Zach Galifianakis's Brother Was Mean

The latest issue of Paste has a really outstanding feature on Zach Galifianakis. Along with an interview, they've got a mini-debate between Patton Oswalt and David Cross about Zach, a rundown of his upcoming film projects and a sidebar where he recounts meeting some of his famous collaborators. Here's a bit that offers some insight into the shaping of Zach into the brilliant and singular talent that he is today:

The Galifianakis siblings—Zach, along with younger sister Merritt and
older brother Greg—grew up performing for their parents, dressing
Merritt as the Ayatollah and putting on sketches about the Iran-Contra
Affair. But the real action started when their parents left them alone.

“This
happened more than once, but it seems to me that it was always a summer
afternoon when our parents would pull out of the driveway with the
three of us waving from the top of the hill with our arms around each
other,” Merritt says. “Once our parents’ car was out of sight, Greg
turned into the devil. He would throw Zach into the shower with his
clothes on.”

“My brother was very mean,” Zach says. “He’s now
not; he’s the sweetest person I know. But I’d be sitting at the kitchen
table, and this is when I was going through puberty, and he’d get me up
from the kitchen table, he’d take me outside and he’d rip all my
clothes off me until I was completely naked. We lived on this grass
hill, and he’d drag me up and down naked on this hill and hold me by
the street until cars came by and they could see my naked body. My
brother really kind of designed me, because I always thought his
cruelty had a creative edge to it.”

The entire thing is fantastic and shouldn't be missed by any self-respecting Galifianakisianado.