Customer Reviews

David Cross - Let America Laugh

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I spent some time reading the reviews here while waiting for my DVD to arrive. I was a little apprehensive after reading things like "arrogant", "condescending", "mean-spirited", expecting to see him being a real jerk. It was the complete opposite. David makes fun of people. THAT'S WHAT HE DOES.

To me, he comes across as being a calm, affable, even gentle person who is also raw and raunchy, with a take no prisoners attitude while telling stories/jokes.

While I saw some bits(that I don't remember being on the "Shutup You F****** Baby!" CD) that were funny, this DVD should NOT be your introduction to David Cross. Get his stand-up CDs first to get a feel for him, especially "It's Not Funny"...David Cross at his absolute funniest.

If you've ever hung around with an indie band, a lot of this stuff will seem familiar. Indifferent crowds, lame venues, drunks trying to interrupt the show or staggering up to tell their rambling, incoherent stories after the show, invitations to parties that turn out to be boring or bizarre. A lot of this stuff is a downer, but it's realistic and wry. There are also a few bright spots where he tells a funny story to a receptive crowd, but most of the onstage footage is from when things go seriously wrong, like when an old hippie in the audience farts loudly and the stench drifts onstage. "Did...did someone just fart? 'Cause it really smells like someone just farted."

It's David Cross. No, not so much with the standup-but you are warned by the packaging. Yes, there was actually a failsafe included to subvert this "OMFG! NO STANDUP ROUFLO" or whatever the cool kids say nowadays. If I can HEAR the dude fart and make out David's face, the quality is cool--what are you missing exactly? The DVD includes many interviews with idiots that you are invited to make fun of yourself--just because David is not voicing over it does not make it any less hilarious. Look at the title--there's a little bit of irony floating around, kids. Between the chick that the title line comes from and the prolonged "getting kicked out of the dressing room" sequence, it is worth a buy if you can appreciate David Cross without him telling you exactly what you are supposed to think. It's probably cheaper than what you paid for "Shut Up You F***ing Baby" so go for it. If you have the faculties to think for yourself, you will dig it.

David Cross is hilarious. His stand-up material, whether routine or manufactured on-the-spot, is sharp and witty. What makes this DVD interesting, though, is the interaction he has with people in these venues he entertains for his shows.

He plays to a number of small venues. Most of them seem to be occupied by drunken hicks who like to heckle or scream out obscenities at random. A good deal of the footage involved him dealing with these people during his sets. The rest of the DVD is basically just a bits-n-pieces chronicling of his North American tour. It's pretty interesting and has some really funny moments.

Not a bad documentary. Worth a viewing.

The packaging on this DVD makes it clear that it is not a concert film. It is a behind-the-scenes documentary about David Cross's low-budget club tour with the indie rock band Ultrababyfat. The negative reviews here are largely based on false expectations that arose from not taking the 20 seconds or so it would take to read the descriptive text on the package. If you are a fan of David Cross, and a misanthrope, you are in for a treat! Cross seizes the opportunity to put the spotlight on all the drunken, stoned blithering idiots and fevered indie-scene egos that he encountered on the road. From the geriatric farting hippie in Oregon, to the delusional club owner in Nashville who insisted that tables be left set up so he could serve junk food during David's set. If you ever wondered how musicians and comics end up so bitter and cynical, this documentary will make it abundantly clear. If you are looking for light laughs and sketch comedy, look elsewhere. If you want a taste of reality with a dark edge, check this one out.

This is classic David Cross stuff. If you have ever sat in a movie theater and had the show ruined by some jerk who kept talking, or if you are annoyed by people who forget to turn off their cell phones, or if you have been in a theater to watch a comedian only to have some heckler try to upstage the performer, or if you are just sick and tired of being bombarded by morons in everyday life (and you like David Cross), then pick up this DVD. All others need not apply. And come on, it clearly states this is not a stand-up comedy DVD, so quit crying about that. Dark and very funny.

Don't get me wrong--like a lot of you looking over this DVD, I like David Cross's stand-up comedy a lot and I've always enjoyed Mr. Show, too.

I think this documentary disappointed me so much because I found its overall effect neither very entertaining nor engaging (things I like about some behind-the-scenes documentaries), but instead rather formless and mean spirited.

