Gen X-ers, D & D nerds, music geeks, and sci-fi buffs rejoice! Your leader is coming! The pop culture-loving, George Lucas-judging, comic book-obsessing, Sterling, Virginia-hating comedian Patton Oswalt will make a Tampa stop at the Straz Center, Sat. Aug. 29.
“Who is Patton Oswalt?” a minuscule number of you ask, including, probably my parents. Well, you know him. You know him from one of a thousand things he has done in the last 20 years including: best friend Spence on King of Queens, Constable Bob Sweeney on Justified, Fire Marshall Boone on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the ball grabbing Teddy Sykes on Veep, the lovably pathetic Matt Freehauf in Young Adult and as the voice of Remy in Disney’s Ratatouille.
But it’s through his stand up comedy and his books, New York Times Best Seller Zombie Spaceship Wasteland and the recent release Silver Screen Fiend, that fans truly know him the best. He is a teller of truths when it comes to politics, his suburban youth, American culture, his geekery vs. his nerdery and especially his hatred of the last Star Wars movies. “The first thing I thought of doing if I actually had a time machine, is that I would go back in time to about 1993 or '94, and kill George Lucas with a shovel.”
Tickets are $30-$50, go on sale at 10 a.m. online and at noon the Straz Center box office by phone or in person at Friday May 29. For more information call 813-229-7827 or 800-955-1045 or strazcenter.org.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2015.