Patton Oswalt at the Pantages Theatre
Fans of Patton Oswalt knew what they were in for Saturday night at the Pantages: plenty of tirades, a few nerdy pop-culture references, and the near constant self-deprecation of a man who says his profession has surpassed stripping as the bellwether for bad parenting (“I tell strangers about my dick for a living. That’s not normal.”). After warm-up act Cy Amundson won over the crowd, against all odds, with a quick set that relied heavily on jokes about pedophilia and infanticide, Oswalt took the stage and tackled a number of familiar topics. Among them: his weight (Why do diet campaigns show happy people eating salads? A more realistic image would be Oswalt scowling at an apple with the tagline “You piece of shit”), his experiences in Hollywood (“All romantic comedies should be called Trying To Fuck. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are Trying To Fuck”), and religion (If people can make political decisions according to the Bible, why can’t he demand free hot dogs by citing A Confederacy Of Dunces?).
Some rants weren’t so straightforward, with the comedian veering off to paint pictures as only a frustrated English major can. During a story about getting a parking ticket, Oswalt took a detour to imagine Dr. Seuss trying to impress women in a bar, culminating with the line “I made your Christmases magical, bitches!” (All of this to somehow explain how ridiculous he looks in sweatpants, a recurring theme in Oswalt’s sets now that he’s a sleep-deprived father.) Some tangents worked better than others: A bit about an obese man at a deli ordering “all the ham” led to a Terminator-inspired time-travel fantasy that felt like a reach.
But even the weakest bits were received, as Oswalt pointed out, like he “just did a BMX bike trick.” He’s been doing stand-up for two decades and the benefit of experience comes across, particularly when he’s dealing with obnoxious audience members. After someone in the balcony yelled, “Spencer!” Oswalt asked if the guy was just going to rattle off his IMDb page and announced, “You’re enjoying what I do wrong,” likening shouting at your favorite comedian to going to a corn-on-the-cob stand and saying, “This corn rocks,” then shoving it up your ass. Ultimately, Oswalt and his interrupter had a pleasant enough conversation about the latter’s study of nutrition science, leading the comedian to ask if one of his classes was Ham: How Can I Have All Of It? 101. He may be a little too good at this off-the-cuff ribbing, which means he’ll always have misguided fans who wind him up just to watch him go.
