agenda - Charles Bethea

September
p e o p l e
i n n o va t i o n
p l a c e s
c o n t r o v e r s y
i d e a s
d r a g o n c o n !
agenda
Don’t
Cross Him
Hometown comic David
Cross thinks there’s something
tragic about Atlanta
Interview by charles bethea
p h o t o g r a p h © a l i s m i t h s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 | at l a n ta | 2 1

AGENDA
Starting Block David Cross
appreciate it if you’d
ask your questions in a highpitched
Southern-belle accent,” “I’d
David Cross tells me. The comedian isn’t
kidding. Cross, forty-five and an Atlanta
native, pushes the boundaries of his interviews
the same way he pushes his political
and sketch comedy, which has been
illustrated—to critical acclaim, if not mainstream
success—on stage (Shut Up, You
F--king Baby), the small screen (Arrested
Development), the big screen (Year One), and
now in his new book of memoir/essays/
satire, I Drink for a Reason.
You’ve described yourself as “sort of Southern.”
What does that mean? I haven’t lived
in the South for more than twenty years.
Still, I have what I’d consider Southern
traits. They come out at odd moments. I
remember walking down the sidewalk
with this girl I was dating, and I went a few
paces over to my left and spit in the street.
She was from Houston, and she goes, “Oh,
nice Southern boy, spits in the street.”
So when you mock Atlanta in your stand-up
routines, are you playing it up? It’s a lovehate
relationship. I am disappointed with
Atlanta. I love the people, the music scene.
Some of my favorite bars and restaurants
are there. I’ve got family there and lots of
friends. But from the late nineties on, it
really sold a lot of its soul and beauty to
the strip-mall-ification of it. Where once
there was this beautiful patch of woods
or cool buildings, there’s now yet another
Barnes & Noble or Linens ’n Things. I
know it’s growing, but come on. There’s a
small tragedy about it.
What was Northside High School like in the
early eighties? I was actually one of the few
people who had a really good experience
in high school. I had been going to school
in Roswell at a place called Crestwood. I
felt so out of place, and I didn’t have many
friends. It was very white, Baptist, suburban—just
a world I wasn’t comfortable in,
though I tried: I actually chewed tobacco
for a year and ran around in a sleeveless
puffy vest. But Northside was a school
of the arts; I got to spend that time with a
great acting teacher who steered me in a
good direction.
Where’d you hang out? As a kid it was all
about riding my bike down to the creek
and the woods, catching crawdads, playing
with firecrackers. This was in Roswell.
At fifteen, I moved to a place off of Howell
Mill, and my friends and I just drank.
We’d go to Collier Park, and climb a billboard
Downtown, by the Days Inn. We’d
go to the top of the Biltmore and drink
beer up there, and the top of the Hyatt
Regency. There were midnight movies at
Perimeter Mall. I had a fake ID, so I’d go to
688, and the bistro on Spring Street. Then,
sometimes, comedy clubs: I started doing
stand-up shortly before my eighteenth
birthday. Then I got into the whole crazy,
artsy, New Wave scene. I hung out with
RuPaul and some of those guys. Then,
about three in the morning, go to the
Waffle House.
Are you proud of your book? I am proud
of it. At least that I wrote it. It’s not going
to change the world, and it’s not going to
be compared to Mark Twain or Voltaire.
But for what it is, I think it’s pretty good.
I’m happy that it’s not a rehash of my
stand-up. Way too many comedians get
a book deal and put the stand-up they
don’t use anymore in it. I think that’s
reprehensible. n
t y l e r p e r r y: K e v i n W i n t e r / G e t t y I m a g e s
$41,030,947
$26,853,816
OPENING
WEEKEND
the perry allure
On September 11, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself opens in theaters. Though it
may be critically panned (his work tends to be), the Atlanta-filmed Bad will likely be
box-office gold thanks to ardent support from Perry’s core audience—black, middleclass
churchgoers—and a winning, family-oriented formula. Perhaps this is why, despite
poor reviews, Perry is able to lure acclaimed black actors to his films; Bad stars Taraji
P. Henson, who was Oscar-nominated for her supporting role in last year’s The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button. A glance at Button’s numbers, though, compared with Perry’s
most recent release, Madea Goes to Jail, illustrates his reach. Maybe actors such as
Henson can’t resist broadening their fanbase (and a chance at a starring role).
$1,436,640
$1,062,578
domestic
gross
(Daily Intake)
n Madea Goes to Jail n The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
$42,674
$41,084
avg. gross
per theater
417%
Domestic return
on investment
-15%
2 2 | at l a n ta | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9