Entertainment Weekly - October 20, 2017

84 EW.COM OCTOBER 20/27, 2017

COMEDYOF MYLIFE

THE ALBUM THAT INSPIRED

ME TO BECOME A COMEDIAN

[ 1 ] Steve Martin’sA Wild and

Crazy Guy. That album starts off

in a very intimate club and then

explodes into the Red Rocks

Amphitheatre. It‘s like, “Oh,

even if I don’t make it to the Red

Rocks part, the whole begin-

ning part sounds like a blast.”

That album is very good at

showing you how every level of

being an entertainer can be fun

if you like what you’re doing.

THE JOKE I’M ASKED ABOUT

THE MOST

I’m asked about theStar

Warsfilibuster that I did on

[ 2 ]Parks and Recreation,

[in which] I imagine the next

three episodes ofStar Wars

and gowaaayinto the pop

culture abyss. I’m asked about

the KFC Famous Bowl [which

he termed “a failure pile in a

sadness bowl”], only because

KFC keeps introducing insane

food items. People say, “Have

you seen this?” It’s like, “I’m

not the KFC watchdog!”

THE JOKE I’M PROUDEST OF

The one about Black Angus

Steakhouse [in which he paro-

dies the macho-aggressive

gluttony of the chain’s ads],

because it’s such a specific

thing for me. That moment

when you can take something

that’s maybe not universal and

make it more universal—that

feels so good on stage when

you can cross over that point.

THE JOKE THAT I WISH

I NEVER TOLD

Even the ones that failed made

me become a better come-

dian. If anything, they guided

me toward what I needed

to be doing. I’m happy for the

jokes that worked and the

jokes that bombed.

THE STAND-UP SPECIAL I

HAVE WATCHED THE MOST

[ 3 ]Richard Pryor: Live in

Concert. I’ve seen that about

20 times. It’s a guy on stage

with one microphone, and he

creates a more vivid movie

than most movies, just with the

way he’s talking and describing

things and becoming animals

or a tire being deflated. He

personifies all these different

things, and it’s just incredible.

THE BEST ADVICE ANOTHER

COMEDIAN EVER GAVE ME

“Make any crowd your crowd.”

THE COMEDIAN WHO

SHOULD BE A LOT MORE

FAMOUS THAN HE/SHE IS

I don’t know why [ 4 ] Brian

Regan isn’t a household name

selling out stadiums. And

Dave Attell should be way more

famous. Together they totally

negate the argument about

clean versus dirty comedy.

Brian’s clean and Dave’s dirty,

and no one cares because

they’re equally brilliant.

THE BEST HECKLE I’VE

HEARD AT ONE OF MY SHOWS

I was in Ireland, opening up

for a band that was getting a

lot of encores. Every time

I would go up to the stage,

they’d hand me a [ 5 ] Guinness.

I went up near the end of

the night, during the band’s

fourth encore, and I went,

“This is my 11th Guinness of

the night,” and someone in

the crowd went, “P---y!”

THE JOKE THAT I WANT TOLD

AT MY FUNERAL

The Aristocrats. And I want

it done as an exquisite

corpse among all my friends,

and they just keep adding

on to it.

THE FUNNIEST WORD

TO SAY ON STAGE

Pants.

1 3 5

The whip-smart comedian returns with the Netflix special

Annihilation(Oct. 17), taking on everything from Trump to

robocalls. But the set turns truly powerful when Oswalt,

48, talks about coping with the death of his wife, Michelle

McNamara. Here, he details the comedy that he’s made—

and the comedy that made him.BY DAN SNIERSON

PATTON OSWALT

2 3 4 5

OSWALT: ELIZABETH MORRIS/NETFLIX;

PARKS AND RECREATION

: NBC/PHOTOFEST;

RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT

: JOHN D. KISCH/SEPARATE CINEMA ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; REGAN: NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY IMAGES; ATTELL: BOBBY BANK/WIREIMAGE