DVD Review: Hysterical Stand-up of ‘Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour’

CHICAGO – Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest stand-up comedians alive. You may not know the name but you almost certainly know who he is. He’s had such a diverse career, including scene-stealing work on TV (“King of Queens”), the lead role in a beloved Pixar film (“Ratatouille”), great indie flicks (“Big Fan”), cable series (“The United States of Tara”), and even a CFCA-nominated performance in last year’s “Young Adult.” As GREAT as all of that is, Patton Oswalt’s greatest gift (outside of perhaps being one of the people for whom Twitter was invented) may be on a stand-up comedy stage. Watch the Grammy-nominated “Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour,” recently released on DVD, and tell me I’m wrong.

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0

I’m a big fan of stand-up but the fact is that we can’t review most of the ones that come into the HollywoodChicago.com office. There’s a non-stop flow of them. We’d have to write one a week. We made an exception a few weeks ago with the strong “Donald Glover: Weirdo [10]” but Oswalt’s is even more remarkable. On the short list of the smartest people doing stand-up comedy regularly nowadays (with Louis C.K. and, well, those are the top two now that Patrice O’Neal is, very sadly, gone), Patton Oswalt is simply brilliant. Like all of the best comics, he carves his own rhthym, refusing to follow a traditional setup-punchline formula or even cliched stories. Sure, he talks about sleep deprivation from children and fast food — common stand-up subjects — but he puts his own stamp on it. Just watch it. You won’t regret it.

Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour was released on DVD on April 24, 2012
Photo credit: Paramount

Synopsis:
A 20-year veteran of the stand-up comedy scene with multiple critically acclaimed DVDs, albums, tours and various acting and voiceover roles under his belt, Patton Oswalt has become ubiquitous in the world of stand-up. In his fourth (and Grammy Nominated) full-length special, Patton covers a range of topics from how hipsters make the Spam museum sad, the greatness of sweatpants and revisits his attack on KFC Famous Bowls.

Special Features:
o Encore - KFC Bit
o Pre-Show Superstitions
o Stuff That Patton Mentions

[11]	By BRIAN TALLERICO [12] Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com [11]