Last year was a big one for Patton Oswalt. He turned 40, became a proud papa and had his first starring role, in Big Fan, the excellent and woefully overlooked film by The Wrestler screenwriter Jason Siegel about a sad-sack parking-lot attendant from Staten Island, whose boundless love for the New York Jets nearly gets him killed. (Playing a murdered gay-rights activist pales in comparison, doesn't it, Sean Penn?) Patton also released his third (and Grammy-nominated) comedy album, My Weakness Is My Strength, which is mostly dedicated to his pre-fatherhood plans for losing weight (“On the treadmill, I look like an anthropomorphic pot of noodles”); cutting back on booze and drugs (“A month with no Prozac, and my depression was like a happy puppy running through my body”); and changing his negative outlook on life (“The Oswalt family crest should be a pair of eyes rolling off to the side”). Let's hope he doesn't get carried away. Standup's cutest curmudgeon has given us a lot of comedy gold over the years. Those KFC Famous Bowls, which he famously called “a failure pile in a sadness bowl,” aren't going to make fun of themselves.
Sat., Feb. 27, 9 p.m., 2010