David Cross

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Cross? He’s raging
Too brilliant to last on American TV, David Cross is out to conquer Britain
Dominic Maxwell
www.timesonline.co.uk

Whenever David Cross comes to London, the American comedian feels a strange kinship with the good people of Britain. Part of it, he says, must be because his father is from Leeds. A hankering for gloomy weather and 24-hour sarcasm is in the marrow. And so, it turns out, is that most British of virtues: the love of a good pint . . .

“I drink a lot of beer,” says Cross, “a lot. And when I am in London I feel kind of an obligation to my people to imbibe and partake with them. Except that last time, when I played Soho three years ago, it was every night. By the end I was pretty sick.” A quick fact check with the Soho Theatre confirms that Cross introduced them to some pretty frisky cocktails, too (an Irish Car Bomb, anyone?). Is this any way for a 43-year-old man to carry himself? Well, Cross is a professional disrespecter of any orthodoxy that doesn’t add up. He’s no time for puritanism, religion, American foreign policy – or political correctness either. That’s made him American indie rock’s stand-up of choice: he’s more likely to share a stage with Pearl Jam or his friends the Strokes than he is with any of the slick gagsmen that clog up his adoptive New York (he grew up in Georgia).

His articulate ragings against Bush and, indeed, American boobyism of all shades has stepped outside the club-comedy ghetto in two concert albums for the Sub Pop label. His countercultural credentials initially stem from Mr Show, a TV sketch series he made with Bob Odenkirk from 1995 to 1998. It never made it over here, but in America it was a cult comedy of almost Pythonesque pull, and it helped to lead Cross to lucrative turns in films such as Men in Black II, Small Soldiers and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

But the best showcase for his comic acting has been as the pompous, pathetic Dr Tobias Fünke in three seasons of Arrested Development, a show fit to take on Curb Your Enthusiasm for the title of the best US sitcom of the decade. And he’s guested on pretty much every other US comedy show or animation of the past five years. No wonder the man’s thirsty.

But it’s not so easy being an angry young man when you’re 43. Cross suggests he’s as politicised as ever in his real life: he’s intrigued by the Blair-Brown handover; he can drop names like “Robin Cook” into conversation. In his act, though – which arrives at the 100 Club in London this week – he’s grown weary of plying the same complaints. “I’m not going to do 60 years of Bush Sucks material,” he says, “I’ll sound like a broken record. But I’m glad to be on record for having said all those things in 2000.” He admits that years of touring burnt him out. And he’s stopped kidding himself that he can write while he’s working on a film. “It never happened,” he says.

So David Cross is at a David crossroads. He’s developing his own sitcom for HBO, about an early-middle-aged Manhattanite who just can’t grow up. But he’s disdainful of the state of the entertainment business. He was sorry that Arrested Development got cancelled midway through its third season but always knew that this slippery, sophisticated show was an aberration on American TV. His animated series Freak Show was axed by Comedy Central after only three episodes. Still, he’s lucky, he says – some network shows get the chop after two. “That’s it,” he sighs. “They might have sucked, but who even got the chance to see if they sucked? Just knowing how shows evolve and develop, two episodes is not a good indication of a show’s potential.”

So while he figures out how to get his smart, substantial, abrasive comedy out into the world, his stand-up is anchoring his ambition rather than driving it. In the London show he does a half-hour set, then hosts a lineup of US comedians (Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman and Kristen Schaal), plus a local ringer such as Jimmy Carr, Ed Byrne or Josie Long. They should be great events, but they won’t make anyone rich. Good job, then, that Cross has just finished making his latest film – Alvin and the Chipmunks. .

“In fact,” he says, “because London’s so f***ing expensive, I will walk away with perhaps $24 from these shows. That’s why I do these movies and stuff – to allow myself to spend significant time doing these kind of shows. I balance it out by doing a big kids’ movie or something like that that’ll pay my mortgage – and my hospital bills.”

