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The Catalyst interview: Patton Oswalt

Bill DeYoung

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Patton Oswalt appears Saturday (Dec. 28) at the Capitol Theatre. Photo: Sam Jones.

There was a time – quite a few years, in fact – when Patton Oswalt was best known as the guy who voiced the gourmet-cooking rat in the Pixar movie Ratatouille.

These days, his four standup comedy specials for Netflix are in regular rotation, he’s an Emmy winner, and a Grammy winner (four of his albums went to No. 1 on the Billboard Comedy Chart), he’s written comic books, voiced video games and is a notorious cinephile, which means he watches movies morning, noon and night, and can converse on the art of film with the precision of a critic and the zeal of a true fan.

Still, for some, he’s still best known as the guy who played Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. That’s what sitcoms will do.

Oswalt, who’ll be onstage Saturday (8 p.m.) at the Capitol Theatre, had a typically varied (and dizzying) year in 2024. In the Apple TV limited series Manhunt, about the search for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, he played Union spymaster Lafayette Baker.

And he hosted The 1% Club, a limited (13 episodes) game show for Fox television.

Oswalt was kind enough to take a phone call from the Catalyst during Christmas week.

 

St. Pete Catalyst: You’re a very busy actor, you do voice work, you’re an author, you have a crazy, insane schedule. Why do you still tour the country doing standup?

Patton Oswalt: Well, standup was the thing that kind of brought me to the dance, and it’s the thing I still love the most, above everything else. I want to make movies, I want to do TV and write stuff, write comics, but getting to go out and do standup is still such a thrill for me. And it will always be. I will always go back to it.

“The 1% Club.” Photo: Amazon Prime.

And what made you agree to emcee a game show?

It was a British show – they sent me the tapes and I really liked it. It kind of felt like crowd work, like you could just talk to people … the short explanation is, it was a lot of fun. And it was just a week – why not? Why not have it under my belt?

 

A lot of comics have a “conversational” style, but you tell complete stories, talking to the audience.

I want it to feel as much like we’re sitting across from each other at a table, and just kind of trading things back and forth. I love that.

 

Are you writing all the time, as things strike you as funny?

Yeah. That’s an impulse now. That’s 35 years of training. I’m just always thinking in terms of “Oh, is this a bit? Is there something here? Can I tie this to something bigger?” I’m always thinking in those terms.

 

You’re in Orlando tonight, before the Clearwater show Saturday. How much will the set change between Orlando and Clearwater? Does it change from night to night?

I have a whole new hour of material, but there will be incidents, I’m sure, during the day that I’ll end up talking about. It just depends on who I run into, and what situations I’m in, and I’ll bring that up onstage. But I can never predict that.

 

Isn’t is risky to put politics into your standup, because you might piss off half the audience?

Yeah, but I think you also piss off half the audience if you act as if nothing is happening out there. Because it is happening to people. You risk looking out of touch and crazy, so I’m always willing to risk that. That doesn’t bother me.

As Lafayette Baker in “Manhunt.” Photo: Apple TV.

James Swanson’s Manhunt is one of my favorite books. Were you a fan of the book? And what was your experience like making that series?

I’m a big history buff, and I loved that book. I listened to the audio book. Fascinated. It was a grueling experience – it was in Savannah in the summer, and I’m in that beard and that coat … but it was also really amazing to see that “We’re treating history like a police procedural,” which very often it is. So getting to act with that kind of energy, but through historical events, I felt was really unique. I loved that.

 

With regard to movies, you said once that you don’t subscribe to that old saying “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” that you’re still finding amazing work in current films. Me, I like films from the ‘40s and ‘50s and find so few contemporary things interesting. What am I missing?

It’s really amazing that a lot of the movies we value from the ‘40s and ‘50s, at their time were not valued. Or looked at as little B-programmers, bottom of the bill, whatever.

Art always finds a way to get through. Even during all of this streaming consolidation, and everything being shut down and movies just being dumped on to streaming if they don’t immediately kill every weekend at the theater … movies have always been in dire straits, and art has always found a way to push through. In this past year, movies like Flow, and My Old Ass, and A Different Man, people can get really amazing stuff through. You just have to look for it.

Being on Letterboxd definitely helps. I’m on there anonymously; I just want to talk to friends and have them say “Go catch this, go and find it,” so that really helps. Just be wired into the people that are talking about movies. There’s stuff out there, always. And there always has been.

 

What’s 2025 look like for you? What have you got lined up that you can talk about?

Oh, man. I’m not trying to be coy, but I actually can’t talk about what’s lined up right now! I’ve got to be quiet about it. I’m sorry!

Tickets for Saturday’s performance are available at this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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