On The Late Show, David Cross eventually reveals he has a new comedy special coming out
Getting Cross to actually promote a new project is like pulling teeth through a turtleneck sweater
TV News David Cross
Comic disdain for show business is a business in itself, and, for David Cross, that meant doing a lot of comic business on Thursday’s Late Show. Emerging from the wings with his grey turtleneck sweater yanked up high enough that only the tip of his bald dome poked out of the top like a Band-Aid-ed fingertip, the comic steadily fumbled his way up onto Stephen Colbert’s raised set and, eventually, into his chair. Not that he stayed in it for very long.
Technically appearing to promote what he—again, eventually—announced would be his new stand-up special, I’m From The Future, Cross, instead, used his nine or so minutes of network airtime to screw around, as is his way. After answering the seen-it-all Colbert’s game index card questions (“Oh, fantastic, thank you—thank you for asking,” Cross deadpanned at Colbert asking how his pandemic has been), the Mr. Show and Arrested Development alum went on to take a sip of his water, right through the fabric of his sweater.
And things only got less on-topic from there, as Cross, after tantalizingly rolling down his makeshift face covering to reveal first his eyes, and then, finally his whole, bearded kisser, pretended to get down to it. (“All right, this is bullshit,” Cross noted upon abandoning the bit at the four minute mark.) So, down to the business of promoting his new comedy special, right? Well, not really. Colbert did manage to wheedle out of Cross the detail that I’m From The Future was recorded in the recent past (November 2021) in the wake of Cross’ Omicron-scuttled stand-up tour, but that’s about all the brass tacks he got to before a camera cut revealed the comic standing among Colbert’s audience.
After ascertaining that, indeed, every live NBC audience is fully vaccinated and masked, Cross did his version of crowd work, bussing one lucky crowd member on the head before stealing another’s cool sunglasses. (He and Colbert eventually swapped off wearing the glasses, indicating that they are as equally unafraid of cooties as COVID.) After stressing that his real news is his recent subpoena by the committee investigating that whole, in-progress Republican coup thing (Cross claimed he intends to plead the Fifth, Third, First, and Twenty-Second Amendments, just to cover all his bases), Cross took the opportunity of Colbert returning that guy’s shades to hop the couch and steal Colbert’s interviewer’s seat.
Colbert, thus having the tables/chairs turned, was perhaps robbed of the opportunity to ask a question about a certain Mr. Show alum who actually is in hot water for being part of the aforementioned violent coup against American democracy. Instead, Colbert merely used the vantage of his guest seat to gently stroke Cross’ luxurious, salt-and-pepper beard while the comic/new host finally got around to explaining that he has a new stand-up special, it’s called I’m From The Future, it was filmed in Brooklyn in November, and it will drop on February 12 at officialdavidcross.com. Now, was that so hard?
30 Comments
A new special from David Cross? This is worse than that time Meat Loaf died!
David Cross is another performer where I love their writing/sketch comedy work, think they’re a terrific comedic actor, and [when applicable] even appreciate them in more dramatic roles …… but I don’t dig on their stand up at all.
Same. A Mr. Show quote comes to mind: “Not very funny. Just plain mean.”
Same here. His standup (the stuff I’ve seen of it, anyway) came across as coming from someone who never really got the line between “Here’s something I’ve observed that you probably didn’t notice” and “Everyone else is stupid.” (also known as Gen X’s greatest contribution to discourse). It’s also why I found George Carlin’s later specials to be more depressing than funny.
David Cross’s standup comes off as miserable and contemptuous. I’m not against political comedy, but when the joke becomes “can you believe these idiots think this?!” it demands a certain world view that has nothing to do with humor. When you’re not trying to make the audience laugh, it becomes about the person with the mic, totally self-indulgent.
And it’s funny you mention Carlin. I always think of Carlin’s later standup as a prime example of pointing out contradictory stuff to awkward applause.
I can’t remember which comic it was, but he said something to the effect of: “I hate when comedians score APPLAUSE. Clapping isn’t laughing.”It’s easy to score applause in a coastal city by spouting off your liberal bona fides, or, one supposes, in TX by doing the same with the opposite. “Hooray for our team!” is not a joke.
It’s easy to score applause in a coastal city by spouting off your
liberal bona fides, or, one supposes, in TX by doing the same with the
opposite. Clearly it’s just the former. Otherwise we wouldn’t have collectively agreed to forget the likes of Ron White and Larry the Cabl…ah.(As an aside, as a general rule I don’t care that people like things that I don’t, because I don’t want them to care about the things I like. Still, in the mid-aughts I felt a piece of me die inside when a coworker asked me, “Hey, you seen Delta Farce? [No, I haven’t seen that one.] I haven’t either, but it’s got Larry the Cable Guy, so you know it’s going to be good.”)
Fuck this guy, though.
Any reason, or just generally anti-bald?
Anti-racism and anti-gaslighting, actually. But yeah, tell yourself it’s anti-bald.
I didn’t know. I don’t think he’s a racist or anything. Don’t know about the other one.
I don’t know that he’s “a racist” either. I just know that he’s done some racist shit, then gaslit his victim about it.
Okay. I’m sure that’s how you see whatever happened (I honestly never heard about this, or just forgot). I doubt it’s all that bad.
Weird that someone who acknowledges he has absolutely no idea about the incident is so sure it wasn’t racist. But okay.
I didn’t say that. I said I didn’t think he was some kind of racist. I didn’t say whatever he did was wasn’t or couldn’t be perceived as racist. Learn to read properly.
Yeah, you just said that doubted that what he did was racist, having no idea what he did at all. Learn to remember what you said.
That’s not what I fucking said. I said I doubted it was all that bad. Same advice applies. I’m done with this. I’ve learned nothing and no longer care at all.
Hm, so it was a “not all that bad” form of racism probably? Am I reading you correctly at last? Can I have an example of racism that’s “not all that bad”?The reason you’ve “learned nothing” is that you haven’t tried to. You decided that whatever he did wasn’t “all that bad,” and then made no attempt to even find out what he did to make a determination based on evidence. Your commitment to believing he didn’t do any “all that bad racism” was so strong that you couldn’t even bother to see what it was.You “no longer care”? When did you care in the first place? You never even asked or looked up what the fuck he did.
I looked it up. It was a single incident from like 15 fucking years ago. The statute of limitations has long since run on that one. No idea about the gaslighting thing, though.
Statutes of limitation apply to crimes, not social misdemeanors, especially ones where the apology was nothing more than “it was just a joke and I’m sorry she was offended.” But go off. I guess this is the “not all that bad” kind of racism you were speaking of.
He’s exhausting.
Old dudes who think they’re still funny.
Jeez, a 5-paragraph recap of a 9-minute Late Show segment to say “David Cross to release [probably bad] stand-up special”? Are there not enough streaming TV shows or movies to chat about for you, AV Club?
I’m only still here because I haven’t figured out where the cool kids are going now that this is over.
God, does anyone in these comments enjoy anything anymore?
The writers aren’t enjoying it, and they won’t be here much longer anyway. We might as well join the sourpuss party.
Don’t we hate David Cross now? Like didn’t he do blackface or something?
bald dome poked out of the top like a Band-Aid-ed fingertipThat’s… one possible visual analog.After ascertaining that, indeed, every live NBC audience is fully vaccinated
Uh-oh, the show is on CBS!
People shitting on David Cross standup on AV Club. When did this become 4chan?
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