Dean chats with Rhys Darby, comedian, actor and host of The Cryptid Factor podcast. They discuss cryptozoology, ETs and a few of Rhys's greatest Sci-fi roles.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
Dean Regas: Have you ever been outside at night, and you saw something in the sky? Something extraordinarily bright? Or maybe it moved in a strange way? Or maybe you experienced some strange out of body, out of time thing that just left you shaken? What was that?
And how do you talk about it? Well, I got a guy. He's from New Zealand and he wants to hear from you. From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio, I'm your host, Dean Regas, and this is Looking Up, a show that takes you deep into the cosmos or just to the telescope in your backyard to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great. My guest today is Rhys Darby, an actor and comedian from so many shows, and who also hosted a podcast called Aliens Like Us. Yeah, so I know in the intro I just threw my guest Rhys Darby under the flying saucer, so to speak.
Now, he'll tell us about his podcast where he Interviewed alien abductees, or, you know, what some people are calling experiencers, since that covers more than aliens.
Rhys Darby [clip from Aliens Like Us]: Welcome to Aliens Like Us, a fun and lighthearted look at UFOs and all things alien in and beyond our world.
Dean Regas: But first I want to take you back to the 1990s to my life before I was an astronomer.
So back then I was a history major. I graduated in college, just kind of wondering what I was gonna do with my life, you know, just drifting along, and I followed a certain TV show, The X Files.
This was a show about FBI agents investigating all sorts of paranormal and alien activities. The X Files was like this 1990s phenomenon. Even before that, I was well aware, and maybe even a fan, of a very famous book called Communion. This is written by Whitley Strieber, big thing in the 80s and early 90s.
And for people of a certain age, maybe you can even picture the cover of this book, since it was like everywhere. It had this big alien head on a skinny little neck, staring at you with its large, blank, black, unfeeling eyes. Man, it just gives me the creeps thinking about it, but Communion was like this thing, and then The X Files comes along and I gotta say.
I believe stories like this, and I thought they were true. Ghosts, meh, meh, that was rubbish. But aliens, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah. Not only did I think they were real, I wanted to believe.
[clip from The X Files]: Do you believe the voice? I want to believe.
Well, Rhys, thanks so much for joining me today. I have to start off with something that I saw as a teaser that you were in the New Zealand Army and that something happened to you.
And I don't know what it was. It was just kind of like this teaser that said he has a story about the New Zealand Army that maybe was like, you know, extraterrestrial or out of this world or something.
Rhys Darby: The only thing I really achieved was rescuing a few sheep during the winter of 92.
Dean Regas: Rescuing them from UFOs, right? From aliens?
Rhys Darby: Yeah, they were mid abduction. I was pulling them down. They were literally heading straight to the craft. I couldn't really see a craft. I thought it was the wind, but they were like definitely levitating. So, I ran through the paddock, and I jumped, I leapt in the air and grabbed a sheep that was midair, and I pulled it down.
I was very fit back then biceps of steel. And yeah, I rescued three sheep.
Dean Regas: And that, that also warrants a medal of some sort. So, there's a sheep saving medal in the army, I would imagine. I wish. Well, I first became a big fan of yours through your part on the HBO show Flight of the Concords, where you play Murray, the, the band manager for Brett and Jemaine. But I, I don't know. I was trying to remember. There's not a lot of space stuff in that show, is there?
Rhys Darby: Not much. There is. The episode where I do buy Brett and Jemaine Planets.
[Clip from Flight of the Concords]: Alright, I've done the research, and everyone thinks property is the way to go. So, I'm proud to announce that as of this morning, we're the official owners of Three Stars!
Dean Regas: That's right! You invested basically the end of their money on the last-ditch thing to buy them planets.
Rhys Darby: Hehehehe, yeah.
[Clip from Flight of the Concords]: Intergalactic real estate. How much do they cost? Oh, that's the best part. Only 50 a star, and that includes a certificate.
