Comedy review: David Cross at Lakewood Theater (October 16)

by Teresa Gubbins

In cities like Austin and Boston, comedian David Cross is a hero, a rock star; Dallas, not so much. Since we are neither a college town nor a city with an overtly liberal profile, we're not an obvious destination for Cross' provocative, authority-challenging brand of humor.

Thus, his stop on Friday at the Lakewood Theater, with opening act Todd Glass, felt like a gift to local subversives and fans of his various TV shows such as Arrested Development and Mr. Show, and the show was sold out.

This wasn't, however, an audience that sat in rapt, respectful silence. Cross was greeted by more than one heckler who felt the urge to scream shamelessly or shout out things during his routine. It's hard to say why, whether too much alcohol (throughout the night, you could hear the sound of beer bottles rattling on the floor), or whether Cross' anti-establishment subject matter attracts malcontents, or whether people were just plain ill-mannered.

In any case, Cross dispatched the hecklers with the kind of aplomb you acquire after having done standup for 30 years. After one guy's shout, Cross paused and then asked the audience, "Are you as disappointed in him as I am?" which made everyone roar.

Dressed in the Seattle grunge uniform of baseball cap, plaid shirt, and facial scruff, he used a neat ice-breaking technique to open the show: He sang a song which basically summarized all of the topics and points he'd be covering in his routine. It was a wide swath: the battiness of old age, the guilt trips induced by green products at Whole Foods, his ironic addiction to the television show Intervention.

He had killer punch lines but much of his strength lay in his delivery, which combined the faux-innocent curiosity of a child with the needling savvy of the wise-ass in the back of the room. He's also willing to talk about anything, and that included a prolonged riff on drugs: the graphic effects his recreational drug use has wreaked on his gastro-intestinal system, and cunning impressions of the junkies that congregate in the park next to his New York apartment, and people on acid going to the store to buy batteries.

God bless him, he tackled the two topics most people avoid, politics and religion, both of which he's covered scathingly on releases such as 2002's Shut Up You Fucking Baby! and '04's It's Not Funny. One interesting development: He said he wasn't as angry as he used to be, and that he views movements such as the tea parties with more detachment and resignation.

"I'm excited that they're carrying loaded weapons into these things -- really ramping it up," he said.

Like all of the really good standup comedians, Cross was also able to incorporate local color that'd been freshly gathered. He said he'd changed hotels because the one where he'd originally been scheduled to stay was overrun by tourists in town for the Texas-OU game. He started to mock the "Hook 'em" chant but was immediately interrupted by audience members who chimed in with the exact kind of whooping that Cross was mocking. "Noooo -- no, no, no," he said, almost pleading.