“It’s 10am for me here, what can I expect by 12pm?”
David Cross was facing into a long day of press junkets with Irish and British journalists to promote his new show Worst Daddy In The World.
The comedy legend was in fine form discussing his upcoming Olympia Theatre gig, his views on the ongoing strike that has ground Hollywood to a halt, his partnership with Bob Odenkirk and the 20 year-anniversary of cult sitcom Arrested Development.
Cross is famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to comedy, something gleamed from one of his idols Lenny Bruce, but by his own admission, he has “mellowed out” since becoming a father.
Indeed, fatherhood has informed the content of his new stage show.
“I think this new show is some of the best stuff I’ve done as a comedian – I talk about being a dad from the perspective of an old person, I’m old now!”
The 59-year-old welcomed a daughter with wife Amber Tamblyn in 2017, but thankfully his fathership style is more Coach Taylor than Tobias Funke.
“I am late to the game, so the show is from that perspective, it deals with being an older parent in relation to other people you know who are younger parents.”
“There’s probably 2 chunks of the show where I talk about my parenthood, and they are jumping off points to other tangents.”
“Oh, and then Jesus and I have a discussion.”
Cross’ understated yet sharp humour has earned him legions of fans, and was part of the writing staff that won an Emmy for his work on The Ben Stiller Show in the early 1990s.
The post-modern, hip show was cancelled by MTV after one season, but it was there he met comedy partner Bob Odenkirk.
While Odenkirk is better known these days for his turn as Saul Goodman, Odenkirk and Cross created the cult HBO sketch show Mr. Show, which proved a breeding ground for acts like Jack Black, Sarah Silverman and podcasting titan Scott Aukerman.
Odenkirk and Cross were heavily influenced by Monty Python in creating a sketch show with a surrealist bent, and for Cross, he says the Mr. Show era is “the hardest I’ve ever worked on a project.”
“During the Mr. Show era there was no downtime, in between writing sketches, acting in them, editing them, and producing.”
Cross let out a wry chuckle when we apologised for asking him about his scene partner Bob Odenkirk becoming a respected dramatic actor, and said he was among the first to spot Odenkirk’s talents as a serious actor.
“I remember being in the editing bay with Bob for a sketch called The Pre-Natal Pageant, and Bob plays the scene, as silly as it is, with a real sense of pathos and humanity.”
“I think I knew then that Bob had the chops.”
When it was pointed out that Mr. Show barely received an airing on this side of the Atlantic and built up a cult audience via the internet, Cross remarked “this is the exact same way we were bought up on comedy.”
UK comedians such as Harry Enfield and Chris Morris were mentioned by Cross as examples of comedians from far-flung lands that could only be seen on VHS tapes that were passed around, and in the internet era, YouTube has made it that much easier to discover new content.
Cross has never been afraid to speak his mind on wider issues in the entertainment industry, with the comedian once revealing he lost out on a $150,000 payment for disparaging the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie he starred in on a talk show, and talk soon turned to the ongoing labour dispute that has brought Hollywood to a standstill.
“I’m a proud member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Writer’s Guild of America, and I genuinely do think AI is an existential threat to creators.”
Cross recalled the last writer’s strike in 2008, which he says was fought over DVD and streaming service royalties.
“Back in 2008, I was making literal pennies on the projects I was in, it was ridiculous.”
“We said ‘hey, we need to be paid fairly for our work’, and because we are dealing with multi-national capitalist corporations, they said no.”
He said that in any labour dispute, the outcome “won’t be fair to both parties but it will make everyone happy until the next strike happens.”
“It is genuinely hard to be a creative in a capitalist-dominated industry,” he lamented.
Cross became a bonafide comedy star with his turn as Tobias Funke in the cult sitcom Arrested Development, and despite the show struggling to find an audience early on, he says the show is “something special.”
“Everyone in the cast and crew were smart, funny people and we all knew it was special – that’s why it was particularly frustrating to be shunted down the hierarchy of Fox shows at the time.”
“Like it or not, we live in a capitalistic society – it wasn’t getting the numbers they would have liked in Indiana, San Jose, but that’s on you guys in marketing to market this critically successful, beloved show to mainstream audiences, we’ve given you all the tools!”
The show saw a Netflix revival in 2013, and Cross says he was “not surprised” that the show has endured all these years later.
Cross pointed to shows like Modern Family or the American version of The Office as shows that borrowed the multi-cam format of Arrested Development and went on to great success.
With the interview wrapping up, we asked Cross to give us the elevator pitch on his Dublin show.
“Well, if you know my comedy and my style, definitely come down to see it, I think it’s some of my best work. And if you don’t know who I am, maybe spend 10 minutes looking up who I am and what I do.”
“If you don’t like what you see, stay at home!”
David Cross plays the Olympia theatre on September 13th, with tickets available now from Ticketmaster.