David Cross.

IN THE LATE-'90s a Monty Python-esque sketch comedy show that was as intelligent as it was humorous began airing on HBO. Mr Show was the brainchild of Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. After 30 episodes Odenkirk and Cross ended the show, citing exhaustion and a poor time slot. Since then Cross has guest starred on a myriad of TV shows, toured as a stand-up comedian, had an HBO special, and released a comedy album (Shut Up You Stupid Fucking Baby) that has become a road trip staple. More recently, he put out a behind-the-scenes tour DVD for his stand-up act, while also landing a recurring role on the surprisingly funny Arrested Development on FOX. Up next, Cross will record another comedy album for Sub Pop.

Were you surprised by the reaction to the tour DVD?

I was really surprised at all the negative reaction to the DVD, where people thought it was just being mean. I read reviews of it, not by magazines or professional reviewers, but by people who had rented the DVD or purchased it. A number of people think that I'm obnoxious and shitting on my fans, and that I'm mean and take advantage of people. But if I didn't show that stuff, the DVD would have never come out--it would have been pointless. It would have been a congratulatory pat on the back. And who the luck needs that? Also I don't know why people are bummed out that I didn't just do a stage show and show you what's on the CD. The whole reason I didn't do that was because it seemed gratuitous and exploitative, and it's just a way to make money and--that's not what it's about. I didn't want to put the DVD nut there unless it had a different angle. It was showing people more what it was like to go on tour and do that stuff. If those things weren't in there, it would have been boring. And that's culled from literally four-and-a-half weeks of touring. That stuff's interesting. Everyone in it kind of buries themselves.

The tour DVD seems to showcase a lot of crazy stoners, especially at the Black Lodge video house.

Oh fuck. And there's other stuff that didn't make it into the DVD just because we didn't get releases or we didn't have a camera. I used to smoke; I don't do it that much anymore, but I used to go out of my way to find a place onstage when I'm doing my set to say, "I don't really get high anymore." I do lots of other drugs but I smoke pot maybe five to 10-times a year now. I used to smoke it all the time, but I don't and I haven't for awhile. That's just because it makes me--and I'm not saying this about everybody else--but it makes me kind of dumb and self-conscious. And I don't necessarily have that great of a time when I'm high. If I do get high I'm usually pretty drunk already, so that exacerbates the whole situation and I stop having fun. Also, if I'm at some stranger's house party, it just makes me want to leave quicker And people get disappointed. But that Black Lodge is a good example of why I don't do that, because I'd still be there hanging out with those guys, making pseudo-philosophical statements.

On the comedy album there are a few jokes about America, post-9/11, that point out how absurd we as a society are acting. Has it gotten better?

It's pretty much following the script one might have written the day after 9/11. All that patriotic furor will ebb, because you can't maintain that level forever. People are slowly starting to wake up--not quick enough for me--but people are starting to say, "Wait a second, maybe all these decisions we made post-9/11 weren't the right ones. Maybe we were a little rash and looking for a quick fix." It's not just going to he angry rhetoric thrown at this division of left and right, and liberal and conservative, and hippie and businessman--all that silly cartoonish way that we were letting ourselves be labeled--on every side. That's the most depressing aspect: the fact that everybody seemed perfectly fine with the anti-intellectualism that was happening. Like that was a good thing that was happening in this country, rather than the idea of having a rational debate about these ideas and whether we were taking the proper course of action. It was like, "Uh-uh, not now. You gotta wait at least two and a half years. I don't even want to talk about it, we're just going to do it." And really championing the anti-intellectualism that Bush has wrapped himself up in. It's all that bullshit cowboy crap, like, "Hey, just a simple talkin', straight shootin', tough son-of-a-gun" Who wants to live in a country where your leaders are proud to be stupid and ignorant?

Did you ever skate?

I did skateboard but I sucked. I still have a nice scar on my left elbow from when I was about 14 and I wiped out hard going down a steep street in my apartment complex. I had a shitty board and a rock got wedged under one of my trucks, and I went flying. I think that might have been the most I've ever bled, outside of my monthlies of course. When I pulled my arm out of my raincoat--it was raining, too--it looked like I had been soaking it in prop blood, like we were about to shoot a scene from Dawn of the Dead. I didn't skateboard much after that. This was before all the bowls and parks got popular. This was Atlanta in the late-'70s.