Circuit Training 18: David Cross

Expect to see a lot more of David Cross in the coming months. The cult American comic is probably best known in the UK for his role as the curiously camp Tobias in Arrested Development - arguably the finest US sitcom of the noughties - but is now prepping his first British series. The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret gained a full commission after a one-off for Channel 4's Comedy Lab went well, but has now become a joint UK/US production, which seems to have made life rather more difficult.

Back in the States, Cross' best-loved work is Mr Show, the anarchic sketch series that briefly graced HBO in the late nineties and is well worth checking on YouTube, if you haven't. His TV career has been a bit hit and miss since then, and roles in commercial movies like Alvin and the Chipmunks (parts 1 and 2) haven't impressed the long-term fanbase.

Thankfully his stand-up remains defiantly unadulterated, as you can observe on his upcoming live CD and DVD, Bigger and Blackerer. We catch up with Cross halfway down Kensington High Street, as he heads back to the office for more Todd Margaret business.

David, you're a bit of a comedy icon in the States...

Oh yeah. Every day people throw themselves at me, prostrate at my feet, thanking me...

...but Todd Margaret will be your first British show. Has that transition been tricky at all?

No. I don't want this to sound like I'm speaking ill of the American counterparts but the biggest difference is they're much more hands-off here and deferential to your ideas. And having an American company co-produce it, like the vast majority of American companies, they are hands-on more than I'm comfortable with. Lots and lots and lots and lots of notes, and real minutia.

Some of them are good and make the show better but quite a number of them are inane and silly and - at this stage of the game - a little bit pointless. So that's the biggest difference. And that I knew going into it. It's no secret that British television for its successes and failures is pretty hands-off and they let the artist do for the most part what they want, and American television is the opposite, unless you're talking about HBO.

So you prefer the British way of working?

It was a real pleasure doing the pilot over here, because it was pretty minimal. It's frustrating slightly [now doing the series], because you're like 'but I thought you liked the show? This is the show that I did with no notes - you liked it right? So let me do my show!'

But the people I'm working with over in the States are all really good people, and they're certainly very well intentioned, they're pleasant to deal with, which is not necessarily always the case. Y'know, if I really am obstinate and fight about something they'll let me do it. But the people here, are, y'know, not used to [the American way of working] as well, so I have to keep saying 'yeeeah, that's how they do it!'

Have you ever walked away from something, mid-series?

No, but I developed and co-wrote and produced a show for Comedy Central where there was a clash from the very beginning, from the get-go, and I was surprised but not totally disappointed that the show didn't get picked up. In fact after three episodes they kind of buried it.

Was that a relief?

Yeah, I would definitely have done another series of it, but it was for the best that it didn't continue and I don't think I would have lasted another year of going through all that craziness. But outside of that I've had pretty good experiences.

Wasn't your part in Arrested Development supposed to be just a cameo at first?

They originally asked me to look at some of the other roles, and I had literally just moved to New York, months ago, and I thought, 'I'm not fucking moving back to LA, it took me nine years to get out of there, I don't wanna go back.' But then I saw the script, and I was like 'this thing is fucking brilliant, I love it,' and wanted to be a part of it. But I was really drawn to the role of Tobias, I just immediately had a sense for him, who he was, how I wanted to play him, and I was also attracted to the fact that he was kind of recurring.

So when I was in the middle of shooting the pilot I called my girlfriend in New York and said 'I have to say this: this show is fucking awesome and is gonna be great and I think I need to do this' so I became a regular. It's nuts, and I loved doing the show, and it's a relatively tiny sacrifice to make in the grand scheme of things, but yeah, I would have been happy to stay in New York.

You're a long-time stand-up too - does that old cliché about US comics just doing stand-up to get a sitcom still apply?

You really don't see it that much anymore, but for a long time that was very true.

Are people happy to stay on the circuit now then?

No, it has nothing to do with that, there will always be people who see stand-up as a means to an end, as opposed to those who do stand-up for pure reasons. But TV has changed, you just don't have nearly as many shows being developed around a stand-up or a character. I can't remember the last one that was commissioned that was based on somebody's act. King of Queens? But even that's been off-air for a while.

It's all commerce-driven, I don't know how or why or when but at some point those shows stopped making the networks a lot of money. I guess people got slightly less interested in them, or they wanted to go for another type of comedy. There was a period just recently where there weren't a whole lot of comedies on TV, it's all about money.

You have a new live CD and DVD out - are they all the same stuff?

They're taken from the same show but the stuff that's on the CD is geared towards audio. So I'm hoping I didn't put anything on there that's like 'Hey! What's happening? Why are they laughing? What'd he do?'

Why have comedy albums always been a bigger deal in the states?

I think it's because so many people travel, the States are so big and you just throw the CD on for a long trip, that's one aspect that you don't have here. You don't want to listen to a comedy CD on the tube, laughing out loud and looking like an idiot.

Now we have podcasts though, so I often find myself laughing at strangers...

Welcome to the world of audio comedy.

Bigger and Blackerer - David Cross' CD, released by SubPop, is out now. Order
The DVD of the show is released by PIAS Comedy. Order