David Cross
By:
April 4, 2013
You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, and DAVID CROSS (born 1964) won’t stand for it. He’s justly proud of his smarts, openly critical of anti-intellectual audiences and comedians, repeatedly picking fights over celebrity pretense and the performance of blue-collar bravado. Jim Belushi, James Lipton, and Larry the Cable Guy have all been stung by the business ends of his attacks, and felt the need to respond; usually, Cross is happy to simply observe something awful and re-present. His stand-up smacks you from the horrible places you don’t let your head go, and punctuates it with a command to laugh. Not the PC liberal he’s made out to be, onstage impressions have included crack babies and an ecstatic Stephen Hawking. From 1995–98, Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s Mr. Show let us feel what it would be like to surf the web, bouncing Flying Circus-style from sketch to sketch, links throughout. Cross’s voice starts with evil nerd and ranges to warm stoner, but it’s his stunned smartass glare that wins you over, and pride that keeps you.
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