Patton Oswalt - Finest Hour

Showtime has really been stepping their game up recently with their specials. The Nick DiPaolo special recently was pretty aces and this new Patton special is good, too. It's called Finest Hour, and while is somewhat of a misnomer, it's still good. The man has said himself that personal happiness is the death of comedy. It's not 100% the case here, and judging by the anecdote about his brother, someone in the Oswalt clan is carrying the torch, but the new-father stuff leaves me a little cold. Patton is becoming the George Carlin of the Daily Show set, a role that makes me a little uneasy personally, but that's time for you, I guess. Regardless of my issues, fans of Patton will revel in this even if it may be a bit lighter in tone than the pre-papa Patton.

Get Finest Hour and the **ahem** skinny on all things Patton and/or Oswalt here.

R

Patton Oswalt - Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

I like Patton Oswalt. I've been struggling for a while as to how he first came on my radar. I know it was before I saw the taping for the second Comedy Central special, but it strikes me there was a forum before that. My memory issues aside, Patton has become quite a force of late, doing a host of TV and movie writing and acting and curating the exceedingly successful Comedians Of Comedy Tour(s). I'm pretty sure there's another live record in the pipeline, but in the interim Patton seems to have scared himself up a book deal.

On paper (ha!) Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is a great idea. Patton is an engagingly erudite writer, breaking the book down into various anecdotes, lists, and philosophical chapters. I got the audio book, which again seems like a great idea. It's always best to hear the actual author's voice whenever possible. Oswalt ups the ante by littering the book with REM anecdotes and having them actually voiced by Michael Stipe. (As I understand from a recent Patton TV appearance, may of the lines are misquoted, but our Mr. Stipe was nice enough to play along for the best of the audio book). I have to admit it's pretty badass. Now all the previous seems to be tinged with the portent of some impending textbook JS-NYC hate, but that's not actually the case. The anecdotes are decent, although I think most of them would come off better in print and you could see the end of The Victory Tour story about three minutes into the 40 minute bit. The D&D stuff is charming, but a lot of the stuff here seems to be sight gags articulated by Patton, perhaps to their detriment. I'm going to try and snag a copy of the book and see if it comes off any better, but I have little hope for the concept that gives the book its name. It's kind of a funny bit, and does ok in tying in some of the previous chapters, but all in all, I think I've heard better. I'm sure that Patton is losing a lot of sleep over that. In the interim, I'm going to read this and see if I like it any better. Stay tuned, but in the interim I wholly urge you to ignore this asshole and grab Zombie Spaceship Wasteland here.

R

Big Fan @ The Friars Club 2.23.10

As my life grows more ironic as I move towards my old age, I have found myself kind of in the film business. Long story, but coincident with said move, my dear friend Eric Johnson invited me to a function at The Friars Club that would feature a screening of Big Fan. I'm not one to pass up on an evening with the Brothers Johnson, and a Patton Oswalt helmed movie at The Friars Club pretty much made this a must-attend. I must say at the onset that the screening (and companion Q&A with Robert Siegel afterward) was the first of a series of screenings tied into the film festival that Eric is one of the players behind. I, of course, have lifestyle driven issues that preclude my remembering the name of the festival or the series at this juncture, but stick around and I'll get the skinny soonish.

I was vaguely familiar with the movie's premise through a posting on Patton's web presence and though I'm hardly the hugest sports fan, the Patton factor seemed to be worth the price of admission. I really enjoyed it despite my antipathy towards dram-edys. It's pretty dark and fairly affirming if you are a nerd (and I am). Without going into too much spoiler stuff, it's a great story about an obsessive Giants Fan and the Michael Rapaport scenes are amazing. MR deserves his props but Big Fan also establishes Patton as a pretty great actor. It'll be interesting to see if this will lead to more time with Oswalt in front of the camera. Here's hoping. Get all the skinny on Big Fan here and buy a copy on DVD while you're there. Thanks to Eric. Stay tuned for more info on the series.

R

Maria Bamford - Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome

Maria Bamford came on most of our radars through her spot on the Comedians Of Comedy tour with the unholy trinity of comedy that is Mssrs. Oswalt, Posehn and Galifianakis. She held her own nicely. She may very well be the only comedian, female or male, from whom I will tolerate the regular use of the 'funny voice'. She appears as batshit crazy as Galifianakis, but without the benefit of a beard to use as a jumping off point. I guess it's her apparent normalcy that makes her that much more compelling. You can't go wrong with cute pugs on the cover, either, at least from where I'm sitting. She covers her usual topics: religion, family, workplace stuff. It's all pretty funny, and if it's doesn't actually rock your world outright, it's over in under an hour. I'd check it out. You can buy the record here. Bamford does a fair amount of road work, see if she'll be somewhere near you here.

R