Posthumous Comedy Album Coming from Patrice O’Neal
New material from Patrice O’Neal, the stand-up comedian who died on Monday, will be released on CD in February. Mr. P, a set recorded last April at the D.C. Improv, will be released by BSeen media, which has also released CDs by Jim Norton, Tom Papa and other comedians.
O’Neal, who was 41, appeared on many TV shows, including Chappelle’s Show, The Office and Arrested Development, and he often outclassed his fellow comics in current-events debates on Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn.
The comedian, a big man who joked that he had to lose weight to stay alive – “and that’s not enough motivation for me” – had diabetes and suffered a massive stroke in October. A favorite of fellow comics, O’Neal was remembered on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast for his sharp mind and brutal honesty. Hearing the news that O’Neal’s stroke had left him unable to communicate, Maron recalled thinking it was “horrible that Patrice, of all people, isn’t talking.”