This week, Patton Oswalt\u2014award-winning standup comedian, actor and writer\u2014joins us to discuss his new comedy special and the preparation and creative process behind it. Oswalt talks about his penchant for observational humor, the career advice he continues to follow and his plans for his directorial debut. Below, you can watch the full episode, read highlights from our conversation and shop the products Oswalt uses to fuel his success.<\/p>\n
On His Approach To Comedy Specials<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a steady thing ever since my first special, which is I\u2019m always doing standup. I\u2019m always thinking of how the next hour is going to gel. Right now I\u2019m in that weird period before the special drops [on June 9th] where I\u2019ve got a lot of new stuff. There are a few things I can still do from the special because [no one] has seen it yet\u2026you\u2019re kind of saying goodbye to a lot of the stuff that you are dependent on and know is going to kill, but then you remember there are all these other hours you\u2019ve written.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like going through life. You\u2019re going to keep meeting new people. This got so cheesy, but basically you are. Comedy is always a thing that I do, so I think of a special or an album as, okay, now we\u2019re checking in a year down the road, here\u2019s what\u2019s happening, see you in another year and a half or so, and then we\u2019ll check in again. I\u2019m always doing it, but you don\u2019t need to see the whole process of me up on stage Tuesday night at the Laugh Factory or Sunday at the Largo working out new stuff [with] a piece of paper like, \u2018Let\u2019s see if this works.\u2019 They\u2019re like editions of magazines; here\u2019s how I\u2019m feeling at this year, at this time, at this age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Patton Oswalt<\/p>\n
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On The Best Career Advice He\u2019s Received<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two [pieces of advice] actually. One is, and this is, in a way, a more general sense, but for some reason it really works for me: don\u2019t get too high on the highs, and don\u2019t get too low in the lows. You will have both, and both can hurt you if you don\u2019t handle them correctly. You can get way too high\u2026that can mess you up just as much as you can mess up [by] going, \u2018I\u2019m never getting out of this bit.\u2019 It\u2019s up and down. And then the other one is that every day is a rainy day. Every day in this business, in the creative world, in the lunar professions is a rainy day. Don\u2019t live beyond your means if you\u2019re a creative.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m paraphrasing Harlan Ellison when he was talking about writing, but anyone can become a stand-up comedian; it\u2019s just really hard to stay one. So you\u2019ve got to live in a way that\u2019s not beholden to debt or ego. George Carlin said, \u2018I never wanted to own a house that I was using to scare people with because when you do then you\u2019re beholden to nine other things that have nothing to do with your comedy.\u2019 So keep everything as small-scaled as you possibly can so that you have the freedom to do what you want and to work with who you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
On The Importance Of Observation As A Comedian<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really have to fight for the space to observe and withdraw and watch both other people\u2019s behavior and pay attention to your own because entertainers, especially now\u2014this is a much bigger topic\u2014have less and less non-performing time. It feels like in order to be in entertainment or the arts, you\u2019ve got to be shooting content for your Insta, shooting stuff for your TikTok\u2026you\u2019re performing authenticity. So now, authenticity is becoming something that drains you. It\u2019s going to be really interesting to see how that affects not just comedy but anything where you have to observe life and then reflect it back in a unique way, when so much of your energy is now being taken toward promoting yourself so that people will look at the stuff where you\u2019re saying that you\u2019re observing reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
On How He Prepares New Material<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very old school, I have a notebook. I use the classic composition notebook with the speckled black-and-white cover. My notebooks are a combination of me writing [the] beginnings of jokes as best I can\u2014I can\u2019t sit and write jokes. That\u2019s something I\u2019m going to try and do for the next [comedy] album. What I do is I have an idea, and I just kind of work it out on stage over successive nights, and then it becomes [a joke]. Because I want to keep it conversational while also flexing some new muscles I\u2019m not comfortable with, maybe I\u2019ll do more actual sitting and writing. <\/p>\n
My notebooks are all jotted-down ideas and then clippings of things, like just a picture from a magazine or a name that I\u2019ve heard that written down\u2026I think artists call them a morgue, where you collect pictures and images of things that might inspire you or something later, so you just collect it all together. It\u2019s a weird combination. Anyone looking through my notebooks is like, \u2018This looks like the serial killer from Seven.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Patton Oswalt<\/p>\n
On Dressing For Different Occasions<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a travel \u2018suit\u2019 which is a nice loose pair of jeans, really good walking shoes and then this short-sleeved hoodie with a pocket in front that I can shove stuff in when I\u2019m in the airport. Then I have my wheeled Tumi suitcase\u2014there\u2019s a very specific one that fits in the overheads\u2014and then my Tumi briefcase<\/a> that slides onto it perfectly. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m on stage, it\u2019s always a T-shirt and a button-up shirt; nothing crazy, but I dress nice for the stage. It\u2019s the same clothing during the days I [have to] travel to keep it really simple\u2026I don\u2019t like to have too much stuff\u2026especially [on] a travel day when I have enough anxiety because airports have gotten so insane now. I make the preparation for travel just no-brainer stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Patton Oswalt\u2019s Tools For Success:A Travel Ritual: \u201cThis is going to sound kind of insane. I bring a Ziploc bag of PG Tips Tea Bags<\/a>, and when I land, I buy some honey\u2026and then I always ask for an electric tea kettle in the [hotel] room so I can make myself that specific cup of tea\u2014two bags, honey. That\u2019s a reset for me and helps me calm down.\u201dAn Enthralling Read: \u201cThe last great book that I\u2019ve read, I\u2019m in the middle of it right now actually. It\u2019s called Stoner<\/a> by John Williams. It\u2019s kind of a slow-motion horror story, but it\u2019s not a horror novel. It\u2019s about suburban, domestic, academic collapse. It\u2019s an incredible read.\u201dA Go-To Writing Tool: \u201cThere\u2019s the Pilot G7 pen<\/a>, [in] black or blue. The G7, not the G10; it\u2019s too thick. Anything below a G7, it\u2019s too thin. The G7 is my favorite writing instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the full interview on YouTube<\/a> or stream it on Spotify<\/a> and Apple<\/a> Podcasts. For more Forbes Talks Shop episodes, visit our YouTube<\/a> page. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, Patton Oswalt\u2014award-winning standup comedian, actor and writer\u2014joins us to discuss his new comedy special and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-727943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}