Sam Jones
As a short, chunky 27-year-old with two useless bachelor’s degrees, I don’t exactly have a ton of role models. George Costanza is a terrible influence, and Tom Cruise, only an inch taller than my 5 foot-6-inch self, is too athletic for me. I didn’t have much direction in life until I saw a round little man with a faux-hawk haircut talking about KFC Famous Bowls in the mid-2000s. That man? Patton Oswalt, comedian extraordinaire.
The versatile funnyman is coming back to Madison on July 10, to once again rock the Orpheum with his riffs on contemporary society.
I’ve been a big fan of this Big Fan star literally forever at this point. The very, very very first time I did stand-up, which was 10 years ago when I was but 17 years old, the host at Madison Comedy on State said, upon my exit: “Give it up for Baby Patton Oswalt, everyone!” When I used to serve at a chicken wings restaurant, numerous people stopped me and said I remind them of that short fellow from The King of Queens.
I devoured his books Zombie, Spaceship,Wasteland and Silver Screen Fiend. I mainlined his stand-up specials and CDs like they were going out of style. I’m a Feeling Kinda Patton stan through and through, although Werewolves and Lollipops is…actually, maybe flip them? It’s hard to pick a favorite. He’s had cameos in basically every TV show known to humankind, with my personal favorite being his two-episode turn as “Male Nurse Jackie” in Community.
His comedy has changed over time, changing with the man himself. Less common now are the geeky references or screeds about murdering Star Wars creators with gardening implements. Now he’s more likely to confront family issues or genuine tragedies, such as the passing of his wife, and the horrors of the world at large.
At this point in his career, with the unfortunate cancellations of both SyFy’s Happy! adaptation and NBC’s terribly underrated A.P. Bio, the world is this comedy star’s oyster. I got a chance to chat briefly with Oswalt over the phone, and I asked him about myriad subjects.
Here’s Oswalt on…
The 2009 film Big Fan: It was an incredible movie to get to make. It was a really good script. The guy who made it [Robert Siegel] also wrote The Wrestler and was an editor at The Onion for years. He's just such a fantastic writer, and to get to realize a character like that was amazing. I had just an absolute blast making that movie.
Taking more dramatic roles: I get offered all kinds of stuff. I just go with what’s interesting. I don’t really care about genres, I just want to do a script that’s interesting.
Punch-up: I've done a ton of things, I've written for so many. A lot of animated films for DreamWorks, did writing on the Borat movie, a lot of the Farrelly brother movies, Tropic Thunder, stuff like that. There's just too many to name.
Regretting not taking a part: If I turn something down, it's because it doesn't feel right for me. Then, when I see it done later, the person that they cast ended up being the right person. So, sure, it’s like, yeah, I wasn't in that movie, but maybe I woulda stunk in that film. Maybe it’s right that I turned it down. Maybe it's better for everybody. That's kinda my philosophy on that.
Whether any jokes took a particularly long time to perfect: I can't really think in those terms. When I do a special, that material is kind of gone. I'm sure there are things that I worked at over the years, but there's nothing I ever kept track of. I’m sure that was part of the process.
The LA comedy scene: It’s just the talent pool, it’s so amazing right now, and everyone is running their own shows. There’s this amazing cross-pollination of people who are watching each other and getting inspired by each other. The whole overall feel of it just feels like everyone's firing on all cylinders. It feels like the early ’90s again. It's not really the heyday; it’s more like the heyday comes in cycles.
The next phase of comedy: I have no idea. I don't know, that’s the fun of it. That’s what’s great about it! If I knew what the next thing was going to be, it’d be really boring for me.
Podcasts: If I come up with a really good idea for one, yeah, but I don't really have one. The field is just so crowded right now with amazing shows that I don't know what I’d do.
