Years Before ‘Baskets,’ Zach Galifianakis Was Twinning In Netflix’s First Comedy Special: ‘Live at the Purple Onion’

In 2017, Zach Galifianakis garnered his first Emmy nom for Outstanding Lead Acting in a Comedy Series, and it was a two-fer, playing both Chip and Dale Baskets in Baskets, which recently returned for season three on FX. Galifianakis already owns two Emmys thanks to his sarcastic interview series for Funny or Die, Between Two Ferns.

My fellow trendspotters duly note that actors technologically cloning themselves for multiple takes as multiple characters has grown more popular of late (see Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black, or Ewan McGregor in the third anthology of Fargo.)

But more than a decade before Chip and Dale, and the camera magic that allows him to co-exist with himself in scenes, Galifianakis was twinning himself with the introduction of Seth Galifianakis in his and Netflix’s first comedy special, 2006’s Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion.

Seth was supposed to be Zach’s identical and opposite twin: jealous, bitter, and going nowhere.

“This is it,” Seth tells interviewer Brian Unger. “This is where it started, and this is probably where it’ll end. For me.”

Seth wears his hair short and straight instead of in bushy curls, and sports a mustache compared to Zach’s beard. Seth’s also uptight, and not used to show business, so he’s nervous in front of the camera, too, with his voice rising in pitch and leaning into his North Carolina accent. Look at his face, though, and you almost see the light of Andy Kaufman shining through Galifianakis’ visage. Especially as he addresses Unger with some of the same befuddled sarcasm he’d perfect years later with Funny or Die’s Between Two Ferns,  (“Are you still on the NRA? NPR? What is it?”) throwing off his interviewer and/or provoking him into giggle fits.

As a purported youth minister, Seth doesn’t quite get his twin brother’s comic sensibility: “I’ve seen it a few times, and I think, is he, does he ever get embarrassed? Does he have any shame at all? Does he not know that maybe people don’t want to sit through this?”

Onstage, Zach says his brother even makes fun of him, claiming the comedian is mentally ill.

But Seth and Zach do have one thing in common, and it’s not their momma. Roll the clip.

Seth and Zach don’t have quite the fiery dynamic, however, that got displayed in the early episodes on FX between rodeo clown Chip Baskets and his twin, the founder of Baskets Career College, Dale Baskets.

For one thing, Zach also let Seth sub in for him in a 2010 episode of Between Two Ferns with guest Sean Penn.

But back to Zach Galifianikis and his Live at the Purple Onion special, which opens with production credits for Red Envelope Entertainment: A Netflix Company, as the streaming giant’s first original DVD special. Ted Sarandos executive-produced it with Galifianakis, and Reed Hastings shows up thanked second in the end credits.

Galifianakis references Netflix about 14 minutes in, joking about how he cannot decide what “chairacters” he should show off for the DVD. Later, he playfully antagonizes fans sitting up front. “There’s no way that this table came to see me specifically,” he chides some older customers. “We may have to move you in the back. It’s not good for the DVD.” Then the older gentleman puts on a Netflix ballcap.

Surprise!

Undaunted, Galifianakis lays into him. “But why sit up front and ruin my career? This was supposed to propel me, this DVD shit!”

Truth is, Galifianakis never really wanted to be as famous as he’d become after appearing in The Hangover movies. When he filmed this performance, not everyone was a hipster with a big beard and a dad bod, and few even knew who Galifianakis was. His VH1 talk show flamed out fast in 2002, and he wasn’t happy about taking a paycheck in the supernatural FOX drama series, Tru Calling. In 2005, he joined Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford and Brian Posehn on The Comedians of Comedy tour. In 2006, he co-starred in the short-lived fake news show for Comedy Central, Dog Bites Man. After he jokes onstage about how being fat only makes his claustrophobia worse, Michael Bleiden’s camera cuts to Galifianakis, stuck in an elevator. How does it make him feel? He tells Bleiden: “It’s this: you’re never going to get out of this. You’re never going to get out of this small box for the rest of your life, and you’re going to whittle away.”

METAPHOR! ALLEGORY! SYMBOLISM!

It’s not his smoothest onstage performance, either. Galifianakis flubs the start of a couple of jokes. The first time, he starts over; the second, he stops to yell profanity at himself. He might stare off at nothing while playing the piano, stop to signal for another pint of beer, or even stop talking and stare directly into the camera. There’s rolling on the floor laughter, and there’s also just plain rolling on the floor in disgust.

Baskets fans also will appreciate the great foreshadowing (?!) of an Arby’s joke, too.

A real story about his Uncle Nick Galifianakis, who lost the 1972 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina to Jesse Helms because of misleading xenophobia, seems just as terribly relevant now in 2017. As does his comparison of celebrities to poison.

Of course, he also delivers some all-time classic one-liners, among them his closing bit, which includes musical cues and an easel of paper.

The Galifianakis greatness was already on display. It’d just take most of you a few more years to see it.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion on Netflix