David Cross: Let America Laugh (2003)

Directors: Lance Bangs, David Cross

Writer: David Cross

Composer: Eban Schletter

Starring: David Cross, Bob Kaliban, Michelle Maryk, Meredith Lipson, Aviva Yael, Shonali Bhowmik, Juli Cross, Gordon Downs, Scott Aukerman, Jay Johnston, Bob Odenkirk, BJ Porter, Brian Posehn, Jill Talley, Paul F. Tompkins

More info: IMDb

Plot: Here's a fly-on-the-wall DVD sidebar to David Cross's live comedy CD from Sub Pop, Shut Up, You F**king Baby! Shot on a low-tech, digital camcorder, Let America Laugh captures the ups and downs (mostly downs) of Cross's 2002 tour of North American clubs. Notable sequences find the Mr. Show star jerking around a rude and uncooperative Nashville club owner, attending a wee-hours party at a Memphis video store (it looks exactly as one might imagine), surviving a double booking in Vancouver, and shooting fireworks from a Minneapolis playground. Much of this looks like concert-tour hell, but there are highlights, too: A stop at Experience Music Project in Seattle, a funny encounter with Cross's comic partner, Bob Odenkirk, in a Los Angeles store, and a relaxed, hometown show in Atlanta.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Cross is a very funny guy, so while I was disappointed that this wasn't a standup comedy film with an hour of uninterrupted funny and it was a mix of on and off stage material (more off than on), I was still entertained.  We get to see an awful lot of heckling from the audience and it's funny to see all the ways Cross handles himself.  It's also neat how he interjects into his routine shit that happened recently on the tour in his interactions with club owners, fans, etc.  One of the funniest bits was the closer with the restaurant bagel poster.  Fucking hilarious.  Now I just need to find one of his standup DVDs to satisfy the hole left by the tease.