TORONTO – Comedian Patton Oswalt speaks of his support for the LGBT community and their civil right movements in his new Netflix comedy special.

“Talking for Clapping” was filmed at the historic music venue the Fillmore in San Francisco, where the Virginia-born comedian devotes time to riffing on subjects ranging from kids’ birthday parties to politics.

The recent release of the Netflix special was shadowed in tragedy when news emerged that Oswalt’s wife, writer Michelle McNamara, died suddenly in her sleep at age 46.

In an interview conducted a few days before McNamara’s death, Oswalt talked about the power of comedy to address social issues.

Entertainers including Bruce Springsteen and Quebec-based Cirque du Soleil have cancelled performances in North Carolina to protest a state law widely seen as discriminatory to LGBT people.

The law states that transgender people must use bathrooms corresponding with the gender on their birth certificate in government buildings as well as in public schools and universities. It also excludes sexual orientation and gender identity from statewide anti-discrimination protections and overrules local non-discrimination ordinances.

Other performers including Cyndi Lauper and Louis C.K. pledged to perform in the state but donate profits of their shows to Equality North Carolina.

Oswalt said he didn’t have any shows scheduled in the state, but sees upsides to both approaches employed thus far by other stars.

“Here’s what it is: I think it helps both ways,” Oswalt said.

“If someone like Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam goes: ‘We’re not playing there,’ that is something that affects the local economy … a lot of people can maybe put pressure on these lawmakers. But then other people like Louis C.K. doing a show and handing the money over, that’s great too.

“There’s no right or wrong way to do this — as long as you’re helping.”

While late-night comics have been mining the U.S. presidential race for laughs, Oswalt said he sees a limit to how much fresh comedic fodder can be drawn from the campaign.

“It’s funny up to a point,” said Oswalt, who is supporting the campaign of Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“I think a lot of people are like: ‘Boy, as a comedian you must be really happy.’ But when (George W.) Bush was president, I got maybe 10 minutes of material out of that. And the trade-off was we were … torturing people. It wasn’t worth it.

“I’ll sacrifice 10 minutes of dumb jokes if we’re not torturing people…. It’s not worth the trade-off comedically.”

— Follow @lauren_larose on Twitter.