Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Then his wife, true-crime writerMichelle McNamara, surprisingly died in her sleep and everything changed.
Time passed and Oswalt decided that he needed to get back onstage.
Ive gotta go do what I do, he tells me.
This is what I know how to do.
The result was his special,Annihilation.
Listen to the episode and read an short excerpt of the discussion below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Monday onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
As a comic who turns over material after its out there, were you thinking about doing stand-up again?
Were you already developing anything?You know what?
No, not really.
I was very content and happy about that.
Im suddenly a single dad.
I honestly didnt know if I could do it again.
Related Stories
It would be four months before you went onstage in August.
People are like, Your wife passed away.
What are you doing?
I knew that Id have to address it.
I just didnt know how.
Especially with taking care of a daughter and keeping house.
It just was beyond what I could imagine.
It was not in my skill set to deal with that level of jeopardy and error.
So I shut down for a long time.
At first it was aboutOkay, I gotta get through the day-to-day.
Get Alice up, get her to sleep at night while shes crying.
Deal with her nightmares.
Deal with my nightmares.
And then, four months down the road, I said, Well, I gotta.
It didnt even feel like I gotta go.
I just didnt know what else to do.
Just flailing like Im about to go into a fight, but Im blindfolded.
So, Im just gonna swing my arms around everywhere.
It was not like, I need to do this emotionally or creatively, but Im a comedian.
This is what a comedian does.Yes, exactly.
In fact, that was the way that I was able to get back onstage.
Ive gotta go do what I do.
This is what I know how to do.
I read that you dont remember what you talked about the first time.
It seems like atonal avant-garde music when I look at it.
It doesnt really make any sense.
It was more bullet points.
I thought I would go onstage and start crying.
There were nights when I was …
It was really, really uncomfortable those nights.
I just cant remember the exact moment.
I dont have it in my head.
It was a big theater.
It was at the Beacon.Oh, the Beacon!
Its not for me to say, Oh, this is entertaining, or not.
You shouldnt be doing this.
You are very prolific, but that is an incredibly fast turnaround.
I thought it would curdle or either get maudlin or ghoulish.
I thought that would be disrespectful to her.
I wanted them to see me maybe not at my best.
You see me early on like, Im never getting married, Im never having kids fuck that.
And then Im in love.
I have a kid.
You see this development.
I put the camera on me, warts and all, and this was part of warts and all.
This was an extreme version of that.
So, it was a year and two months after my wife passed that I recorded this.
Is it for you?
Is it for your audience?Its a combination of things.
Its very life-affirming for me to do comedy.
So, theres a selfish aspect to it in that I like the feeling of it.
I like being loved and understood.
But then I also like entertaining people.
I like making people laugh.
