LIVING IN A DIFFICULT TIME
Comedian Cross back onstage almost two years into the Trump presidency and slightly more than a month since the Arrested Development cast was caught up in controversy
David Cross When: July 5 Where: MacEwan Hall
A lot of things have changed since comedian David Cross’s 2016 stand up tour: Making America Great Again!
Now, whether they have changed for the better depends on your view of Donald Trump’s impact on America.
“I think it has changed,” said Cross, who taped a Netflix special in April 2016 just before Trump was named the Republican presidential candidate.
“I think it has changed for the worse. It was once just, ‘Can you believe this guy? Can you believe this shit?’ Now it’s just awful. It’s sickening. It’s nauseating, you know, if you are a decent person. If you’re not a decent person then it really is the best of everything. But if you have empathy and care about people other than yourself, your ethnicity or whatever tribe you subscribe to and if you are brought up where sharing is a cherished value then, yeah, it’s a shitty time to be an American.”
So that’s what Cross thinks, and that might be a bit of a surprise to fans who only know his work as an actor — specifically his popular role as the naive, lovable and delusional dreamer Tobias Funke on the Netflix comedy series Arrested Development. If you are one of those TV fans, it’s probably wise that you hit YouTube and check out some of Cross’s comedy before forking over hard-earned cash for a ticket to Cross’s new Oh Come On standup tour. The tour stops in Vancouver at the Vogue Theatre on Wednesday before coming to Calgary, where Cross will play MacEwan Hall on Thursday.
While Tobias the character engages in mostly happy pursuits with a wide-eyed optimism, Cross the comic swings between angry rants, confrontational views and “Oh my God he just went there” ideas and punchlines.
“There are people who don’t really do their homework and they go, ‘Hey, it’s the guy from the thing,’” said Cross, when asked about walkouts at his show.
Postmedia caught up with Cross recently over the phone as he was leaving a Montreal-style deli in his Brooklyn neighbourhood.
“It’s like if I had just had Buffalo wings and you were in St. Louis,” said Cross, pointing out that he was talking to a Canadian just minutes after eating poutine.
While it was nice that Cross was supporting Canadian cuisine, the president of his country was embarking on what looked like a trade war with Canada complete with plenty of Trump-style trash talk.
“I didn’t know up until very recently that you guys burned downed the White House and that’s really upsetting to me,” said Cross, tongue firmly in his cheek, as he referenced Trump’s inaccurate claim of the Canadians torching the capital during the War of 1812. “You might want to rethink your history.”
Trump’s freewheeling tongue is nothing new or shocking to Cross. He is well aware of the former reality TV star’s record.
“Trump, there’s no surprise, zero. It’s not like he claimed to be one thing. He is exactly what he said he was,” said Cross.
What really bugs him is the craven nature of many politicians, who will dance with any devil if it means they can hold onto power.
“We have built into our system of democracy checks and bal- ances but when one party runs every branch, judicial, legislative and executive then you don’t have any checks and balances. Then when everything the legislative branch does is an act of fealty to their leader and they put party over principal then just by definition you are easing your way into a dictatorship,” said Cross. “The Republican Congress is not doing anything to check it. They are putting party over principal. That is the most upsetting thing.”
It’s kind of funny that Cross will be in Vancouver on the highest of U.S. holidays, July 4. While other Americans will be waving flags you can bet Cross will be pointing fingers at those on both sides of the aisle who want people to believe they are governing for the good of the country, not the growth of their bank accounts.
“Most politicians are career opportunists that will bend either way the wind is blowing,” Cross said. “That was one of the big issues I had with Hillary Clinton — I just thought she was full of shit. And these people, they are spineless. They are cowards.
“To get elected you have to lie. Whether it is an outrageous lie or a little white lie or a culmination of them as you do these town hall meetings. You have to promise this, try this. I mean, you have to lie.”
With such a cynical view of his government, how does Cross, the father of a 15-month-old girl, square the future?
“I want a better future, a more equitable future. A more just and compassionate future for everyone,” said Cross. “One of the things I think about daily is I’m very happy that she lives in New York, that she is a Brooklyn baby, that she is going to grow up in Brooklyn. It is very progressive here. It is very diverse. She won’t be taught hate. She won’t be taught otherism. She won’t be taught those kinds of things. I know just not our neighbours, but friends and family, that she’ll be growing up among, well, there is pretty much one of everything, so that gives me encouragement.
“She won’t be logging onto Breitbart anytime soon or whatever Ezra Levant bullshit Rebel Media,” added Cross, referring to the farright websites.
While his daughter is too little to log on, she will one day, and she’ll likely Google her famous parents. Her mother is actor/author and activist Amber Tamblyn. There she will learn her mother was one of the first and loudest people to speak up in the #MeToo movement and is a founding member of #TimesUp. She will also learn her mother was not happy with Cross’s comments during a recent Arrested Development cast interview with The New York Times in which Cross looked to be defending actor Jeffrey Tambor after their castmate, Jessica Walter, said Tambor verbally harassed her on thesetoftheshow.
“I apologized to her ( Walters) in person, or in private I should say, rather. Which is how I like to apologize to people I need to apologize to opposed to hiring a PR team, but that’s not enough for some people. They want to see it on a billboard somewhere, but I can’t worry about them,” said Cross.
“I think personally what Jeffrey did, I know where it came from, but I thought it was egregious, not cool and you know, people yell at people. But I think the issue was less with that and was more with how we responded when Jessica was crying and upset. I get that totally. I went back and looked at that transcript and I think everybody is right, it was both deaf and tone deaf at the same time.”
After the unfortunate events Cross, under the counsel of his wife, went dark on social media. But now he has business to do and for a touring comedian in 2018 the internet and all its platforms are the marketing tool one must employ to get bums in seats.
“I (left social media) when all this shit started happening and my wife said get off of it. But I am doing this tour so I am absolutely full on aware of its usefulness,” Cross said.
“I can’t completely back off of it but I think once the tour is over I will do it again (back off) for my own head and so I can be more present for my daughter, and that’s important.”