The super group

Bret used to be
In a band, didn't you?

My old band was called "The Bret."

And...
Yeah

And Jemaine was-- Your band was
Called, what, The Jemaine and...?

No, it was "Jemaine and the No
One Else."

That's right, yeah

How we got together was
We were billed on the same night

At the same time by accident

And most of our songs have
The same chords anyway

So we just sang at the same time, and
That's how we wrote a lot of our songs

Yeah, and that's how
This electricity got started

Bret: Yeah, yeah
That's right

We're gonna do some songs
This next one is, uh...

It's another du-et

Um, and...

It... it's kind of
Groundbreaking for us

Um, because we're really challenging

The gender stereotypes that exist
Uh, within the band. And...

And for those of you
Who know some of our songs

I often play the ladies
In our songs

And...
And you do it well, Bret

You do it well
Thank you

Uh, but this next song, we're doing
A gender reversal reversal

So, what we usually do is we gender
Reverse it, so Bret's the lady

But we've reversed it
Back on itself

Full 360 till he's back to a man

Yeah

Yeah, he's very excited
To be playing the very macho

Ian. A guy called Ian

A British
A very, um...

It's a very macho name

He's a very macho, sexual British guy
Mm

And Jemaine takes
The role of Deanna

Yeah
Uh, it's an office place romance

And she's a very complex character

A lot of layers that
You've put in there

Yeah, I've put in two layers

I've added another dimension
To what I usually do

To make a fully
Two-dimensional character

Yeah
Uh, I've really embraced the role

I've studied a woman
That's right

And I just watched
Little things she did

It's like this kind of thing

You'll see that come
You'll see it

I won't do it now
Save it, save it

I'll save it for the performance

When you see me become Deanna

You'll see it
Oh, it's a transformation

Yeah
Thank you!

Thank you
But one last detail

Um, before we do play
The song, it's just

You know, I think we want to
Point out that we are aware

That comedy is a very
Male-dominated industry

Unfortunately
You know, we're writing the roles

For women, but, um...

The problem is the band
Itself is very male-dominated

And...
It's systemic

Yeah, it's
It's systemic, a systemic problem

It's the fucking patriarchy
That's what it is

Yeah, so we're sorry about that

But we're trying
We're trying, yeah, yeah

What? Too fast?

What do you think?
Probably too rocking for us

Tone it down a little bit
People are moshing at the front