Rhys Darby: But I think in the end, possibly my planet was the only one still alive. Some say it was a scam, but ...
Dean Regas: Yeah, that was a good investment though, I think. It was one of Murray's best investments, probably. So, and you also had a starring role in the reboot of The X Files when that came back, and you played my favorite character in the movie. In my favorite episode of that entire season, Guy Mannn.
[Clip from The X Files]: Did you lose somebody recently? Yeah, myself. I know this sounds weird, but until a few days ago, I didn't know we'd die.
Dean Regas: Guy Mannn was your name, who may or may not have been a man. So, when you got that gig working for The X Files, were you already a big X Files fan? Was it exciting? Did you have to wear a costume?
Rhys Darby: Yeah, all of the above, definitely. I mean, who doesn't like the phenomenon? The X Files, a big, big opportunity for me. And I couldn't believe it. And all of a sudden, this guy that like, I'm sure a lot of people have no idea who I am, but all of a sudden, I'm put in this cool show and it's the zeitgeist because it's exactly what I'm into.
I'm into cryptozoology, cryptids. I end up playing one, this lizard man. And of course, my fascination with the paranormal. It was a lot. It was almost one of those, “I had to pinch me” moments and yeah, I, of course I had to wear a costume that the lizard. Side of things that was, yeah, five, five hours of makeup just to get me fully Lizardized for one or two scenes and I couldn't be happier than what it turned out to be a fantastic episode.
Dean Regas: You stole the show It really was! And so, then you also had a podcast called Aliens Like Us, how would you sum up that project?
Rhys Darby: I'm into UFOs, aliens, that kind of thing, as well as cryptozoology. And I already have a cryptozoology podcast called The Cryptid Factor, so I wanted to do something different. I wanted to try and talk about the other side of things that I don't talk about that much, which was aliens and, and so I got this gig, if you will, my friend Buttons, who's also on my Cryptid Factor podcast.
It was with me on this. So, it was the two of us. And Ethan Edinburgh, who's a, another very cool comedian. So, we're kind of funny people, but we have an interest in the other side. And some of us take it more seriously than others. But the idea of this podcast was to knuckle down and actually speak to people who are involved in the field.
So, people who have scientific knowledge of what they think is going on in the alien world. as well as people who have been affected by it. Experiences, abductees, that kind of thing. Mixed with a weird comedy element whereby, you know, we are funny people and I think humans have a great sense of humor.
That's part of who we are. It's, it makes no sense to me to do a lot of these shows, these documentaries about these things without using any type of humor whatsoever because that sometimes turns people off. So, my idea. From the beginning was it's a lighthearted look, you tap into some of the subject matter though and it does get quite dark quite quickly. So that was the challenge.
Dean Regas: I mean it is it's a tough one to make fun of in a way but it wasn't in a way that you're yeah, you're not like calling people out, and you know when I was listening to the you know, the stories from the experiencers the abductees, you know, I'm a Rhys, I'm a pretty skeptical person.
I got to tell you and so I could not help myself You From yelling out loud after hearing some of the stories like, oh, come on, that's what I get. And so how, how do you like hold it together where there's points where you're like, oh, this person is not flying a straight UFO. This, this person is way off in left field, or were there more of them where you're like, whoa, this is really compelling stuff.
Rhys Darby: Yeah. I think I'd go into it with a completely open mind, and I have a big imagination. I'm a creative, you know, I write comedy, I write books, children's books. I act, I love dressing up as lizard men. So, you know, I am that guy. So, I'm already kind of excited. And so, as my colleague buttons, Ethan was less. So, he's definitely the skeptic, which was good to have, but I think it's a good thing to just let people have their say and let the audience make up their own mind as to whether they think it's BS or not.
And that's not my job. My job, I guess, more like a journalist is to just. have an open dialogue with someone. And you can, you might accidentally catch them out, or there might be something there that doesn't quite fit. And then you can drill a bit further. But my estimation was that these people, you know, they're not gaining anything from lying and coming up with something ridiculous story that's affected them.
