Comedian Patton Oswalt will perform at Spreckels Theatre on July 12, and that’s a very good thing.

Oswalt is of course one of comedy’s freshest and smartest performers. He’s made a name for himself with his fierce intelligence and acerbic wit on albums like Feelin’ Kinda Patton, Werewolves and Lollipops, and last year’s Grammy-nominated Finest Hour.

All great comedians hold a mirror up to society, but Oswalt’s is more like one of those light-up magnifying ones where you can see how clogged and disgusting all your pores really are. His lacerating take on the KFC Bowl — which he famously called “a failure pile in a sadness bowl” — is just one example of his razor-sharp, critical brand of humor.

When he’s not busy being one of the funniest stand-up comics alive, Oswalt is also an accomplished actor. He memorably voiced Remy the rat in Ratatouille, showed off his range as the sports-obsessed titular character in Big Fan, and stole Young Adult from Charleze Theron with his heartbreaking portrayal of the small-town doormat that pines for Theron’s nasty, entitled shrew. He recently began work on the new live-action comedy The Heart, She Holler, which airs on Adult Swim.

So yeah, suffice it to say we’re very excited that Oswalt is coming to town. The geekier among you will immediately recognize July 12 as the fist day of Comic-Con, and that’s no coincidence. Oswalt is an avowed comic-book nerd and pop-culture obsessive who can always be relied upon to appear at the yearly convention. His Spreckels appearance should provide the perfect opportunity to decompress after all those hours roaming the convention floor and getting bumped into by peripheral-vision-impaired stormtroopers.

Tickets for the show are on sale now and can be purchased here.