A New Development: David Cross, 'I Drink for a Reason'

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THERE'S SOMETHING UNDENIABLY cool about David Cross. Maybe it's the gray beard he's grown to go with the bald head and thick-rimmed glasses. Maybe it's because he's probable smarter then you — dude does have a way with words.

Maybe it's because he's kind of an asshole.

Whatever it is, you get the sense he knows it, which might explain why Cross decided to write his first book, "I Drink for a Reason" (Grand Central Publishing), released in August. He's knowledgeable about politics, controversial about religion and spot-on when it comes to making fun of people. Cross doesn't mince words — it's part of his appeal.

The book's a somewhat fragmented work of essays on the various topics you'd expect from Cross, and to promote it, he embarked on his fist stand-up tour in five years.

During the break from stand-up, Cross filled his time with roles in "I'm Not There," "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Year One." The co-creator of HBO's brilliant "Mr. Show," Cross is still probably best known for his role as Dr. Tobias Funke, a former psychiatrist with delusions about his acting prowess, on the cult-favorite series "Arrested Development."

Express chatted with the 45-year-old comedian about his return to touring, health care and Barack Obama. Oh, and before you go looking for it, no, Cross has nothing new to say about the "Arrested Development" movie, which series creator Mitchell Hurwitz is currently scripting.

» EXPRESS: For the most part you're playing nice theaters this tour, why the decision to avoid rock clubs this time around?
» CROSS: I've never done theaters and that's sort of the last stage that I haven't really done yet. I mean I've done them in one-off shows, and things like that, but I've never toured and done theaters. I like it, I got a say. It's definitely different.

» EXPRESS: Do you find that people are bit more respectable and proper in these nicer venues?
» CROSS: Well, there's more focus. I've really enjoyed doing that tour where I was doing the clubs, but I don't want to have to fight for it. Those are fun shows, but I really do like the idea of: come in and sit down, there's more of a theatrical type thing to it. [There's] stuff that I would never be able to do if I was at the Black Cat, or the 9:30 Club, or something.

» EXPRESS: This is your first tour in about five years, are you already sick of it?
» CROSS: I wouldn't say I'm sick of it, but I'm ready to go home. I've been out now for over a month and it's kind of grueling: you're in a different city every day and you've got to do press, check the show, then do the show, then go out for a few hours. Then you wake up and all of a sudden you wake up and you're in Morgantown, West Virginia, or Dallas. You don't eat well, I miss my girlfriend [actress Amber Tamblyn], I miss my dog. [Still,] it's been more fun then I ever imagined, it's been really, really great.

» EXPRESS: What made you decide after all these years to go back out and do a tour?
» CROSS: Because I have a book coming out and when I met with the people at the publishing company their idea to promote the book was — I'm not making this up or exaggerating — literally a book signing in New York, and then to go on "The View" and "Good Morning America." That's absolutely absurd. I'm not going on either of those shows, those would have a detrimental effect. So, I took it upon myself to have a tour — and as you said I haven't done a tour in five years — so I said, "OK, I'll go out and push the book."

» EXPRESS: Was it much harder for you to write a book then it was to sit-down and write stand-up material?
» CROSS: Oh, much, much harder because I don't write in a conventional sense of sitting down and writing jokes — I've never done that. That's not the way I approach stand-up, and usually when I write there's feedback so it was definitely different, and something I wasn't particularly comfortable with. I do like the book and I think it's funny and it's got it's purpose, but of all the forms of comedy I've done that as definitely the least enjoyable.

» EXPRESS: How do you then approach writing jokes for stand-up?
» CROSS: It's always been the same thing where something will occur to me, I will write that down, maybe something happens in conversation that's probably 20 percent of my act. Or [there's] real-life anecdotal things that I expand upon on stage. Usually it's: you write the thing down, then I go on stage — I wouldn't do it on a tour — I'll go to a friends show or an alternative group — I'll talk about them, riff and if it works it stays, if it doesn't it goes and you start to hone it.

» EXPRESS: You're coming in and playing a show in D.C. and that always brings a political spin to a performance — lots of bands make a point to say something political because they're in Washington. You've never been one to hide your feelings on politics, so does being in D.C. accentuate that or does it not matter?
» CROSS: No, it doesn't matter. If there's something that's happened that's D.C. specific then I'd talk about it, but I'm still going to talk about the health care debate and Proposition 8, stuff like that. Just because I'm in Washington I'm not going to go, "Hey it all happened right down there!"

» EXPRESS: Speaking of health care, I'm curious, what are your feelings on the debate?
» CROSS: Well, I've been talking about it in my act, and it's something [where] I'm surprised and I've learned a lot about myself, watching town hall meetings, the tea-party parades or just watching Fox News and watching these purposefully misinformed people. I think when I was younger I'd be more outraged, but now that I'm older I have a much better understanding that this isn't specific to this point place in time.

» EXPRESS: What's your stance on President Obama? Were you an Obama supporter? If so, are you still?
» CROSS: Not initially, during primaries, but once it came down to Obama and Hilary [Clinton], I was an Obama supporter. I think the patience and stomach to do what he does and to think the way he does and still communicate the way he does after such a vicious hypocritical double-standard that everyone in Washington has, on the left and right.

The dismissal of him as a person and his ideals and the fact that not only is he not getting support from nearly half of the country, but they're spending so much time and energy and money to not just oppose him, but to really bring him down. For him to kind of remain above the fray is pretty amazing. It's something I really admire — I couldn't do it. I would snap id be saying things like, "Fuck you, motherfucker." But the fact that he's able to stay above it, while people get on television and say to millions of people what an awful person he is and malign his family — it's just disturbing.

And the guy hasn't done anything that is really even that controversial. Obviously the health care debate is controversial, but he hasn't — and I don't want to just pick on George Bush, but he hasn't lied about taking us to war, he hasn't stolen an election or whatever — he hasn't done anything.

»Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW; with Todd Glass; Wed., Oct. 21, 8 p.m., $35; 202-783-4000. (Metro Center)

Photo courtesy Allison Michael Orenstein