Mr Adventure Heads to Base Camp
New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby is taking part in charity event Stand Up on Everest in October, performing at Base Camp on a purpose built stage for climbers awaiting their turn to summit the world’s highest mountain.
“I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Darby says. “You have to make a real commitment to go to a place like that. Your regular comedy goers would not necessarily think to go up to Everest Base Camp to watch a gig.”
California-based Darby is also heading for London in July with his new show, Mr Adventure, so TNT took the chance to find out more, and to ask if we will ever see Murray again.
“I do miss playing him. It was a lot of fun. It was a very exciting time in my life. Things were really taking off and we were having all this success on a fantastic network in America. It was all a bit dreamy, looking back.”
But now Darby is firmly ensconced in a new role as Mr Adventure.
“Over the last few years I have been on a number of adventures and I looked back and thought, ‘Wow, I should tell some of these stories,’” he explains. “I’ve been to Africa a few times, trekking for mountain gorillas, I’ve been up Mount Kilamanjaro. I’ve been to Loch Ness twice. There I stayed with a new-age, raw-food-eating Buddhist couple who introduced me to UFO spotting.”
Mr Adventure is on at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 23 and 24 July.
Original article by Caroline Garnar, TNT Magazine, April 15, 2014.