While we do get a candid look at the exhausting realities of life on the road on a tour (I admit Cross does run into some impossible crowds and pain in the a** people), so much of this DVD seems designed to make other people--including *fans* of Cross--look stupid. For a comic who routinely (and hilariously) criticizes religious and political thinkers for their intolerance, Cross himself frequently comes across as a pretty intolerant and elitist guy.

It's just odd to me that Cross would take his tour out of comedy clubs (a neat idea) and into rock clubs, then get irate when crowds behave like they're at a rock show. Director Lance Bangs had the opportunity to: (1) widen our understanding of what it's like to be on the road and (2) ask some interesting questions (how do you make people laugh? how do you deal with the exhaustion, the disappointments, of being a performer?).

Instead he just delivers a documentary full of easy cheap shots and unenlightening minutiae. Bangs has done some good work in the past with musicians; I don't know what happened here.

Save your time and money.

Let me say this dvd is filled with typical David Cross humor.
It's not a dvd of his stand up material so don't expect it. It clearly states that on the case. It's more of a comic-umentary (I made that word up) of his tour with Ultra Baby Fat. Most of it is a behind the scenes look at what comic with a cult following has to go through on the club scene. The way he deals the idiot hecklers and obnixious drunks is classic. Cross is actually pretty hospitable to some of the morons he encounters such as the mentally challenged at the Black Lodge video store and the bumbeling interviewer. Personally, I think Cross deserves a humanitarian award of some sort for dealing with so much crap in order to bring us some giggles. Granted, he is no independant comic like Robin Williams, but he is on his way.
The cast of Mr. Show makes a brief apperance as well, so if you are looking for 45 seconds of funny Odenkirk quips, this is the dvd for you.
All in all, if you are a fan of this hysterically bald sayer of jokes, this is a must own dvd.

David Cross is F*&king brilliant. His sarcasm and wit is unsurpassed. I did some research before buying this DVD and I was aware that it wouldn't be your typical "Comedy" DVD, anything David does is anything but typical. This DVD take fly on the fly approach, and gives you all access, uncensored behind the scenes tour of David Cross as he makes his way across America. If you are a huge fan of David Cross, his delivery, stories and what makes him tick, you will love this. I recommend it highly, though my friends don't get it, I don't care I can watch this over and over and still laugh my self into tears. I love the fact that you see David for who he is a regular Joe trying to make a living. This DVD isn't filled with stand up or skits, but true life day to day experience, which David manages to make hilarious. To me that what makes him the best, he can take any situation, be it hanging out in a video store after hours or just standing in the street and turn it into gold. My favorite scene is when Dave is waiting to go on stage at a club which doesn't have a back stage so he's just hanging out in the alley waiting to go on, until some random drunk kid walks up to him and asks him if he's trying to sneak in the club. Dave with all his wit realizes the potential and doesn't miss a step. He tells the kid yeah the show is sold out, but he's waiting for a friend to sneak him in. When the door opens they sneak in the back door, which happens to also be the stage entrance. Dave goes right into his performance and the kid not realizing what has just happen stumbles embarrassingly across the stage and down into the crowd. Brilliant!, this is David off stage and unplugged. Seen through his eyes unscripted, for the most part. The only grudge I have is not knowing him in real life. Does this man ever stop being funny?

And I did, until I cried.
David Cross has to be one of the bravest, funniest and-believe it or not-most eloquent comics performing today.

I thought it was very original to do this kind of DVD, instead of just rehashing everything that was on 'Shut up You F*cking Baby'. Instead we get to see what it's like to be on tour with David, and get a glimpse of some of the colourful people that he gets to meet on a daily basis.

The fans of Mr. Show should be pleased to know that Bob Odenkirk even makes an appearance, and says one of the funniest 'heckles' I've ever heard in my life.

I honestly don't get some of the reviews for this DVD, especially since most of them are coming from David Cross/Mr. Show fans. If you see a review that contains the words "I had experienced David Cross through his part in Scary Movie 2", do yourself a favour and take that one with a grain of salt.

My only complaint with the DVD is that David has yet to do a Canadian tour, so that we too can get in on the fun.