Patton Oswalt reveals nod he gives late ‘Family Feud’ host Richard Dawson on ‘The 1% Club’ game show
He’s game for it.
Patton Oswalt hosts “The 1% Club,” Prime Video’s first-ever game show.
Premiering May 23 on the streamer and June 3 on Fox (9 p.m.), the series is based on a British show where contestants answer questions and compete for money, using logic and common sense.
“They sent me the British version, and I just loved that,” Oswalt, 55, told The Post.
“It has nothing to do with what facts are in your brain, or how much education you’ve had. It is truly, ‘how does your brain think and work and solve logically?’ I love the fact that there were people that were not necessarily the best educated or had the most academic backgrounds, that would end up smoking doctoral physicists. I was watching their surprise and delight.”
He said that if he was a contestant on the show, he wouldn’t be successful.
“My brain is full of useless trivia … But thinking logically, that’s just not my forte.”
Oswalt cited “Jeopardy!” and “Family Feud” as his favorite game shows.
“In my opinion, the gold standard [game show host] is Richard Dawson hosting ‘Family Feud,’ ” he said.
“That’s why I wore a vest every episode. That’s my little nod to him.”
In addition to game shows, Oswalt has worn many caps in Hollywood, including comedic acting (“Parks and Recreation,” “Community”), voice acting (“Ratatouille”), writing stand-up (for which he won an Emmy and a Grammy), and dramatic acting. (He’s slated to be in “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter’s next drama, “The Abandons.”)
“I like doing it all, but the one that brought me to the dance was stand-up,” he said.
“Everything I do is so that I can do more stand-up.”
Oswalt’s going on tour this summer, with “a whole new hour of material,” he said.
“And I never reveal that ahead of time, because I want the audience to be surprised.”
Oswalt also has an unlikely connection to the Golden State Killer case, as his late first wife, Michelle McNamara, was working on the true-crime book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” at the time of her passing in 2016. Oswalt shepherded the book to publication in 2018, and that spotlight helped police catch former cop Joseph James DeAngelo just two months later. DeAngelo pleaded guilty to raping more than 50 women and murdering 13 people.
“That chapter of my life is closed. That was more Michelle’s genius and empathy that was able to put that together, and suggest, ‘here’s how you might catch him.’ She really helped that,” he said.
At the time, Oswalt posted on social media that he’d like to visit DeAngelo in prison, but he said that didn’t end up happening.
“No, I would never. The only reason I would visit him is to ask him the questions that Michelle wanted to ask him. But I would have no business visiting that guy. I would either want a survivor to visit him, or another cop to get him to confess to more stuff, which I’m sure he’s done.”
Oswalt has since married again, to actress Meredith Salenger, 54, in 2017, making her the stepmother to Alice, 15, the daughter he had with McNamara. Earlier in May, he did a Mother’s Day post on Instagram, celebrating Salenger.
“Anyone can become a mom by giving birth,” he said. “But then you have to show up every single day to be a mom. And Meredith is the absolute epitome of that.”
