Arts Agenda - Caught in the Crossfire

Comedian David Cross and his love/hate relationship with the South



Racism. Sexism. Bigotry. Jokes about these topics rarely lead to long-term show biz careers. Look at Andrew Dice Clay. But racists, sexists and bigots are the targets New York-based comedian David Cross defuses with his cynical, acerbic, oftentimes embarrassingly personal brand of humor.

Now before you get all uppity, saying, “What right’s this Yankee got talking about the South?” you should know that Cross, old “Baldy McJew” himself, spent nine formative years (ages 10-19) here in Atlanta, and much of his humor is rooted in the South.

“I hated Atlanta for good reason,” says Cross, now in his late 30s. “It was not a real pleasant place for me growing up. There was this feeling of ‘Wait a minute, I think I’m smarter than a lot of adults.’ There were a lot of dumb, backward and ignorant people, and I was thinking at 11 that what they were doing was foolish and not healthy for a child’s development. I would say exactly 38.7 percent of that experience ... directly influenced my comedic characters.”

Cross has been doing stand-up for more than 15 years, he’s made an HBO special, was saddled with a catch-phrase on the sitcom “Just Shoot Me” and had roles in cult films (Waiting For Guffman, Pootie Tang) and commercial blockbusters (Men In Black, MIB II). But he is perhaps best known for the characters he and partner Bob Odenkirk developed on “Mr. Show,” a mid-’90s sketch comedy show that ran on HBO for four seasons. (The first 10 episodes have just been released on DVD with running commentary that’s more like supplemental running comedy).

The comedy team also made the movie Run Ronnie Run! — based on “Mr. Show’s” recurring character Ronnie Dobbs, the most arrested man in television history — which was filmed in Atlanta in the fall of 2000. The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and the American distribution rights were bought by New Line Cinema, but the film’s debut has been postponed indefinitely. For a preview of Ronnie Dobbs, however, Atlanta natives needn’t look much further than their own neighborhood, the same neighborhoods that shaped Cross’s character.

Stranded by a deadbeat dad in Roswell in the ’70s with his mother and two siblings, Cross was miserable until around age 15 when his family moved intown and he started attending an art school. Around the same time, Cross’s mother exposed him to the comic genius of Lenny Bruce and Andy Kaufman. Cross was soon hooked on comedy — in part as a better-to-laugh-than-cry mechanism — and started his career auspiciously at the Nightery, a transvestite bar on Ponce de Leon where the Eagle is now. Eventually Cross moved on to gigs at the Punchline and Comedy Spot before moving to Boston for a short stint at Emerson College.

Cross wasn’t as quick to give up comedy as college, however, and after nine years, he was offered a job writing for Fox network’s “The Ben Stiller Show,” where he met fellow writer Odenkirk.

Unfortunately, “Ben Stiller” was cancelled not long after Cross joined the show, but he did write one sketch, “T.J. O’Pootertoots,” that Odenkirk considers an exemplary representation of Cross’s comedic approach.

“It was about a corporate theme restaurant enthusiastically serving human flesh,” explains Odenkirk. “That scene really points to David’s sensibility: It makes fun of sprawling America, of the T.G.I. Friday’s and strip malls where he probably spent a lot of life. Also, it tells a story. We were determined to develop story sketches.”

And develop memorable story sketches they did on “Mr. Show,” which brings us back to Run Ronnie Run! While the story of Run Ronnie Run! getting stalled in the starting gate — (Just Stand Still, Ronnie, Stand Still reads www.bobanddavid.com) — is a common enough Hollywood tale, Cross and Odenkirk maintain the mass appeal of the film’s drunk redneck, who is familiar to anyone who watches “COPS.”

Before you get the wrong idea, however, be assured that all of Cross’ stand-up is not at the expense of Southerners. He talks about his fair share of rednecks, but he also raises hell about being raped by the Virgin Mary, fetal-tissue research, why George Bush will go down as history’s worst president and people recycling ... their urine. But there will always be a special place in Cross’s heart and material for the South.

In general, though, time has softened Cross’s negative feelings maybe not toward the backward, but toward his Southern background.

“I think that the idea of community and politeness are great, and it’s a beautiful section of the country,” Cross says when asked to say something nice about Atlanta. “I like the food a lot — too much. And because of all those other conditions I talked about earlier, when you get a bunch of people who feel similarly outcast, you get a creative community that’s really tight.”

Long may you run, “Ronnie.” Long may you run.

David Cross performs with Ultrababyfat and the Forty-Fives June 16 at 8:30 p.m. at the Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. $15. 404-524-7354.??