david cross

I was going to write more here on the subject of our interview yesterday with David Cross, but I think I’ll save it for an article in the new issue of Crimewave. Since the interview was relatively short, I think we’re going to try to transcribe it over the weekend and get it into the new issue… which still hasn’t gone to press. All I can really add right now is that it was awkward. And, it wasn’t awkward because of his intimidating wit or anything. He was very bright and well-spoken, but that’s not what put me off. What screwed me up was the fact that he was really serious about his craft. Maybe that sounds weird, but I was expecting for him to say that it was dumb luck that he’d gotten to the heights that he had gotten to. For Christ’s sake, he was in Men In Black I and II.

I was expecting for him to say, “Hey I’m just like you. I got some lucky breaks though. Sometimes it’s like I’m in a dream.” Instead he talked about his craft and the fact that he got to where he was through hard work and by having good ideas. I’m sure he’s right about that. I think he’s a funny guy and, although I didn’t see the episode of ‘Just Shoot Me’ where he played a comically-retarded individual, I’m sure he’s a really good actor. I understand that, but, at the same time, I find it odd.

Maybe that’s because the people that I admire rarely reach such heights. Maybe it’s because the people I admire, if they do become famous, have more of a sense of not belonging. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s the sense I get from him that he thinks he belongs. It’s an intangible kind of feeling, but maybe that’s what it is. It’s not that he’s arrogant. He’s not. And it’s not that he comes across as though he’s entitled. He doesn’t. But there’s a sense of comfortableness that I wasn’t expecting.

I do find it admirable that he left LA and moved to New York. He’d be the first to acknowledge some of the bad things about LA, the superficiality of it all. He’s sensitive to those kinds of things, but yet there’s something about him that just seems a bit, not smug, but comfortable.

Yup, I’m faulting the guy for being “comfortable” with his fame.

Forget I said any of that. It’s bullshit. David Cross is a good guy, a funny guy. He’s the kind of guy that deserves his fame. He is, like Don Knotts and Tim Conway before him, a truly gifted comedian and comedic actor.

Bravo, David Cross.

the axe, where will it fall?

In order to squeeze in the interview with David Cross, something else has got to go. That means that Linette and I have to decide which contributor we like the least, or, to be more correct, which contributor we are least afraid of.

So, who will it be? Will it be Dawn, who submitted a story about her pregnancy? She is, after all, still weak from childbirth. And she lives an hour away from us. She also seems to be a forgiving person. That peculiar combination of attributes might just spell her doom.

Or, will it be Jeff Kay, who is always stepping into my spotlight, stealing away my attention with his own crude musings on past adventures and such. He has, for this issue, written a nice little piece on working at a grocery store during his high school years. I worked in a grocery store during my high school years and I haven’t written anything funny about it yet. Maybe we should cut his contribution, if only for that reason.