David Cross is a prolific actor, comedian, author and director, but many may know him as the eccentric Tobias Funke from critically acclaimed sitcom “Arrested Development.”
He’s also starred in “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” three “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies and self-made series “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.” He’s created numerous stand-up specials over the years and won three Grammy Awards for his live comedy.
Cross will perform on Thursday at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead as part of his “The End of the Beginning of the End Tour.”
Although he’s known for his edgier political commentary, Cross said that his fans will be pleased with the new hour of jokes.
“It’s more of the same, although completely different material. Surprisingly, a lot less political this set, it just turned out that way. I don’t really touch upon politics and religion as much as I normally do. That’s kind of because the first half of the set is about this real thing that happened to me that was very embarrassing and it has nothing to do with any of that, but it’s a long story and it takes up a good chunk,” Cross said in an interview.
He’s been having a terrific time touring this new set.
“This is fun,” he said. “By the time I get to Pittsburgh, I’ll be at show 35 or so at that point.”
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Asked about his favorite roles, Cross conjured three: Tobias Funke from “Arrested Development,” Todd Margaret from “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” and Ronnie Dobbs, a popular recurring character from “Mr. Show with Bob and David.”
“I’ve been very lucky to have gotten to play really fun, cool characters, and also the projects themselves have been cool,” he said. “There’s some sketches I did on ‘Mr. Show’ where it was so fun to do that character and it lasted five minutes. There’s been really fun movie projects that I’ve been a part of because the surrounding cast were really fun to play with.”
He was also fond of his work on Netflix series “The Umbrella Academy,” one of his most recent roles.
With a decades-long stand-up and sketch comedy career under his belt, 60-year-old Cross has seen the way that the comedy scene has changed, especially as a result of social media and the Internet.
“The escalation of how somebody can so rapidly rise to selling out huge theaters and arenas. That was neve around, you really had to work, tour and get a name for yourself, then maybe a couple shows and specials here and there. Now you’ve got guys who were doing stand-up for four years saying ‘hey man I paid my dues’ and selling out arenas and stuff,” he said.
But does having to use social media make building a comedy career harder?
“You don’t have to, though. You can just go and do stand-up if you want. Again, social media, I’m not knocking it, it’s a way to accelerate your ability to work and fame so that within 48 hours roughly 10 million people could see your joke, which is a lot different. So I’m not knocking that — it makes sense for people to engage in it — I’d just say that it does not lend itself to crafting a quality set or being a great stand-up with intuitive insight into performing, you’re negating that part of it,” he mused.
Cross’s family moved around a lot when he was a child, and he started doing stand-up at 17. “I always knew, I was kind of funny and I was always the new kid — I moved every year — so it’s just a learned thing of how to make friends and I knew pretty early on that I wanted to do something within comedy.
“I was very very influenced by stuff I saw on TV, early ‘SNL,’ early ‘Monty Python,’ those are things that I saw where I just had an appreciation for that thing as opposed to, some people get into country music, some people get into dance, some people get into cars. That stuff really resonated with me.”
In addition to acting and live performance, Cross currently hosts a weekly podcast called “Senses Working Overtime” where he holds conversations with guests including Tony Shalhoub, Sarah Silverman, Jeneane Garofalo and his “Mr. Show” co-creator, Bob Odenkirk.
As a major force in the alt comedy movement, Cross has been on the cutting edge of what’s funny for decades — but his current cultural obsession is a lot more mainstream.
“I will tell you — and I’m not joking — when it’s like midnight, 1 a.m., and I get back to the hotel wherever I am, and I’m just unwinding, I will watch the Hallmark Channel type things. … There’s like mystery romance, and it’s all mostly seasonal stuff and they’re so bad-good and they’re all done within this kind of template. … I’ve really gotten into them for just the kitschy enjoyment of it, the way some people truly like the Real Housewives and ‘Below Decks.’ I’ll just watch the Hallmark Channel, I’ll just watch what’s on and it’ll make me laugh and I can’t stop it, I have to find out what awful dialogue is going to come for the next scene.”
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David Cross will perform at the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead on Thursday. To get more information and tickets, visit librarymusichall.com.