They're not getting any friends. They're not getting any popularity from it. So I, I believe that, you know, Most of these people are telling the truth and they've gone through something that is so hard to explain that people can't even rationalize it if it hasn't happened to them, which is most of us and that will never happen to us.
And so, I think. You've got to be very strong, uppercase, "What if", you know, when you're dealing with this kind of subject matter, because I've, I've spoken to a lot of these people and I've been to UFO conferences and things, and you know, there is something that's happened to them. The hardest bit is nailing down What exactly it is.
And this has been going on since the, since the forties, you know, there's a group of people who have experienced stuff. And then there's a massive group that is 20 times bigger. That’s don’t believe it. So that's going to be the case all the way through to till this thing is solved.
Dean Regas: Well, I'm glad you mentioned The Cryptid Factor where you do talk about these really kind of I guess not so much out there subjects But they're kind of out there from talking to people did your opinions change at all, you know about aliens or paranormal things Like did you become more or less of a believer from doing these?
Rhys Darby: No, I think I was a believer from the beginning and I'm still a believer. Certainly, there's, yeah, there's the odd story that you go, that didn't happen. And that happens, you know quite a bit. You can kind of feel out the BS. That's not to say that there's definitely is hoaxes and there's people who are trying to make a buck off it or not even the making a buck.
It's kind of like that. Some people are just getting a kick out of fooling people. And so, there's no financial gain or whatever. Its people are bored. And, you know, during the pandemic when there's no work or whatever, and people are, Manifesting fake things through their computer systems using AI, et cetera, et cetera, or just coming up with stories, making TikToks about time travel or whatever to see how far they can go with it to, to get people to suck people in.
You know, there's something fun about that, I guess, which, which I get it, but. You know, we've already, we've had this in the, in the subject matter since the beginning, and it's just something we've had to tackle with and, and wade through. And so, the things that are true get caught up in a BS field as well.
And so, it's, it's murky and messy, but I look at it as, you know, That's the fun of it. Sometimes you'll get some stories that are definitely not true, but there, you can make fun of them. There's funny stuff. And there's other stuff that is quite scary and weird and could be very real. So, it's interesting that way.
It's not, it's not linear.
Dean Regas: Well, and so you've saved sheep from UFOs. Would you ever go up in a UFO or a spacecraft yourself? You know, let's say NASA said, “Hey, we need somebody to go up to the moon for a moon mission.” What do you say Rhys Darby?
Rhys Darby: Hmm. If they say they want a middle-aged New Zealand comedian I'd say, yeah, I'll be definitely keen for that.
I'll go up, you know, maybe, maybe in a few more years, I'll wait till my, my kids are older. I mean, I'm worried about safety, but I'll tell you what, I'll go up on the second or third mission. I've learned something in life. It's never volunteer for the first one.
Dean Regas: Sounds right to me. I mean, I was reading about a new movie, Relax, I’m From the Future. What can you tell us about that?
Rhys Darby: Oh yeah, that's, that's out now. I play a time traveler, not someone who's making it up on TikTok, but an actual Guy from the future who is kind of a layabout. He's not really not really a life achiever this kid.
[Clip from Relax, I’m From the Future]: Okay, so essentially what's happened is something hasn't happened to someone, so I need your help to help it happen Essentially, you're a very disappointing time traveler…
Rhys Darby: But he ends up coming back in time and it's about him Dealing with what he's gonna do now that he's back in time and he tries to fix the fabric of time It's actually pretty simple As far as time travels movies go, it deals with the physics of it all quite well. It’s a little indie flick. It's got great music, was shot in Canada, and it's very funny. So yeah, check it out.
Dean Regas: And of course, people could find you on the show. Our Flag Means Death and plenty of other things. The final thing I got to ask for you all is if you go back to that X Files episode and the end is you walking back into the forest. What happened? What happens to you and your mind after that? After the cameras out? What happens to Guy Mann next?
