I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I’ll say it again, you’ll get sick of hearing it, then I’ll say it one more time: Patton Oswalt is the best stand-up comedian currently working in America.
(Needless disclaimer: That’s in a realm where Dave Chappelle has stepped away from the spotlight, and where Louis C.K. is an incredibly close second. It’s just that Patton talks more often about the things that are so much on my mind, like bad movies and religion and time travel, that he’s just got to be my number one.)
It’s a stellar time to be a Patton fan. If August was the month of Tarantinian ubiquity, it seems like September has the potential to be the month of Oswaltesque omnipresence. Patton has a finger in just about every pie nowadays, and that’s not a weight crack either. Check it:
His new stand-up album, My Weakness Is Strong, is available in stores and on iTunes. It’s brilliant. It really is. I’ve listened to it four times already, and it’s still fresh. The guy’s insight goes deep and ranges wide. I saw him working out the new material several months back at Caroline’s, and even when not entirely finished, every routine was perceptive, piercing, and thunderously funny. The Sky Cake routine in particular is an instant classic, though there is comparable greatness in every moment of My Weakness Is Strong. He’s on tour behind it all fall, returning to New York for the Comedy Festival in November.
Patton is everywhere on TV these days. He always delivers on late-night talk shows and Comedy Central roasts, and he’s an awesomely informative, listenable and readable interview. His recurring roles on King Of Queens and Reno 911 are airing in perpetuity. He was on the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse and he’s writing a Firefly comic for Dark Horse. He’s signed up as a regular in the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica. He’s all over TV, and if you watch Comedy Central you also know that Patton Oswalt is friends with Zach Galifianakis. The two of them are like comedy hobbits, rotund heroes of originality treading a dangerous path through the treacherous terrain of Mordor that is our modern junk culture. You can next see these guys together in the upcoming Jonathan Ames/ HBO project, Bored To Death.
Patton’s in movies too! His dramatic starring role, in Big Fan, is currently accumulating all kinds of praise from all corners. He recently made a brief but memorably nasty appearance in one of the most overlooked movies of 2009, Observe & Report. His voice of course continues to echo through the homes of families everywhere, where discerning kids watch Ratatouille on loop. He’ll also be seen soon in Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!
Patton Oswalt doesn’t sleep.
Patton Oswalt doesn’t front.
Patton Oswalt doesn’t quit.
Patton Oswalt is everywhere right now. And that’s entirely, completely, a very good thing.
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