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David Cross: Drunk on the power of comedy
Comedy nerds, rejoice! David Cross’s relative absence from your world is over. He’s back with a new book, a new tour and the same attitude.
by Brendan McLaughlin
August 31, 2009
punchlinemagazine.com

For the past year or so, David Cross fans, and there are many, have been going through withdrawal. Aside from a one-off live appearance here and there, the comedian, writer and actor has kept pretty much off the radar. Re-watching every episode of Arrested Development and Mr. Show on DVD is a great pastime – maybe the best – but it only makes us miss him even more. Where’s he been?! Well, it turns out he wasn’t just sitting around drinking. Well, actually he might have been doing some of that, but the point is, he was doing it for a reason.

Turns out, Cross was working on a new book, a TV pilot and is prepping to go on tour. The book, I Drink For a Reason, comes out today. Punchline Magazine had the pleasure of catching up with Cross recently to discuss the book, his comedy and his favorite beer(s). Oh, and Mrs. Featherbottom.

Where did the idea of you doing a book come from?
It was not my idea. I’m just a naïve simpleton that sits in a teepee in the woods, and then people come to me with these ideas. Seriously though, like almost every worthwhile project I’ve been a part of – not all of them, but most of them – this was somebody else’s idea. Somebody at Warner Books, which was the name of the publisher – they just switched names to Grand Central – but they called an agent I think and said, ‘Hey would David Cross be interested in writing a book?’ And that agent, who I’d never met and have yet to meet, said, ‘I don’t know, let me check.’ And he checked, and I said, ‘Sure.’ Then the agent said, ‘All right, let me hang back from this, but I still get 15 percent of all the money you make,’ and I was like, ‘All right. Sounds good.’

The book’s foreword is about the very universal activity of putting off writing. How was the process of writing this book for you? Did you enjoy it? Was it annoying? Fun?
It was all those things and more. I tend to work pretty well with a deadline or under pressure. And because of that, I have lazily adapted all that procrastination. I mean, I need to go to a fucking hypnotherapist or something, because I will just put shit off and put shit off, with the idea, and this is really dangerous and just detrimental to the process, of just being like, “Oh yeah. I’ve got plenty of time.” And then as it approaches it’s like, “Oh my God, I’ve got no time. I wish I didn’t do that.”

So, in the beginning, it was fairly easy. I’d just write shit down, I had a while to turn it in. And then in the middle, as the deadline started looming, it was awful. It was a really frustrating experience— frustrating because I was angry at myself for doing it yet again. The middle part of writing is really not the fun part. But then as you start laying all that stuff out and it starts taking shape and it becomes a real thing, then it gets fun. Then the last month and a half was really – I don’t know if ‘fun’ the right word – but really enjoyable. Satisfying. You know, putting it together, moving this over here, doing some editing. It was pretty cool. I should say that also, I had an enjoyable working environment. It wasn’t like I was sitting in a trailer on set in between shooting Alvin and the Chipmunks. I had a lot of free time. I was at my house upstate. I was with my girlfriend, who was working on her book. It was really a good environment.

Do you feel that same love/hate, procrastination process when you’re writing stand-up material, or when you have a tour coming up?
Absolutely. Yes, very true. And the problem is, and again it’s brought about completely by myself, I don’t have a good writing discipline. And I’ve never sat down and ‘written stand-up.’ I’ve never been one of those guys who’s like,’I’ve gotta write 10 new jokes today!’ I just don’t work that way. But I am relatively good at riffing onstage, and accumulating material from those loose sets, and putting it into a semblance of a show.

Again, I psychologically trick myself into going, ‘Yeah, it’ll all be all right!’ And then as the day’s coming it’s like, ‘Oh shit! I gotta put this thing together! What the fuck am I gonna do?’ You know, I’ve got all the material there, but I just don’t have it in an economic form. So yeah, it’s the same thing. But that’s the thing. Writing is a tangible thing with tangible results that you can look at, hold and edit. Stand-up, or at least my stand-up, is completely different. A lot of it is kind of in the moment, you know?