Rhys Darby: Well, you know, he's back in his true form. He's no longer going to have to turn into a human, so he can just become the cryptid. He is again, and he'll probably go and just join his family and, and, you know, find his people in the forest. I think they live underground.
And yeah, he just continues to carry on with his life until he is discovered one day by restart B and the encrypted factor team who turn up on an expedition. And now luckily the right person finds him because he doesn't reveal him to the world. He keeps his secret and they become best mates. And eventually they write a sitcom together, but that's another story.
Dean Regas: It sounds, sounds lovely. I would love to see that one be made Rhys. Thanks so much for chatting with us today. This has been a lot of fun.
Rhys Darby: No worries. Thank you.
Dean Regas: Well, I'm not sure if it came through in the interview, but I'm not really a believer in alien stories anymore. I was trying to be polite since Rhys is so nice and, and I guess maybe if I really listened to him and his melodic voice a little more, maybe I could be convinced. So how did I go from wanting to believe to It's not aliens, come on! This is what happened. I simply fielded too many UFO reports.
I took too many calls for people that saw stuff up in the sky. They would come to me as the astronomer at the observatory, like weekly. And what I found is that Any of them with pictures and video were completely explainable. So, if the camera documented it, I could take it from unidentified to identifiable.
It was a plane or a planet or an out of focus camera trying to image a star. Oh man, it's, it's hard to take a picture of the night sky with your phone. Sometimes there were even pictures of lights on the ground that were reflected, and people thought they're aliens, UFOs in the sky. I kid you not. But the real thing that caught me was that any reports without pictures or video I noticed this pattern when people would call, I'd ask this question, a question I thought was a pretty simple question, you know, so when did this happen?
Half of the people could not answer that question. If I followed up with which direction, were you looking, oh yeah, nobody knew that, you know, what direction, north, south, east, west, no way. What time of night was it? Not sure. I will give you one other anecdote from a caller. I mean, even thinking back on it, I think, is this, was somebody, you know, pranking me or something like that?
So, they called in and they said, “Okay, I saw something strange in the sky.”
And I said, “Okay, when did this happen?”
And the person said, very forthright, they said, you know, without thinking, very confidently, “Oh yeah, just about a week ago.”
I was like, “Oh, okay, a week ago, like what day?”
He's like, “Well, okay, maybe it was like a couple months ago…No, it was a three years ago… No, it wasn't even me that saw it. It was my grandma who saw it when she was a baby and she told me that story about a few years ago about the things she saw in the sky.”
I was like, “Wait, so this didn't happen to you?”
He's like, “I don't know, man. I really don't know.”
And so, this is the kind of reports that you get and the more that I got these, the more I began doubting report after report, year after year, I got to say it slowly ate at me.
I was like, I want to believe, I want to believe, I want to believe. And then I'm like, these folks are not reliable observers. And then I think, well, like, how good of an observer am I? Am I any better than that? And you know, I think I remember things that happened during the last eclipse, let's say, or the eclipse before that.
But then I see a new one and I'm like, oh man, I totally forgot about that. Like, I mean, I'm not even that good of an observer to remember things that happened. So, for all the callers out there, for UFO reports, I'm sorry. You have worn me down. You turned A believer into a skeptic. If you're looking for a friendly ear to tell your UFO story to, I am not the person, but I know somebody that will.
Please contact Rhys Darby via Auckland, New Zealand, and tell him Dean sent you. I mean, you heard that story about how he saved those sheep from being abducted. He's the guy. Looking up with Dean Regas is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio. Kevin Reynolds and I created it in 2017. Ella Rowen is our show producer and editor and is definitely the Scully of our show.
Marshall Verbsky assists with audio production and editing and tapes an X on his window whenever he needs me to come into the studio to record something else. Jenell Walton is our vice president of content and Ronny Salerno is our digital platforms manager. Our theme song is “Possible Light,” by Ziv Moran and our cover art is by Nicole Tiffany.
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