Silver Screen Fiend

February 2, 2015
In this dynamic memoir, comedian and author Patton Oswald writes of his obsessive four-year love affair with film. Arriving in LA to chase his dream of standup stardom, Oswalt was seduced by films, from classic to contemporary, and spent four years racing from theater to theater to catch everything from latest blockbuster to Hammer retrospective. Oswalt's celluloid odyssey provides a framework for his education as an artist and human being. A brash suburbanite when he arrives on the West Coast, Oswalt endures one humiliation after another â bombing onstage in San Francisco, getting fired from MADtv â on his way to success, and still manages to keep his soul. Silver Screen Fiend serves as a sort-of a sequel to a previous memoir (Zombie Spaceship Wasteland). Two memoirs in quick succession from a, relatively, young man might raise doubts but Oswalt's unique voice and offbeat conceits save him from any danger of a sophomore slump. While he does indulge in the typical Hollywood smoke blowing â every peer is a genius! Prodigy! Seventh Wonder! â his sardonic self-awareness and fascination with the minutiae of film history are seductive. Oswalt's sentences crackle with energy and humor; this stand-up comic is also a sit-down one.

January 1, 2015

Comedian and performer Oswalt (Zombie Spaceship Wasteland) has come up with another delightful, easy-to-read, and entertaining book, focusing on his years as an obsessive film buff when he was first starting out in Los Angeles. He recounts how his movie addiction intertwined and influenced his stand-up comedy, his writing, his acting career, and his personal life. The many funny stories include instances when he was performing comedy and someone thought it was an AA meeting and when he tried to do live readings of the Jerry Lewis movie script The Day the Clown Cried and received a cease-and-desist order. His film obesssion began to taper off after he viewed George Lucas's The Phantom Menace, about which his brother said, "This is like watching C-SPAN but everyone's wearing monster masks." Oswalt finally got tired of watching a movie every night, but it is fun to hear about his experience. VERDICT Oswalt's humorous take on life makes this a very enjoyable book. Recommended for those who love comedy, autobiographies, movies, entertainment, humor, and stand-up. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14; five-city tour.]--Sally Bryant, Pepperdine Univ. Lib., Malibu, CA

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