photo by Zach Klein @ thatotherpaper.com

Released in August of this year, stand up comedian Patton Oswalt’s brand spanking new DVD My Weakness is Strong is without doubt the funniest thing I’ve encountered in a long time. Although Oswalt has flirted with mainstream fame for a while now, appearing in films like Ratatouille and Magnolia as well as TV shows such as The King of Queens and Reaper, this stand up special should by rights propel him to at best superstardom and at worst Bill Hicks style cult idolatry.

Oswalt is very much at the forefront of the American alternative comedy scene alongside true originals such as Zack Galifianakis and Maria Bamford, emerging with a unique take on post modern existence and peppering his act with references to obscure fan boy trivia and music. But what makes My Weakness is Strong so superb is that it is expertly well honed and streamlined, leaving behind the meandering, scattershot approach of his perhaps better known contemporaries David Cross and Brian Posehn.

The truly great comedians of our age like Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle all have one thing in common, the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary, to delve into the minutiae of life and somehow elevate it. Oswalt has that self same gift, turning a story about texting his wife or seeing a rat in his back yard into an existential treatise on life itself. In this instance Oswalt’s esoteric style very much separates him from the new brand of ultra filthy first person confessional comics currently so popular in America. People like Jim Norton, Louis CK and Doug Stanhope are undeniably funny but ultimately use comedy as a kind of weapon to bludgeon their audience with brutal and graphic self truths. The difference is perhaps comparable to the disparity between listening to American alt rock band The Twilight Singers and then popping on The Dead Kennedys, they’re both good but operating on completely different levels.

Like a lot of great comedians Oswalt is also a damn good straight actor and is taking his first lead role in Big Fan, a Taxi Driver-esque character piece written and directed by The Wrestler screenwriter Robert Siegel. I for one can’t wait to see Oswalt flex his acting chops in a movie with such great pedigree. And let’s hope he doesn’t take the route of other great American comedians such as Eddie Murphy and turn his back on comedy for the far more lucrative world of shite Hollywood films about talking animals, people in fat suits and wise cracking cops.

Having produced the finest stand up comedy show for years, for Patton Oswald the only way is up.