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David CrossIt's Not Funny Sub Pop/Stomp Anyone who has seen Wil Anderson or watched 'Skithouse' for any length of time will already know that most comedians are less funny than a childrens hospital's cancer ward. I adore comedy, but Corinne Grant couldn't make me laugh if she fell down a flight of stairs - although I welcome her giving it a try - and the only thing I'd like to see Ray Romano in is a bus crash. David Cross, on the other hand, is that rare stand-up who's actually tremendously funny and stands up to repeated listens. He was the titular David of the brilliant (if little-seen) US cable TV series 'Mr Show With Bob & David' and his previous live CD 'Shut Up You Fucking Baby' is a given on my long-distance car journeys. So it makes me slightly embarrassed to admit that 'It's Not Funny' is... well, not quite brilliant. Much of it is great, however: his rant about electric scissors is worth the price of the CD alone, if only for some completely unnecessary digs at Evanescence, and the New York-resident Cross is still mining the rich comedic seam of 9/11 as per 'Shut Up...' However, his closing piece - Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech as rewritten for George W. Bush - is well executed but conceptually lazy (and the sort of thing that any hack could have an oh-so-satirical bash at). I mean, it's head and shoulders above "have you ever noticed that smoking dope makes you crave snack foods?" or "men and women sure do see things slightly differently, am I right?" but with Cross I just expect... more. It's still consistently laugh-out-loud funny ("I'm getting older, and about half my friends have children now, and I think that's... rude"), but those who find Cross obnoxious, supercilious and smug aren't going to change their mind on this evidence - but then, neither will those already won over by his anger, intelligence and wit.  |
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