A lot of pieces in the book feel like the kind of material you do onstage. Was any of it originally intended as stand-up material?
One piece in particular definitely was: the ‘Ask A Rabbi’ thing. Every Chanukah, Yo La Tengo does this series of shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I’ve been doing them for, God, eight years? It’s a benefit. Each night it’s for a different charity, and they have different comedians and guest bands. That piece is something I’ve done for those shows; I’ve done it seven or eight times. And then I did it once again for a Christmas show that Eugene Mirman was doing. But I’ve never done it outside of that context. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll put that in the book.’ You know, I wouldn’t really say, it’s part of my stand-up, but I’ve definitely performed it onstage. I know there are some other ideas in the book about global warming and the Orthodox Jews that, I’ve said onstage probably a thousand times.

Speaking of alternative shows, since the start of your career, you’ve been known for playing a lot of shows outside of comedy clubs. What made you go elsewhere?
Well, 90 percent of it is the audience. I thought, and I was correct in my assumption way back when, that my stuff and especially my style would probably go over better in front of younger, hipper people that could relate to what I was talking about. That’s, as opposed to the typical person you might find in a suburban comedy club. I worked a lot in Boston during the comedy boom there. And they just had to fill the stage with somebody. So I was very lucky to be there in the time I was, at the stage I was developing in, because I think in most other places I probably wouldn’t have gotten much work.

I didn’t have the most audience-friendly set. But they needed to put somebody on the bill so they didn’t give a shit. They’d say, ‘Yeah go in the middle at Sully’s, it’s a pizza bowling place. You get 25 minutes and you’ll get 85 dollars.’ So, I know that kind of audience well. And once that whole alternative scene started – when I moved to LA it was really starting to burgeon there – it was kind of a natural move to make.

In the book, you speculate on who would play you if you sold your story to Hollywood after appearing on Survivor. Who would play you in a movie of I Drink For A Reason?
Umm, it would be a pretty brutal, international casting call. It would probably take a year or so. It would probably come down to Jean Reno vs. Kenneth Branagh. And it would end up going, most likely, to Topher Grace. It would be a long, arduous process. The whole world would be on the edge of their seat.

Do you have any worries that someone will confuse I Drink For A Reason with I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max? For instance, if someone were to buy a fan of yours the wrong book by mistake…
The only, only bad thing about that is that would unfortunately go toward supporting Tucker Max. That would be kind of funny. Or vice versa. I’d love people to go, ‘Aww bro, you have GOTTA check this book out! It is fucking awesome, bro!’ And then they get my book and the guy’s like, ‘Yeah, I KINDA liked it. It wasn’t THAT funny.’

In the book, you talk about one occasion where you responded to a negative blog review of one of your shows, in which you were accused of being a bigot. What’s your general practice for dealing with that kind of anonymous criticism?
Well the response, and I certainly have been a part of that as well, is measured and thoughtful, and hopefully rational. But you’re responding to an anonymous person who is just like, ‘You suck!’ And I did that a number of times for a couple of years. And it’s very much a no-win situation, as I’ve discovered from experience. And you’re responding – I can’t speak for everybody – but it’s not out of ego or hurt feelings, but more like, ‘This is wrong, and it’s very, very wrong, and I feel obligated to set the record straight from my end.’ This isn’t a couple of people shootin’ the shit at a bar or a coffee shop. This is all over the place and it exists forever, you know? I wouldn’t give a shit if they were talking at the table next to me. That would be kind of amusing. But whatever subsequent comment or criticism or observation is made about me or my act, it’s all predicated on a false premise. And it’s just wrong.

I read that you worked on a pilot in England. Do you think they appreciated Mrs. Featherbottom?
Umm, I can’t say that they did or didn’t for sure, but I can tell you there is a huge Arrested Development fan base in the UK. I spent a lot of time there over the past year, and I’d say, no exaggeration, every day at least one person would ask me about it or talk about Arrested Development, or tell me how much they loved it or whatever. Every single day.

