"Bald heads and thick rimmed glasses," she reiterated. That put a rather hilarious picture in my head of my friend wandering the streets of NYC coming up behind random bald-headed people and tapping them on the shoulder only to embarrassingly say, "Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else."That someone else my friend was looking for was the Mr. Show famed comic David Cross, who at the time had just released his first record, "Shut Up You Fucking Baby," on Sub Pop records in late 2002. A little over a year later with a war in between, David Cross recorded his second album live in Washington D.C., derisively titled "It's Not Funny."
Whereas "Shut Up" was post-September 11th, "It's Not Funny" is post-Iraq war. Upon which you find Cross, perhaps more than before, poised to push people's buttons.
David Cross has always put himself on the line by the possibility of alienating his audience with his open criticism of religion, pop culture, and politics. (Not to mention a grievance with a short list of celebrities, most notably Scott Stapp of Creed, the rock band Evanescence, and stars of "The Simple Life" Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.) He has always been critical of the Right, expressed his annoyance of commercialism and Hollywood, while also holding the utmost contempt for Christianity and flat out hate for George W. Bush. For those already nauseous of hearing President Bush jokes, you might want to sit this one out.
Even with the steady dose of Bush jokes aside, by far the sociopolitical agenda behind his comedy proves to be the ultimate jinx of his act in which he often comes off sounding, ironically, too preachy. It's one thing to be openly opposed to and satirize one's lifestyle, but to ridicule it something completely other. Not only do some of his attempts come off as desperate at times, they also tend to be Cross in his least amusing state (see title of album for further explanation).
The most potent part of Cross's stand-up is and by far has always been his storytelling. A well-traveled man, Cross often drops anecdotes about his experiences around the country. He often wanders off into cleaver "bits"—either true or fictional—that generally conclude with big laughs from the audience and Cross muttering a familiar "alright" to let get himself back into character. Also on this disc, more so than he did on his previous release, Cross played more with irony and satire in a way that always made set-ups for uproarious jokes as well.
The nature of stand-up comedy discs are inherently risky, in that they all but mark the end of the touring on that material. With that to his credit, this is the second disc Cross has put out in almost as many years without fail of him losing his creativity in writing new material. Though seemingly Cross's niche market, for better or for worse, seems to be disillusioned college kids, he has found a way to become one of the most noticeable names in stand-up.
Nevertheless, whether you agree with him or not, over many years David Cross has continued to churn out impressive stand-up comedy that is unique as much as it is hilarious. And with this effort he might be able to nudge out Jeff Foxworthy for Best Spoken Comedy Album of the Year at next year's Grammys; but for now, lets just hold our breath.
And believe me, I tried to console my friend any way I could. "It's OK, he was probably just wearing a hat."
Powered by AkoComment 2.0!
Entertainment
Art
