Patton Oswalt & Zach Galifianakis: Patton vs. Alcohol vs. Zach vs. Patton

This 2005 audio release captures what happens when a live comedy show devolves into a drunken hostage situation. Recorded during their rise in the mid-2000s alternative scene, the EP features Patton Oswalt attempting to perform stand-up while heavily intoxicated, with Zach Galifianakis heckling him from a piano stage-left. It is 28 minutes of unvarnished chaos, far removed from the polished, narrative-driven specials that would eventually define Oswalt’s theater tours.

Released by Chunklet Magazine, the track mostly consists of Oswalt taking increasingly bizarre joke requests from the crowd, making passes at an audience member, and slipping into an impression of Edgar Allan Poe rambling about doughnuts. Galifianakis spends his time on stage providing satirical background music and lobbing insults. He notes that Oswalt is too drunk to realize he is talking to mannequins and mocks his sitcom gig on The King of Queens. Both comics were touring heavily with the Comedians of Comedy at the time, and this record captures them at their most unhinged and unpolished.