‘Mister. Show’, Bob Odenkirk, and Touring

The world can feel like a troubled place divorced from reason and reality. With that, it can be very easy to break things down by the red and blue of the map. I know yes, but comedian david cross he finds hope in the reddest places as he tours the country.

Right now, we’re talking about whether it’s depressing to see anti-science rhetoric win out after your last tour, when you voiced your rejection of anti-masks. But Cross is exploring the entire map in his current The World’s Worst Dad Tour, which runs through the end of June and then does it again (with stops across the pond as well) in the fall after a summer vacation for family time. And by going to states with less than progressive reputations, he finds pockets and tells me, “The thing that doesn’t get me too down is knowing that there are tons of people, not just in Brooklyn, but in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Missoula, and Columbia, North Carolina.” South, who feel the same (like me)”.

By his estimate, this is the sixth or seventh opportunity for a massive tour, but it doesn’t seem so much routine as refined by the experience. He goes to your city, walks around, connects, kills with material that’s already fully baked (with the potential for tweaks and twists), and then moves on to the next city. But this is not a Steve Miller Band song, Cross clings to the tether of his normal life and family, clinging to the idea that stability is a good thing. Something that is not innate in someone like Cross, who moved a lot as a child.

Here, we talk about the process of building his act and hitting the road, adjusting to the notion of permanence, the concept of impostor syndrome, and the egolessness of both the legendary mr show and his employment relationship of more than 30 years with Bob Odenkirk.

You’ve organized this tour in a specific way (scheduling breaks for family time), but you’ve been on tour, off and on, for years and years and years. Is that something that’s a little more tolerable for you because you have some built-in adaptability (having moved around a lot as a kid)?

Absolutely. The only thing it gives you, for better or worse and quite often both, is the ability to cut the bait and walk away. And that includes emotionally too. You don’t get too close to people and you don’t get too comfortable. It’s easy going; okay, fuck, I’m going to go to London, or; Fuck it, I’m going to Detroit. I’m done here, just get up and go. Like I said, it can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing.

Was that an adjustment for you when you got married?

I just don’t allow myself that mentality anymore. You have to get rid of that, but I’m older, I’m more mature. It’s an adjustment I made.

I’m assuming you’re going on tour, the idea is to polish the material to take it to a certain place, at the end of the tour, potentially a special.

No, that’s not right. I don’t hit the road until I’m ready to hit the road.

Well.

Fortunately, I live in Brooklyn and can walk or bike to about five different locations, where I can shoot and see what sticks. I start with just a lot of notes. I record every set, I’m just recording material in various sets and then weeks later or a month or two, it starts to form and I go; Well. And then I spend more time on stage, cut out the special guests and finally have the set that I’m going to go on tour with and then that set is good.

The first show of this tour was in Portland. Great night of fun, sold out. Portland is always fun. I did Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. Those were my first three shows. It was great. The set I did last night is different than the set I did in Portland, just from what I said, it’s evolving. I tend to write on stage anyway and am improvising this part. And then this thing that I linger on for a minute that was really good, it’s going to be part of the set. I try to never go past an hour and 20. I try for an hour and 15. I don’t go past an hour and 20, just because I think he’s starting to get a little complacent. And then I’ve dropped a couple of parts that aren’t bad, but now don’t fit into the flow.

I have a nice flow that starts at point A and then turns around and ends at the end of the show. So there seems to be a feeling to a theme or a story. It’s not a story, but an idea that’s come full circle and then those bits and pieces that I drop will go into the next set and they’re really good, they’re strong, but they just don’t fit the same way anymore. And that will continue to happen until I finish and I have always recorded, and I am doing it again this time, I have always recorded the special in the middle of the tour, which this year will be in Salt Lake City. . So I’m going to record the special in Salt Lake City. It is at the middle of the tour and then at the end of the tour. I’m going to record audio, because that will be different. It will be called the same The worst dad in the world. But what you get in audio will be at least a third different from what you see, probably just more expanded.

What is the germ of the title, The worst dad in the world? Why are you a bad father?

I do not think it is. My daughter does. She gave me that, not specifically, I just took it. She was whining, because she wouldn’t give him a third sundae or something, and she was like her; You are the worst dad in the world. And I stayed like; Oh, there’s my title. Here we go.

I’m curious about the other side of your career: writing, directing, acting. Is there something in the pipeline there as far as another movie?

Unfortunately, Bob Odenkirk and I, and his brother Bill, they were developing a program for Paramount Plus, but they chose not to continue with it, so you won’t see it. I’ve filmed a couple of things that will come out at some point. Literally a few days ago, I finished what I was doing in the fourth season of umbrella academythat it was a fucking pleasure and an honor to be a part of it.

Does it surprise you that the partnership between you and Bob has remained so strong over the years and that you still have the same push and pull? It’s hard to collaborate with people and you guys have been doing it for 30 years at this point.

I’m not surprised at all. He is one of my best friends and vice versa. And we both respect each other, we make each other laugh, we work very well together.

How do you keep the ego out of this?

We never had any ego. I’m not a guy with a big ego and when I met Bob he had less of an ego than me and I don’t even have one. So it was really impressive. That was one of the things that impressed me the most about him and I learned from him, when we first started, his ability to edit his stuff, listen to other people and throw away two days of work and go, “You know what? This is not good. This line is good. Let’s start over with this line.” Whereas I would be trying to fix it internally and it was a valuable lesson I learned from him. You’re wasting time sometimes, quite often, and it’s like, “But we’ve been working for two days on this. I know there’s something there!”

“Yes, it is this line. We’re going to lose all the other stuff and start over.”

I don’t know if that directly correlates to ego, but it’s just his ability to say, “No, we’re going to do the right thing for the part, for the sketch. And I know this was a really funny thing I did that makes everyone laugh, but it doesn’t make any sense in the sketch, so I won’t do it.” And that guy has no ego and really no one in mr show i had one. It was a pretty egoless atmosphere and all those people did bigger and better things and they still don’t have egos. I guess water finds its own level and affinity and there was no place for it, and that’s not how we ran writers’ rooms. And it was just understood and no one threw a tantrum. Ego was never really an issue.

Does impostor syndrome ever play into any of this? Or do they just have confidence in the work, in others, that what they are doing is good and they don’t have to question it, they just keep going?

Forgive my ignorance, but I’ve heard that term before, but I’m not exactly sure what it means. Impostor syndrome.

Well, as a blogger or a writer, I can tell you that it’s literally all I am. So basically it’s the idea that you feel like you’re not worth the work, the praise, you feel like any minute somebody’s going to tap you on the shoulder and say, “Yeah, we’ve got you, we’ve got you.” you. You suck. Get out of here.”

I think I definitely felt that before. I think a lot of standups have this internal idea like, “Oh my gosh, they’re going to find out I’m a fraud and I have these tricks that I do to make people laugh.” But speaking for myself, I look mr show and I look at some of my standup, not all of it, but most of it and I look at the other stuff that I’ve created and been a part of and I can look at it and even though it’s subjective, I can say, well, that’s demonstrably fun and interesting and clever. . So you build up enough of that and then you can walk around saying, “Okay, I’m not an imposter. I guess I’m the real deal.” Sometime.

Tour information and tickets for David Cross ‘The Worst Daddy In The World’ tour can be found here.