Posted: 05/17/2010

David Cross: Bigger and Blackerer

(2010)

by Shannon Huebscher

Comedian David Cross, known by many for his portrayal of Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development and for his work with fellow comedian Bob Odenkirk, stars in his new stand-up DVD filmed at the Wilbur Theater in Boston, MA.

Bigger and Blackerer offers over an hour and half of Cross’ material, compiled from two back-to-back shows at the Wilbur on the same night. The beginning of the DVD opens with a young boy, dressed to look like Cross - complete with a fake balding cap - delivering inappropriate jokes for someone his age. And of course, that’s exactly what makes it so funny. Once Cross actually comes out on stage, he delivers a perfect blend of wittiness and sarcasm, all conveyed with his usual charm.

He talks about everything from porn to the healthcare debate to junkies, but some of his best lines were his religious jokes, which included when he called the Bible a “treasure trove of chuckles”, and that “Mormonism was the Scientology of it’s day”. Cross is able to be funny without completely alienating those around him, as his approach is to shed light on the ridiculousness he sees - again, his charm works magic.

He also had a great bit about items he finds in the SkyMall catalog on airlines, and how completely useless they are, specifically the “TimeMug” - as if looking at your watch just wasn’t convenient enough, now the “TimeMug” combines both a watch and a coffee mug. Ah, the absurdity of it.

Bigger and Blackerer is a DVD well worth watching, and Cross’ stand-up continues to get better and betterer.

Shannon Huebscher is a freelance writer living in Minneapolis.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com