Get To Know Zach Galifianakis

I must be out of my mind, having sold out again to the American Dream, with a mentally exhausting job, and a mortgage in North Jersey that I can't quite afford.  Me used to be cool guy.  WFMU DJ and shit.

You read my writings here.  Get to know me or not.
I may be a bit more nuts than average, but hell, I'm no Zach Galifianakis.

Zach Galifianakis looks like he parties hard, gets into fights regularly, and may be in need of serious psychological help—he's also the new saint of comedy in our overpriced home.

Perhaps you were fortunate enough to see his very short-lived series Late World with Zach on VH1, or his stint in the film and tour The Comedians of Comedy.  He was in Tru Calling on Fox with Eliza Dushku for 1.5 seasons.  Currently, he's cast in an uneven 1/2 hr. ensemble "fake news" show on Comedy Central, but his contributions are brilliant.  It's almost as if someone at the network knows he's a genius and is just making sure that the guy has a job.

(Speaking of Comedy Central, Carlos Mencia is so unbelievably unfunny—do you find his popularity as shocking as I do?  Carlos Mencia is Gallagher with the words "retard" and "beaner" as his mallet and watermelon.)

There aren't any real jokes or bits that I could recite or recount from Zach's repertoire that would resonate with anywhere close to the original impact.  The colonial-era standup comic routine in Comedians of Comedy had me in tears.  Let's just say Zach uses high imagination, confrontation, and a visionary skill to debase himself, being somehow scary and lovable at the same time.  He delivers esoteric routines and cheap gags with the same venom.

Fiona Apple knows the greatness of Zach Galifianakis.  Her "rejected" album, Extraordinary Machine, spawned the defiantly uncommercial video for the song "Not About Love," featuring Zach as the singer's mouthpiece, critic and interpretive dancer.  You can download that video here from videos.antville.org.

Here's Zach Web site, where I'm told one used to be able to order a DVD of the Late World show (my personal efforts have been unsuccessful.)

Perhaps the secret's already out about Zach Galifiniakis amongst the blog-chewing underground hipster set.  Like I said, I'm not a cool guy anymore, not as up on things as I used to be, but I just had to say something.

Fuck me.  Get to know Zach.

Comments

[topdownjimmy]

Carlos Mencia leaves me speechless. His smugness is the worst part, as I feel incapable of adequately hating him because he so loves to be hated, without understanding the true reasons he is so despicable, as though any contempt for him is a symptom of over-sensitivity to his RAW AND UNADULTERATED DELIVERY OF TRUTH. "Down with your polite PC bullshit!" says Carlos! "I TELL IT LIKE IT IS!"

As though it isn't bad enough that the jokes he tells have been told countless times before him, they are devoid of any punchlines or even a semblance of humor -- trite observations and complaints, prosaically shouted out in crescendo to create the illusion that he's the first to say these things. To watch his act is to be blinded and deafened by his undeserved and raging ego.

[Jesse Thorn]

Two fun Galifianakis links:
Download ZG and Fiona Apple's "Up in Them Gutz" from Dog Bites Man

also: An interview with Zach in realaudio

[Buzzy]

Mr. Galifiniakis won my heart when I saw him in the B (read: C) film 'Out Cold.' It's a snowboard movie based on Casablanca. Anyway, Zach really carries the film, and I've tried to see everything he's done since then. He even steals the show of the outtakes reel during the credits. I'm with you, can't say enough good about this guy.

[Ralphine]

He looks like Rupert from "Survivor."

[\_escarpment]

He did a very enjoyable interview with Tom Scharpling on the Best Show a couple of weeks back: http://www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=19222&archive=27847

[Steve PMX]

love ZG. f'ing HATE carlos mencia. Him and the white trash guys. Poor Comedy Central must have run out of options quickly when they realized Chappelle wasn't coming back.

[Jason Van Houtte]

I just saw your blog on Zach G; I think I just saw him in the new Wholphin DVD #2. He is in "Pity Card" by Bob Odenkirk. He plays a guy at a party who knows all about different human ailments like scurvy, foot rot and ringworm. Its fuckin funny as all hell. I am pretty sure it's him. Check it out.