Mr. Show is the same way. It’s almost seen as a band that wasn’t hugely popular while it was around, but it just has this huge, enduring influence. What’s it like for you to look back at the Mr. Show stuff?
I think as we were sort of winding it down, we had a feeling, although unspoken, that the last year was in fact going to be its last year. We never verbalized it, but I think we sort of felt like that was what it was resigned to become. Neither Bob or I are upset about it. We were very proud of it and remain very proud of it. You know, we were very careful about not dating too much of it. When we would want to make a reference to what was then a very topical pop culture reference, 90 percent of the time we’d not make it that person specifically, but make it an amalgam of different people – a person in power, or a celebrity or whatever – so it wouldn’t feel dated.

You know, it’s not like watching an SNL rerun with a guy playing Clinton. So, we kind of felt like, ‘Oh, that’s where this thing’s headed,’ but that’s not a bad thing. And it’s really par for the course for both Bob and I. I don’t think either one of us were destined to be wildly successful and popular, and I think we’re both very, very fond of that.

You drink for a reason, but what’s your favorite beer?
In the Summer, when it’s hot out I like Pabst, Bud Light, Coors Light, I like light beers like that. And then in the Winter, I like Harpoon IPA, I like your Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, or an Anchor Steam-type of beer. And then in London, always go for a Fuller’s London ESB. London pride. Gotta go with the London pride.

I Drink For a Reason comes out Monday, Aug. 31. Click the image below to snag yourself a copy. Once you pick that up, be sure to visit IDrinkForAReason.com for video extras relating pieces in the book

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David Cross Interview
Daniel Barna
askmen.com

There's a reason college kids love David Cross. The beer-swilling, myth-debunking, pot-bellied lefty comedian has been a staple in dorm rooms since his days on HBO's ahead-of-its-time sketch comedy show Mr. Show, and as the is-he-or-isn't-he analrapist Tobias Funke on FOX's cult classic Arrested Development. In fact, his on-screen characters have been so indelibly stamped in the minds of the PBR set, that his fans tend to forget that Cross' roots are planted firmly in the wonderful world of stand up.

Bigger and Blackerer, Cross' third stand-up album for indie label Sub Pop is a stark reminder that no matter how many Squeaqkuels he lends himself to (hey, a comedian's gotta eat), Cross' famously acerbic point of view won't be diffused by Hollywood's bright lights. We caught up with the famously grumpy funnyman -- on break from shooting his new show for IFC called The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret -- to discuss his long awaited return to the stage, the world before internet porn and just when in the hell we'll get to see that Arrested Development movie everyone's been talking about (hint: we'll be taking hovercrafts to the cinema).

The Bigger and Blackerer CD and DVD is out on Sub Pop now.

Q1: AskMen.com : Did you enjoy going back to Boston to shoot the DVD?
David Cross : It was great! It was pretty much the end of the tour, and tours kind of take on their own personalities. The beginning is different from the middle, which is different from the end, and it was nice to go back to familiar turf, you know I lived their for nine years, and the crowds were great. It was really fun.

Q2: AM : So the city is full of good memories for you?
DC : Yeah, with an equal amount of sh*tty memories. After I shot the special I went up there for about three or four days and got to take my girlfriend (actress Amber Tamblyn) around my old haunts, which was great.

Q3: AM : Although you have a built in fan base, is there still a fear of tanking?
DC : Getting ready for the tour was a little stressful, in that I hadn't toured for a while, and I had not done a set that had been more than say 15 to 20 minutes long. The material was culled from four years of popping in and doing friends' shows, and I never made a concerted effort to put it all together and create a set. So when I started doing it I was a little apprehensive, like, "Do I have enough time? How am I going to fill this up? I haven't done this bit in a while. What if I don't remember it?" But once I did the first show in San Francisco and as soon as it was over I thought: "What was I worried about? That was f*cking fun! I just did an hour and 40 minutes and I left this bit out. I'm fine!"

Q4: AM : Kind of like riding a bike.
DC : Exactly. Like riding a very funny bike.

