A funny and intelligent guy, comedian David Cross brings his Worst Daddy in the World tour to Richmond this week, and many Generation Xers probably intuitively know they might love it. Hailing from Roswell, Georgia, Cross is an honorary member of Gen X, born just a year early in 1964.
Starting out as a stand-up comic, he has since achieved a wide range of success as an actor and voice artist in television (“Arrested Development”) and movies; and is currently featured in the critically acclaimed Julia-Louis Dreyfus movie, “You Hurt My Feelings.” But for my money, his expertly paced, stand-up comedy remains his most valuable and natural talent as an artist. I’m glad he’s stuck with it over the years and still finds enough time away from family and other showbiz work to have 66-city tours like this one rolling across North America, Ireland and the U.K.
Cross is one of those rare celebrities who comes across exactly the same offstage as he is on (Charles Barkley is another; I suppose you could even call Cross ‘the indie rock Chucksta’ and you would be grasping only slightly). An Emmy award winner and two-time Grammy nominee, the comedian is a self-described “atheist prone to bouts of depression,” as he says in a recent special; but like one of his comedic heroes, Bill Hicks, he’s never been afraid of giving his honest opinion, which takes a great deal of guts today, so you know he’s no nihilist. This summer, Cross will be appearing in the FX series, “Justified: City Primeval,” and he’s also starring in the fourth and final season of the hit Netflix series, “The Umbrella Academy.”
If you’re new to his comedy, or to funny things in general, below you can sample the opening bit of his most recent special, “I’m From the Future,” available to rent on his website for $10. This way, newbies or people on the fence can discover ahead of time whether they’ll be able to handle his scathing, sometimes political comedy in-person, or if it might cause them to seek immediate assistance through a variety of 1-800-help-numbers afterward. Also, here’s a link to the last time we interviewed him in 2018.
David Cross appears at the National on Thursday, June 22. The show is 18 and over and starts at 8 p.m. You can find tickets here.
And for good measure, here is Cross as Nathaniel Hornblower in the 2011 video by the Beastie Boys, “Make Some Noise.”
