Stand-up says 'yes' to Yes Man

The film is an adaptation of Danny Wallace’s autobiographical book about his decision to say ‘yes’ to whatever he was asked to do.

Darby, a London-based New Zealander, will play Norman, the boss of Jim Carrey’s character Karl in the loan company where he works. He landed the role on the back of the success of HBO series Flight Of The Conchords, in which he plays Murray, the hapless manager of the New Zealand folk parodists.

Darby told Chortle: ‘The director Peyton Reed is a big fan of Flight Of The Conchords, and loved my work in that. So I got a call from him and he asked me to audition on a tape, which I sent him from the UK.

‘And now I leave for Los Angeles in three weeks, for filming which will take me up to January, when we start work on the second series.

‘Norman is a real nerdy loser boss – similar to my character in Concords but even more nerdy and even less cool.

‘Karl’s stuck in a boring job, he’s divorced from his job and all his mates are sick of him because he never goes out. That’s until he gets involved in the Yes Project to say “yes” to everything.

‘Karl ignores his boss, thinks he’s an idiot, until he gets involved in this movement. Then he has to accept an invite to his boss’s party where you have to wear a funny hat or funny wig – that’s how nerdy Norman is.

‘I’m in about five scenes altogether.’

Darby’s manager, Brett Vincent of Underbelly Management said: ‘When I was first finding gigs for Darby in the UK, I told promoters he was the next Jim Carrey – and here he is appearing in a movie alongside him!’

Published: 24 Sep 2007