Patton Oswalt, or as he referred to himself, "Sleepy McGee," headlined the Straz in a bit of a daze Saturday night, apologizing for his jetlagged state and repeatedly pining for the Ambien awaiting him at his hotel room. The show at Straz's Morsani Hall was Oswalt's only stop in Florida, which he dutifully ridiculed as America's "droopy ball sack" and called the Mordor of the United States.
The comedian's tour re-commences on Sept. 10, taking him from St. Louis to Denver to Dallas and New Orleans. No doubt there will be more Ambien in his future.
The 46-year-old film, Internet and TV star — an A-lister with nerds and liberal arts grads, and the guy from King of Queens to everyone else — dispensed riffs with a relaxed and amiable ease. Even while in the throes of his trademark rants and complaints, Oswalt never let his curmudgeonly dark side completely take over. He respectfully worked the crowd, refraining from taking cheap shots — though he hilariously took an anesthesiology assistant to task for being so mellow that she was putting him to sleep.
Some of Oswalt's funniest bits were off those off-the-cuff exchanges with audience members in the first row. He proved that he can be just as eloquent unrehearsed. His topics ranged from Trump to Bernie Sanders to raising his daughter to Hillary Clinton and why a woman is needed in charge after a man to clean up his power splooges. Oswalt's demonstration of a male testosterone burst by ingeniously employing a phallic mic stand was one of the high points of the show.
Some of Oswalt's major bits were recycled, such as the hipster birthday clown from hell and some of his Christmas jokes. Perhaps, that's okay at the clubs with the two-drink minimum. For the amount of money people spend on tickets at the Straz, Oswalt should have tried to include more new material — and give himself a day or two to recover from jet lag. (Psst, Patton, it won't kill you to spend some time in Tampa. We've got bands, bars and restaurants you'd really like.)
Still, the guy is funny, and his jokes are worth a second, third, fourth listen, from the "brap-brap-brap," side-of-the-mouth muttered onomatopoeias to his vivid descriptions of one-percenters windswept on a yacht listening to Hall and Oates, Oswalt was the perfect combo of intellect and id, and we hope he comes back to overcharge us again.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2015.