An Open Letter to Zach Galifianakis

Dear Zach:

OK, you've got the hit movie in The Hangover.

You got the New York Times Magazine profile.

You got the cult following as a stand-up comedian of prodigious and unpredictable talent.

Now don't blow it by letting some agent or manager try to turn you into a comedy commodity.

It happens regularly: A comedy performer has an unexpected hit and his flavor-of-the-month-ness attracts the "suits" (as Billy Walsh called them on Entourage) -- the facilitator types who latch on to new talent like a remora on a shark to try to guide them to bigger, fatter feeding grounds.

Invariably, it leads the comedian to abandon his instincts - or compromise his vision - in pursuit of a massive payday. Or it leads the comic to believe that, in fact, his flatulence is vanilla-scented - and that every idea that comes to his mind or bursts from his lips is pure genius, deserving of the aforementioned buttload of cash.

Neither is ever more than occasionally true.

If you look at the trajectory of movie comedy in the past 30-plus years, most of it can be seen as an extension of Saturday Night Live - indeed, almost all of it. And in most cases, the role model has been the career of Chevy Chase.

That's not a good thing.

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Comments

[Sleepyjohns]

I just learned that Galifianakis is starring in the newest rodent-themed summer blockbuster, G-Force. The tagline is "Gadgets. Gizmos. Guinea Pigs. In 3-D"...Mr. Fine, I fear your open letter is too late.

[CharmiO]

Earlier today I expressed a viewpoint that differed from that of the author of this article. I am disgusted that my response was not allowed to be seen.

I expect the article's author was allowed to distill responses.

I am disgusted.

Live long and Prosper, Zach!!!!!

[RobinLandseadel]

From the full article, concerning Chevy Chase:

"He was quickly followed to Hollywood by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who could be funny together but neither of whom ever headlined a movie without the other that was worth the price of admission."

So I guess that's that for "Animal House." Maybe it's not your idea of a good movie [or mine, for that matter] but overall it's considered a major success. As for Dan Aykroyd, he always was an ensemble player and has done a lot of good work in movies where's he not expected to do the heavy lifting.

On the other hand, I agree with you 100% on this---Adam Sandler pretty much represents everything that's wrong with Hollywood's "SNL' machine. He's unwatchable nearly all of the time. And Eddie Murphy is right on his tail.

[Marshall Fine - Huffpost Blogger]

Re: "Animal House":
What I said was that neither Belushi nor Akyroyd ever headlined a movie without the other that was worth the price of admission, referring to films such as "Spies Like Us" and "Cross Country."

Belushi was part of an ensemble cast in "Animal House" (which I still consider a comedy classic), not the star, though he was, by that point, the best known actor in the cast.

[hartkid]

belushi wasn't even in Spies Like Us.

[RobinLandseadel]

Akyroyd may not have starred in "Ghostbusters" but he did get top billing, along with the incomparable Mr. Murray.

http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/ghostbusters_poster(1).jpg

Also co-wrote the script, btw.

And I still agree with you concerning Adam Sandler.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Good post. Many comedians really are clueless when they pick films. In fact, most of the films comedians do are pretty abysmal.

Most of us knew Zach before he hit it big here. His situation actually reminds me a little of Roberto Benigni's situation many years ago. Most who followed independent/foreign cinema knew Benigni from his work in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law and Night on Earth (which he's hysterical in), and his early Italian films (like The Monster). But when Life is Beautiful hit the big time, Hollywood adored him. They all wanted to "work" with him, despite the fact he was a reasonably well known name already.

He then followed up Life is Beautiful with a film version of Pinnochio. The studio stupidly dubbed it into English, and marketed it as a children's movie. It bombed terribly, and pretty much killed off Benigni's Hollywood career. Sad thing is, Pinnochio, in its original Italian version, is a very good film. So will Zach follow in Benigni's footsteps? Will Hollywood use him for a bit and spit him out?

I don't really know. I hope they don't, but Hollywood is a horrible place that uses people very quickly, and the track record of comedians' film choices is pretty poor. We'll see.

[RobinLandseadel]

"Night on Earth" is awesome and Roberto Benigni's the best thing in it.

[quivira]

JaneaneTAG--I remember well the first time I ever saw Zach: you gave him a shining introduction on Late Night during Dave's heart surgery hiatus. He was absolutely fascinating (and I give you all the credit--he may have been the darling of NY, but us Midwesterners' artistic exposure is often relagated to the teevee. . .for some reason I've always believed that you we're responsible for bringing him on the show.)

[martinchill]

are you sure that JaneaneTAG is "the" Janeane you're referring to on Late Night?

i wasn't aware of that little tidbit, and i've been hanging out around here for awhile.

[argyle]

Zack,
take the money and run.
Do every canned crappy comedy they offer and save the cash.
Open your own studio with the money and then do what you want while making it possible for other people to do the same without having to make canned crappy comedy.

[CharmiO]

I SO freakin' agree!

Thank you.

[mredder4]

Why isn't the full article available on The Huffington Post itself? Why should I have to leave The Huffington Post to get to a blog post by a HuffPo blogger?

Isn't that a little weird?

[RG5626]

Because its not a Huffington Post story. They are giving you a teaser to go to the story.