Grab a KFC Bowl© and enjoy Salon's "Patton Oswalt battles his demons (and zombies)" interview...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Sunday, Jan 23, 2011 15:01 ET
Patton Oswalt battles his demons (and zombies)
The comedian talks about his very funny new book, '80s nerd nostalgia and what makes a terrible stand-up comic
By Kerry Lauerman

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/interviews/index.html?story=/books/feature/2011/01/23/patton_oswalt



In a hilarious series of stories and vignettes (and a really wicked series of greeting cards), Oswalt captures the hyper-imaginative id of an '80s suburban boy who grew up desperately battling boredom through the peculiar adventures of his time only to eventually outgrow them. He closes one essay about his addiction to "Dungeons & Dragons" with:

Then I went to a pool party -- the first one I was skinny enough to swim at without my shirt. I made out with a girl, and the curve of her hip and the soft jut of her shoulder blades in a bikini forever trumped the imagined sensation of a sword pommel or spell book.

I spoke to Oswalt recently as he continued his comedy tour, and "Zombies" began to hit bookstores.

You have a line in your book about how writing has always taken a backseat to your "ambition to craft a perfect dick joke."

Oh yeah, oh definitely.