Patton Oswalt, Fresh Off the Boat, and Jemaine Clement

Episode 170

17th March 2015

Jesse Thorn talks to Patton Oswalt about the years he spent basically completely indoors. Later, he sits down with Randall Park and Nahnatchka Khan, the star and showrunner, respectively, of the new sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Plus, Jemaine Clement reveals the song that changed his life and Jesse tells about the disintegration of Sly and the Family stone and the perfect album they made along the way.

Episode notes

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Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Patton Oswalt on Immersion in Art (and Life)

There was a period of time in the mid to late 1990s when Patton Oswalt spent most of his waking hours indoors. He’d be in a TV writers’ room all day, make his way to the movie theater for a film or two, and then hit the stand up stage before going to sleep. Then he’d get up and do it all over again.

His movie obsession was supposed to teach him how to be a filmmaker and create better art, but he found he was missing out on life, and art was no substitute.

Oswalt’s new book is called Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life From an Addiction to Film.

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Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Jemaine Clement on Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life”

You likely know Jemaine Clement best as half of the New Zealand comedy-music duo The Flight of the Conchords. Their show ran for several seasons on HBO.

More recently, Clement co-wrote, -directed and -stars in the new movie What We Do in the Shadows, about modern day vampire housemates.

What song changed his life? Stevie Wonder’s recording of “For Once in My Life”.

What We Do in the Shadows is in theaters now.

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Photo: ABC/Bob D’Amico

The Asian-American Sitcom in 2015: Randall Park and Nahnatchka Khan on ‘Fresh Off the Boat’

Fresh Off the Boat is the first network sitcom about Asian-Americans in a long time, and that’s a big deal. The creative team behind the show, including memoirist Eddie Huang, showrunner Nahnatchka Khan and star Randall Park have publicly grappled with that blessing and burden. How do you retain the specificity of the Tawainese-American experience and provide that to a group of Americans who are hungry for mass-market representation, and also make a show that’s big-tent enough to welcome hundreds of millions of Americans who don’t know what bao are?

We’re joined by Nahnatchka Khan and Randall Park to talk about trying to achieve those goals, how they see their own American experiences, and how to write a sitcom dad who’s not dumb.

Fresh Off the Boat airs Tuesday nights at 8/7c on ABC.

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The Outshot: The Perfect Sly & the Family Stone Album

Jesse explains how Sly and the Family Stone made a perfect album, even as they slowly disintegrated as a group.

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In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • Patton Oswalt
  • Randall Park
  • Nahnatchka Khan
  • Jemaine Clement

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Video Editor

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