Zach Galifianakis: Bored to Death

Comedian Zach Galifianakis likes his one-liners. They become the quoted dialogue from his movies, he zings ‘em at stand-up audiences and even in interviews he relishes in punchy brevity. That makes an interview with Zach Galifianakis short but offers a strong case for quality over quantity.

For some 15 years, Galifianakis has performed stand-up with a devout following, a cult which grew larger when YouTube made it easy to share covert videos from small stand-up gigs. This summer, movies cast Galifianakis into a major spotlight. The Hangover put Galifianakis’ obscure one-liners about post-9/11 airplane masturbation into one of the most seen comedies of all time. The success of G-Force, in which he creates a team of secret agent guinea pigs, paled in comparison.

After a smash summer hit like The Hangover, you’d think networks would be scrambling to build a TV vehicle around Galifianakis. HBO’s already got him signed to their upcoming series Bored to Death, which began filming before Galifianakis’ box office twofer. He plays the supporting role of Ray, the best friend of lead character Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman). Jonathan is a bored writer who decides to pose as a private detective, and actually takes on cases while Ray tries to talk some sense into him.

“If I were 26 and this was happening, it would be all great, and I would probably buy like 17 Dodge Vipers,” Galifianakis told a press conference in July. “But right now it's just a major inconvenience.”

After the Bored to Death cast press conference, a group of reporters followed Galifianakis into the hallway. The show doesn’t come on until September 20 so we need a little more comedy wisdom to tide us over until then. He stuck to the notion that attention was a burden but that only fed into his deadpan curmudgeon persona, with his trademark flannel and bushy beard. He did laugh at some of the zanier questions, as indicated.