Oswalt Serves Notice
'Alternative' comedian shows his success is
well-deserved with new CD of material
Patton
Oswalt’s new CD, “Werewolves & Lollipops,” confirms his capability as
one of the most original and creative stand-up comedians working today.
Really, Oswalt’s success in the marketplace has probably already
confirmed that, but this CD is good evidence that he’s there creatively
as well.
Oswalt does fall under the category of observational humor, but he has
also positioned himself as more than just an entertainer. On the CD,
Oswalt gets to discourse at length, rolling out more of his own
personality as a sci-fi fan dork and a disenchanted Southerner (well,
he’s from Northern Virginia, anyway) who revels in mocking Nascar
culture.
Previously, Oswalt served notice he is one to watch with the “No Reason
To Complian” DVD (reviewed here in April
2006), and here he taps his own straightforward observational
critiques of behavior and pop culture that come out skewed because of
the frustrated common sense Oswalt brings to bear.
Take his now infamous crack at KFC menu choices -- calling their “meal
bowls” mix of chicken, potatoes and gravy all in one a “failure pile in
a sadness bowl,” yearning to actually eat with a knife and fork like a
human being with dignity.
And in his sci-fi fandom, Oswalt takes off on wishing the Star Wars
prequels never got made in “…At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas with a
Shovel.” Imagining meeting Lucas and being told the first prequel will
be about Darth Vader as a little kid, and the second will have Boba Fett
as a kid, Oswalt says, “No! I want to see them with the helmet and the
light saber, fighting and everything! I don’t care where they came
from!”
Driving the point home, Oswalt says “I love Angelina Jolie, but I’m not
turned on by a picture of Jon Voight’s ball sac…”
With a burgeoning Hollywood career as the voice talent star of
“Ratatouille” and a sought-after comedy script doctor, Oswalt can still
bite the hand that is feeding him so well, too. In “…Death Bed,” he
mocks his own occasional writer’s block by imagining a screenwriter in
the 1970s being perfectly happy to write a terrible horror movie of the
same name.
Just like Oswalt won’t settle for writing a crummy movie like “Death
Bed,” he doesn’t settle for writing material that isn’t well thought
out, and that makes “Werewolves & Lollipops” a must own. His material is
looser and more dependent on pop culture that could get dated than that
of the master, George Carlin, but he’s certainly got enough wit and
intelligence to make it interesting to see where he’ll go on future
albums. |