Q5: AM : We live in pretty tumultuous times with everything that's happening in the world. As an issue-driven comic, do you ever feel overwhelmed with the amount of things there are to discuss?
DC : No, I wouldn't say that. The only thing that's overwhelming is the necessity to not repeat myself discussing the same general topics. I do a lot about religion, and there's a wealth of material there, but I figure at some point I'm going to have made all the points I could possibly make. So that's what's overwhelming. But there's plenty of stuff to talk about, that's for sure.

Q6: AM : When Bush was in office, we imagine it was a comedic goldmine for you and your peers. How do you tackle the Obama administration?
DC : Really the only political stuff that is in the special, is the stuff on the health-care debate, and I was doing it before it passed. And that was less about Obama and politics, as much as it was about American society and our culture, and the tenor of debate. Even though it was politicians in the bit, it really wasn't about politics. I've never really been a political comedian. I just talked about things that are kind of important to me at that moment. When Bush was in office, it was a very unique specific time. We went to war, all these things happened, and it was just something that was at the forefront of my consciousness. Currently there's less outrage.

Q7: AM : Was that a difficult time for you to be an American? Were you at all embarrassed?
DC : Yeah. I can't remember which paper it was in England, but after Bush was elected to his second term, the entire cover was a huge close up of Bush's face at a podium, and the headline in big letters was: "How could 53,642,912 people be so dumb?" That kind of underscored my feeling as well. Whenever you went outside of America, you would have people say: "I don't get it!" But not with malice, and not with anger, but just a general curiosity. I've been doing stand-up off and on in the UK for several years, and the thing they find curious and amusing is how blatantly Christian the country is, and how much power the Christian right has. That's just a curious thing to them. It's like: "I thought you guys were America!" There's so many different contradictions to America, and you just go: "Yeah, well that's why I live in New York."

Q8: AM : We know you have a deep affection for New York. Why is that?
DC : It's vibrant, it's historical, it's culturally at the forefront of so many different types of art and mediums, and there's an energy to it, and the people are pretty cool. It's a great place to just wake up and walk around in.

Q9: AM : And you maintain a grounded lifestyle in the city?
DC : Oh yeah. I have my local bar, and my local places I go to eat. That's one of the great things about New York. Whether you like it or not -- at least in the East Village -- they don't let you get too big of a head. I'm friends with my neighbors, and 99% of my friends are not celebrities.

Q10: AM : Your neighbours are Bloomberg and Trump, right?
DC : Yeah. Absolutely. Bloomberg lives upstairs.

Q11: AM : When can we see your new project The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret in North America?
DC : I don't know the exact date, but I believe it will start airing somewhere at the beginning of October.

Q12: AM : What can we expect?
DC : It's a single camera comedy that tells a story with a beginning middle and an end. Every episode takes place the next day. It's basically about a well-meaning but really ignorant sappy guy who flukes his way into a job who's in way over is head. Under the false assumption that he's a good salesman, he accepts a job and goes to London and has no idea what he's doing. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

Q13: AM : It sounds a bit like The Office.
DC : No, not really. Every character in The Office belongs in that office. This guy does not belong where he is. He doesn't belong heading up a company, he doesn't belong in a suit, he doesn't belong in England, and he tries to fake his way through everything with increasingly poor results.

Q14: AM : Are you a fan of the British Office or the American Office?
DC : I'm a huge fan of the British Office. The American Office lacks almost entirely the humanity and realism, and pathos of the original Office. You know the end of The Office when David Brent gets terminated from his job, and he's begging for it back, and he doesn't want to let the guy leave his office and he's bargaining? I mean that's a heart-wrenching and real moment, and you would never believe that from Steve Carell's character.

Q15: AM : The American Office is a bit more cartoonish?
DC : It is. It's adapted so they can shoot 150 episodes and the characters never really change or grow. Those characters grew more in 12 episodes in the British Office then the characters in the American Office ever would in 200 episodes. They have a very successful formula, and there's plenty of good jokes and things to laugh at, and funny character, and they're all very good at what they do. It's just what they do isn't as interesting or relevant as what the British Office was, but I don't think that was their intent. They're making a hit American comedy show on a network, so there's different parameters.

