David Cross, a defining voice in stand-up and sketch comedy these past 30 years, has not stopped trying to wrestle big issues in witty, unexpected ways.
The Arrested Development and Mr. Show star is hitting the road with his new tour The Worst Daddy In The World and will be filling up White Oak Music Hall on Thursday, March 30 with opening act Sean Patton.
“Oh, she totally named the tour,” Cross says with some lightness in his sarcastic tone, ”That came from her. I wouldn’t give her a third ice cream or some shit.”
For those who might remember Cross’ 2002 documentary Let America Laugh, the comic’s video diaries offered a unique treat for fans of comedy beyond the mainstream: it was a gritty but goofy glimpse into how the modern stand-up sausage is made. Happily, it seems like the comic’s astonishing knack of crafting brand new bits mere hours before they debut hasn’t diminished.
“There’s not a set I’ve ever done as far as a special that didn’t have something, some anecdote from what happens on the tour,” Cross explains. “I’m a very extemporaneous talker and I will riff in bits/ That’s why it grows and changes and you don’t want to do a three-hour show, so you will drop bits as you go on. It’s just a way to include more stuff and yeah, if something happens that is funny or weird, I’ll talk about.”
His latest special I’m From The Future dropped only last year, but Cross wasted no time working an impressive new hour plus up to tour by workshopping the past few months on home turf. “The tour started a couple weeks ago,” he says. “I’ve done 7 or 8 shows already. It could [tape] now, but it will change by the time I tape the hour which will be in June. And then I’ll keep touring beyond that and the tour is going through October. Then as soon as I’m done, I’ll release the special.”
“Always [record video in the middle],” he suggests. ”Then I record audio at the end because its different because the set has evolved yet again. So you get bonus stuff, I guess. I would just say it changes. In other words, you can have an hour and ten minute special and then you have another hour and change on the audio, but you get different stuff. So if you combine everything you get an hour and 45 minutes of material, I’d say.”
The range of topics Cross covers can be potential whiplash for the uninitiated. Hit past bits run the gamut from semi-serious (the impossibility of gun control) to absolutely side-splittingly silly (his riff on real food product ‘Squagles’ – the square bagels!). The balancing act between the micro and the macro bits is part of the art that touring expedites.
“Sometimes, quite often, when I’m workshopping stuff before I go on the road, I will think something is worthier of a longer exploration. As I’m doing it, maybe I’ve tried it four or five or six times a certain way, I’ll come to think that this might be too much on this, or I’m bogging this thing down. Then I’ll just cut it severely down to its basic idea. Sometimes it gets reduced to a seemingly offhand comment, even if it started as a four-minute bit. Sometimes the reverse is true: it starts off as an off hand comment I don’t really think merits exploration, but then you start doing that onstage or someone comments on something and it grows to be this bigger thing.”
Uniquely, Cross teases, the current closing routine of Worst Daddy started life as a germ of an idea in his last recorded hour. “I actually have, it’s probably one of the longer bits, that was kind of… not a throw away line, but it was just the idea that I cut out of the last special I did because I thought: there is more to this here, I need to explore this further. And I did and now it’s in this act as a fully realized piece. In fact, I’m closing with it. It’s a much bigger deal. It’s an example of what I’m talking about where I riffed this thing, I thought there was more there and cut it out of that special – even though people laughed and it was a funny bit for 30 seconds. I saved this and built this.”
A key to the free-flowing verbal style Cross has on stage boils down to something more meticulous: “I tape every set,” he says. “I tape when I’m on tour. I’ll record the set because I’m always riffing. Or something will happen in the audience. In order to remember that, I’ll listen to the set and think I was talking about my daughter going to school and what was the thing I riffed? I’ll take that and that line will be part of it. I wish I could sit down and write out an hour of set; that would be great. But I just don’t work that way.”
Despite his recurring success on screen, live stand-up remains the driving force for Cross’ comedy for a simple reason: there is a lack of interference. “I don’t have to run it by a bunch of executives or other people,” Cross says joyfully. “I just hop on a stage and there is a willing receptive audience in front of me. If they laugh, that is good and if they don’t, that is bad.” Simple enough!
