Interview Bob Odenkirk and David Cross

Though they haven’t been consistently seen together since their cult HBO sketch-comedy series in the mid-’90s, Mr. Show’s Bob Odenkirk and David Cross have since emerged separately as esteemed and deeply influential comedy figures. The Naperville-born Odenkirk has turned his focus toward directing movies, taking small parts on TV shows (including a recent stint on Breaking Bad), and rallying for other up-and-coming comedy teams like Tim And Eric. Cross, meanwhile, regularly spits bile as a stand-up, famously co-starred on another cult hit, Arrested Development and its upcoming movie iteration, and has a collection of satirical essays due out in late August titled I Drink For A Reason. And while last year saw the pair reunite to tape David’s Situation, a pilot for an HBO sitcom that Odenkirk and Cross subsequently chose not to pursue, Chicago-area Mr. Show fans will be treated to a string of genuine reunion shows at the Just For Laughs Festival on June 19 and 20 at the Lakeshore. (Odenkirk will also perform The Best Of Sketchfest on June 18 and 19 at iO, and doing a signing at Quimby's on June 20 for the new Comedy By The Numbers audiobook.) Although it seems that they aren’t completely sure what they’ll be doing at these shows just yet, Bob and David spoke to The A.V. Club about their status as a comedy team and what audiences should and shouldn’t expect onstage.

The A.V. Club: Are you guys planning to do more together after this, or are you just testing the waters?

Bob Odenkirk: I don’t know. I’m so tired of honest answers. Who wants to hear the truth about comedians? David and I would love to work together again.

David Cross: I got a reality-show thing I’m trying to do in Australia. And in Canada, I’m doing a week-that-was thing.

BO: I thought that was a game show called You Just Won A Million Loonies!

DC: Yeah. But it’s still a very real look at—

BO: At loonies, and winning.

DC: And then South Africa. I got some irons in the fire there.

BO: We would work together again, that’s the answer. But we just have to find the time to do it.

AVC: How will your onstage roles or chemistry compare to what people are used to?

BO: Well, I’m bald and kind of short and I wear shorts now. David has gotten a little bit taller, about two inches, and he’s got a full head of hair. He’s more handsome, clearly getting laid. So, other than that, it's kind of a switcheroo. The show's called "Switcheroo."

DC: Our stage act is a lot like—did you see 17 Again?

AVC: Not yet.

DC: Well, the second time you'll see it, you'll know.Both Bob and I are the Zac Efron character, and we’re also whoever the gentleman is who plays the older version of him. I believe it’s Jeremy Piven.

BO: So, according to The Onion, which you’re gonna write, we’re gonna make fun of pop culture and social mores. I don’t know how many we’re allowed to skewer. We have to clear that with the festival. I think up to 10, and then beyond that it’s not fair to the culture.

DC: You people like it when we make fun of Chicago hot dogs and deep-dish pizza, right?

AVC: That’s all we ever talk about.

DC: Oh, I love it. I’m working on some stuff.

AVC: What Mr. Show sketch has become an unexpected fan favorite over the years?

BO: Well, “The Story Of Everest” to me, is the one. Some people hate it, but I would say a lot of people I’ve talked to love it so much. “Audition?”

DC: People remember really odd, specific things. Not odd, but what at the time seemed fairly disposable.

BO: We won’t be doing any best-ofs, though. We won’t be doing any scenes that appeared on the show. We got a couple scenes that we’ve done live that are fun to improvise, and some new stuff.

DC: It’s gonna be pretty loose. Don’t expect a big theatrical show with sets and wonderfully creative transitions and stuff. It’s just a comedy festival in Chicago. I mean, really.

BO: It’s not even a very big city anymore, right? Basically they have the food fest, and then everyone goes home.

DC: Hey Bob?

BO: Are you barbecuing right now?

DC: No. I forgot about this yesterday when I was talking to you, but I have to go to a play. It’s a Broadway play. It’s on Broadway, with the lights and the bright, gay Hollywood. I mean Broadway.

BO: Is it The Fantasticks?

DC: It’s a reworking of Fantasticks, but it’s like a slam-poet version.

