For visuals while you’re listening, go to. I’m your host June Cohen, and on this episode, you’ll hear original music composed on piano and viola. So imagine his terror when he thought that chapter of his life was over. Young children know him by his voice, as Remy the Rat in Ratatouille, and you might know him from an epic, eight-minute, completely improvised rant about Star Wars on the show Parks and Recreation.īut stand-up is the art form Patton always comes back to.

He’s starred in feature films and a bunch of beloved TV shows. Patton has been a stand-up comedian since the ’90s, coming up in the alt-comedy scene. This hour is about falling in love again, with his second wife, Meredith Salenger, and also the trivial things that give life texture - like the Denny’s restaurant franchise. The second special is Annihilation’s polar opposite, which you can probably tell by its title: I Love Everything. It was the first hour of comedy Patton recorded after the sudden death of his wife, Michelle McNamara. The first special, Annihilation, was released in 2017. Patton will also share some universal advice on what to do when your creativity just won’t flow - and how to start completely fresh on a new project and a new era.Īnd here’s what you need to know about Patton and his two stand-up specials. You’ll hear how friends and family, cast and crew, all helped him get back on his comedic feet and build creative momentum.

But it’s also a universal story on how grief can give way to creativity, and creativity can forge a path through grief, if you open yourself up, and allow others to carry you forward.Īs Patton takes us on the journey of developing these two works, you’ll hear how - in the depths of his own despair - he found inspiration in other funny people. It’s Patton’s personal story of rediscovering his comedic voice after his wife’s sudden death - and channeling it into two very different hours of comedy. And he’s about to tell us the story of making two comedy specials: Annihilation and I Love Everything. JUNE COHEN: That’s comedian Patton Oswalt. It really felt like, oh, you found out something about yourself that you didn’t know. So, being able to make jokes about that was a … I don’t know.

It was absolute indifference to whether or not I lived or died. PATTON OSWALT: Annihilation is almost like a - I don’t want to get all pretentious about this - but it’s a nice little document that shows that I can adapt to, and adjust to, and survive more than I thought that I could, because there were weeks and months after Michelle passed where I would’ve been very happy to have been annihilated, and not exist anymore.

Serenity by Patton Oswalt