Q16:Did you follow this year's late night scandal?
I did. I was here so I didn't have daily access to it, and the papers didn't really cover it here, but it seemed pretty sh*tty on NBC's part, and to a lesser degree but still responsible on Jay Leno's part. It was a mistake that almost all the blame has to be laid at Jeff Zucker's feet. I mean, he made terrible decision after terrible decision. As Conan himself said: "Don't feel sorry for me, I'm doing great." I'm just excited that he'll be back on TV. He had a great show with a great writing staff -- I know most of them -- it was good stuff.

Q17:What websites do you check daily, first thing in the morning?
First thing I do is check ESPN.com to see how my fantasy teams are doing, then I'll probably scoot over to my Yahoo homepage, then I scooch on over to Huffington Post, skim through that, go to Talking Points Memo, then I hop on down to RawStory.com. Then I'll scooch on over evgrieve.com, which is The East Village Grieve, which is just to check in on my hometown. Then I might scooch down over to boingboing then; I spend way too much time on the internet, then I go to work.

Q18:So you skip the whole celebrity gossip thing?
People will send sh*t, but as far as celebrities that I don't know, I don't give a sh*t about Kloe Kardashian. (Laughs) It's deeper than a waste of time.

Q19:Have you been following Bob Odenkirk's work on Breaking Bad?
I don't think I have AMC in New York.

Q20:Well, there's this great thing called the internet that allows you to stream shows.
F*ck that. I don't want to watch shows on my computer. I'm a cranky old man that way. I saw one episode on the place, and I've heard great things. It's the kind of show I'll rent the box set and watch them all at once, which is how I tend to watch TV now anyways.

Q21:Are you a fan of what Tim and Eric are doing?
Oh absolutely.

Q22:When are we going to see the Arrested Development film?
Somewhere around 2022.

Q23:Is that your stock answer?
It's about to be. It used to be 2021 but I added a year.

Q24:At your age, what do you do to watch your weight?
Ugh. Man, whatever it is, I'm not doing a good job. I probably weigh more now than I ever have. It's f*cking metabolism. I used to be able to eat whatever i wanted, drink two gallons of beer a night, and then in my mid-30s it all started going down hill. I definitely have a beer gut.

Q25:Does it make a difference if you watch what you eat and exercise?
It does make a difference. I just need to be more persistent, and have a greater degree of responsibility. But I try to walk a lot, but being in London I drink so much beer. We start shooting on Monday, so I will not be drinking much at all. I'll probably have a pint or two at night and that'll be that. I probably won't have a lot of beer until I'm done shooting, so by then I should have gotten rid of a few of the pounds.

Q26:Is it more difficult now to deal with hangovers?
It's weirder when I'm not hungover. It's a strange, foreign, uncomfortable feeling.

Q27:Is there a part of you that maybe says: "I'm getting older, maybe I should stop drinking as heavily as I did in my youth?"
I've been thinking that for 25 years now, but to be honest, I'm very lucky to be both in a job that allows me to drink and have the constitution and where-with-all to be able to jump up in the morning and perform my task and write and create. When I have to, and certainly when I'm acting and getting up at 6 in the morning and working all day, I don't drink. But if I'm not working or in between jobs, then f*ck yeah, I'll drink every night, all night.

Q28:Can you imagine your life without alcohol?
At some point I'll probably have to. If I have to stop, I have to stop. That's what pills are for.

Q29:What did you for pornography before the internet?
You know, the scrambled cable box and Cinemax at my friend's house, downstairs. And Playboy.

Q30:That seems so archaic to me.
It is. It's archaic to me too, believe me. You don't know of my generation's struggles to get their nut off.

Q31:Are you a fan of internet porn?
In the sense that I'm glad it exists, yes.