A few years ago when he was promoting The Beanie Bubble (weird movie but great performances), Zach Galifianakis said: “I live in the awkward and cringe because I find life can be like that.” That’s what made Between Two Ferns so great, the way Zach would deliberately cultivate painfully awkward and cringe moments with his guests. Zach is back now hosting a new series currently streaming on Netflix, This Is a Gardening Show. Though my absurdist heart would love to tell you the title is a misnomer and the show’s actually about the history of the tutu, it is indeed about gardening. Zach is an ardent ambassador of the doctrine that the only future is agrarian! (He literally says that somewhere in each episode.) But don’t worry, he’s still cultivating (gardening pun!) plenty of ridiculous moments, he’s just added some actual cultivation into the mix. The Hollywood Reporter just interviewed him, some highlights:

You’ve spoken in the past about your struggles with being a public figure. How are you feeling about that these days?
Some of that stuff I’ve said in the past about being known, I’m a little embarrassed by it. Because it seemed like I was complaining. That was never my intent. I was just trying to be honest. I never find that showbiz people are that honest about being known and what it does. It rattled me. It did, and I didn’t like it. That is not my feeling anymore. I don’t think about it at all. I live in an area where no one gives a crap, which is wonderful. The onus put on actors is so silly to me. It’s how we got a celebrity president.

Are your agents ever like, “Hey, buddy, you want to do a little more?” What’s that back and forth like?
About six months ago, they told me, “You know what our nickname is for you around the office? Dr. No.” I was like, “Is that with a K?” I’m a Libra, and I somewhat subscribe to that stuff because I am a big believer in balance. I give enough of my life to the media already, as I see it. I could name some names that are constantly online, that are constantly needing to be seen. I think there’s something missing there. If this went away tomorrow, I feel so fortunate that I got to work in it.

The kids on This Is a Gardening Show appear to be very amused by you. As someone who interviewed a lot of celebrities on Between Two Ferns, in what ways is interviewing celebrities like interviewing children?
I don’t want to be mean to children. (Laughs.) My approach is much different. I didn’t want the show to be that grumpy character that I did. That’s not me. I wish I kind of changed my name for Between Two Ferns, actually. I wish I made that more of a character. Asking dumb questions is always my thing. I just think it’s funny, but your approach to children is different than it is interviewing Jon Hamm.

So you wish you hadn’t done Between Two Ferns as “Zach Galifianakis?”
I think so. Sometimes, people think you’re the person that you’re actually playing.

The science part [of This Is a Gardening Show] seems like a good Trojan Horse for the dietary aspect. I still remember, when I was a kid, one of the most satisfying things was planting a seed and a few months later being, like, “Holy sh-t, there’s a carrot there now.”
That would’ve been a good name for the show, Holy Sh-t, There’s a Carrot. For me, it’s about the small miracles that are in the garden and the pleasure you get from producing a carrot out of basically nothing. It’s fascinating. To take a small seed and then it becomes a 25-pound pumpkin, there’s a lot of reward in that for people. Not for everybody, but for people like me.

[From THR]

Having just binged the cringe of all six episodes (they’re each only about 15 minutes long), I soundly agree that Holy Sh-t, There’s a Carrot would have been an excellent name for the show. It captures a lot of the spontaneous energy on screen that the staid This Is a Gardening Show doesn’t quite tap. It goes without saying (but watch me say it), that this is not Martha Stewart’s how-to gardening tutorial. Zach’s show is loose, whimsical, informative, hilarious, ineffable (it truly can’t be effed). And while I think this is perhaps the closest we’ve ever gotten to seeing the “real” Zach, it’s still obviously a character he’s playing to facilitate everything that happens within the show. Like the way he maintains the deadpan when interviewing the kids, which is seemingly conducted on school grounds where production took them out one at a time from school activities so they could make great TV with Zach. There’s one interview at the beginning of episode three that had me wheezing and shaking with laughter so hard I almost couldn’t breathe. Also, not for nothing, Zach’s hair really must be seen to be believed.

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Photos via Netflix Press and credit Getty Images