Over the course of more than four decades, David Cross has done it all.
An Emmy-winner and two-time Grammy nominee who was central to the rise of alt comedy in the 1990s, Cross has been performing stand-up professionally since he was a teenager back in late ’80s Boston.
He’s best known to many, though, for his work in television — for his iconic HBO sketch series Mr. Show, created with and co-starring Bob Odenkirk, for his indelible performance as Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development, and for creating a cult hit or two (The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret) of his own. Over the years, he’s also been seen in myriad lauded films, directed and starred in some major music videos, and either opened for or toured with artists like Yo La Tengo and Modest Mouse.
But even while cultivating an unusually multifaceted artistic output, Cross has always seen himself as a stand-up first and foremost. One of our great, unflinching satirists, he’s back this month with The End of the Beginning of the End, the ninth special of his career, where he skewers everything from sneaker hoarding to reproductive rights rollbacks. It’s available on his website now and will be available for streaming on YouTube beginning April 7.
In an appearance on our Comedy Means Business podcast, Cross offers a deep dive into his process in shaping new material, and how the experience of performing politically charged, provocative work has changed from the time of George W. Bush to the ascendancy of Donald Trump. He also talks about navigating from the darkness of his 20s to his Hollywood breakthrough as a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, his longtime preference for performing in music-oriented alternative venues, his return this year to playing comedy clubs for the first time in decades, a TV series that never got made that he would love to resurrect, his thoughts on Live Nation’s recent antitrust settlement with the DOJ, and much more.
Check out the entire conversation by clicking above.