Between the Emmy-winning gone-too-soon Fox series The Ben Stiller Show and the cult-adored HBO series Mr Show, Cross spent much of the ’90s crafting masterful sketch comedy that overtime has become highly influential. Comparing the constraints of sketch and stand-up, Cross offers an overlooked perspective. “Sketch has characters that react to each other,” he states simply. “You can sort of kind of do that in stand up, where you are doing two people, but it doesn’t look or feel the same way. A sketch will often have other elements to it and stand-up is just a guy as a guy talking to the people. With sketch you are pretending that people aren’t watching the sketch, but in stand-up, you are acknowledging that there are people. That it’s a dialogue, in a sense.”
While Cross has remained a rebellious contrarian, he’s also been a rare and consistent voice for folks on the left side of aisle. His rants from a post 9/11 Bush era on his album It’s Not Funny remain stinging and Cross was among the throngs to wring juice from the madcap days of pre-election Trump – his first Netflix special doesn’t flinch, it’s literally called Making America Great Again.
Yet, more than a few of Cross’ contemporaries have slowly but surely edged toward the right these past few years – seeming to fuel culture wars online in new and exhausting ways. Cross speaks around the observation, but offers some blunt insights into what he observes of the changing landscapes: “That’s maybe self preservation, I don’t know; I don’t share those feelings. I have never been in the pursuit of becoming the most popular comic or the most beloved comic or the highest ticket-selling comic.
“I am just doing what feels right to me, what is real to me. I am just gonna keep continuing that way. My philosophy hasn’t changed much in 20 years. I don’t know: I think its easier to get up there and talk about the anti-woke stuff or the cancel culture or whatever that shit is that is currently topical… that’s less of what I’m interested in. I do think it’s easier and it appeals emotionally. As Chris Rock said but not maybe meaning the same thing, but it’s the idea of selective outrage.”
It’s a tightrope act for comics, but Cross seems to be close to mastering it. He’s someone who can be verbally and physically goofy for a laugh, but also in that patented sarcastic Gen X way: so cool.
“My daughter might have issue with that,” Cross retorts with a small chuckle.
But he accepts the compliment enough to unpack how often cool can come across sweaty when managed poorly. “I feel like if someone is trying to be cool, it’s just… That was part of the issue other comedians had with Dane Cook when he was making his very quick meteoric rise. And he’s a good comic, he’s a skilled comedian with good jokes and I will take issue with people who say that he sucks. He doesn’t. He was so much about self-promotion, which to a lot of comics and myself included, it is unseemly and kinda gross. There’s a gross aspect of it where you’re just constantly, I’ve got more followers, look how many followers! Or working out in those tight tank tops, that – that’s when you’re trying. And that applies to any part of life, when you are trying to look cool, it just stands out a little bit. I’m not sure the comedy stage is the place to do that.”
Coming up next for Cross: he’s joining the cast for the 4th and final season of the successful Netflix series Umbrella Academy. On tapping back into a more dramatic role, Cross mentions the challenging nature of playing it straight. “It’s totally different, you satisfy a different creative aspect that you have. You are always able to do the other thing, so why not take the [opportunity]. I can’t speak for anybody else, but [these roles] are relatively rare and if it’s good material, I jump on them. You don’t want to just do that one thing, but some people do. It’s fun to tackle, it’s a challenge.”
“I’ve already shot the first episode, and I shoot the next one in a couple weeks, less actually. Coming up! It’s a great show, it’s a great cast and it’s a fun and really enjoyable. Things are mostly fun to shoot, some things are not, but they are just great folks. It’s a great set and it’s a fun, fun juicy role I get to do and it’s been a blast.”
And for devotes of Cross’ career-long escapades with the equally funny and brilliant Bob Odenkirk after their brief streaming reunion in 2015? “Never say never, but I don’t know. It took us a while to get that one going. Certainly Bob and I will be working together again.”
David Cross’ performance is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 30 at White Oak Music Hall, 2915 North Main. For information, call 713-237-0370 or visit whiteoakmusichall.com. $42-45
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