BO: Did they lower the bar? Is it called The Not-So-Greats? [Phony laughter.]

DC: Oh brother!

BO: Come on! It’s a modernization of The Fantasticks.

DC: It’s honestly, no joking, it’s A Moon For The Misbegotten but it’s done by the Puppetry Of The Penis guys. So it’s a new spin on that. Yeah, anyway, I really do apologize. I’m sorry, I do gotta go. But I will just say I’m really looking forward to meeting Bob. I’ve heard really great things. I know Chicago very well, and outside of the amount of blacks, it’s just a wonderful, wonderful city. I gotta go, bye, sorry. [Hangs up.]

BO: I’m sorry we dicked around so much, but David and I can’t help ourselves. We’ve done so many interviews. The minute you get serious, you just feel embarrassed. When you asked if we were gonna work together in the future, what could we say? There has to be a buyer who wants us. And as much as we have fans, clearly nobody likes us well enough to make a show with us. They’ll all have a meeting with us, but even HBO doesn’t want to have a show with us.

AVC: You guys have another show idea?

BO: Yeah, we do, actually. We pitched it. We went to Showtime and HBO. It’s a progression of Mr. Show. When we wrote Mr. Show, we would write sketches and then we would link them up. We wrote sketches that came out of a sense of story. So we want to do that show now. It would still be like Mr. Show, but the sketches wouldn’t be constructed separate from each other. It would be a fundamentally different show because of that.

AVC: So you pitched it around?

BO: We did, and basically everyone said, “Oh, we don’t have any money right now. Come back next year.” It’s always been this way. It’s always been difficult for us because we have fans. We even have fans at networks—at HBO and Showtime—but it’s just not good enough. I think the hard part is the bosses at those networks have never been fans of ours. They’ve never really watched us or known who we were or given a shit. So the problem is even if the lower-level executives like you, they can’t order shows. They just act like they can.

I’m pitching a show that’s just for me, and you would think, "Wouldn’t that be even harder to make happen because you don’t even have David with you?" But actually it’s got a real strong idea to it, and I think it’s actually easier to make happen.

AVC: What's the idea?

BO: I don’t have it all neat and tidy yet, but it’s like Charles Kuralt's "On The Road," only I play all the characters.

AVC: Is there a certain character type that you feel best suited to play?

BO: No. I mean, I like playing everything. I like to show people who are kind of in embarrassing situations and are kind of aware of it, but can’t cop to it because their ego’s too invested in whatever they’re doing.

AVC: It seems that you gravitate towards playing delusional loser types, but you never play them as defeated.

BO: I guess I’d have to do the show to really see a continuum among them, but most of them are stupid, but like you say, they believe in themselves. I like embarrassment and sadness. Deep, deep sadness. I don’t know, that’s life. It’s fucking mean. Life is hard. You get your ass kicked.

D: Is that sensibility what attracted you to working with Tim And Eric?

BO: No, I don’t think so. They do play some pretty pathetic characters and put them in horribly embarrassing and compromised situations. They sent me a DVD with, like, seven short films on it and different things they’d made. I liked how they had a sense of who they were. That’s a rare thing to see, and it’s hard to find when you’re young, so that’s why I called them and we worked. They made me laugh, you know?

D: How has working with them influenced your idea of what sketch comedy can be?

BO: Well, more than anything, they are satirizing forms of media or forms of presentation. That’s their subject matter. It’s not the things themselves that are being advertised, but it’s the way they’re being advertised. That’s why you recognize what they’re doing and you’ve seen it, but you can’t quite put your finger on what they’re making fun of. They’re making fun of the public conversation and how it’s carried on and what’s ludicrous about it. Their subject matter is so ephemeral, and yet they pull it off with real comedy.

D: Why did you guys opt not to continue with David's Situation?

BO: We liked what we did, but not enough to want to make lots more of it. HBO probably could have gone either way. If we'd really wanted it, I think they would have given us a chance. But that was part our decision. We had such a great time, and certain parts of the show worked so well—writing, the live performance, the two of us together onstage—that we both strongly felt we should go after something that puts us back on TV together, and lets us go further with our trains-of-thought than the David's Situation scenario would have.