A Really Lovely Night Out With David Cross and Friends
100 Club, London W1, until 30 June
Two years after he last played London, there's less of the direct political anger and more observational whimsy from cult US comic David Cross, though he still finds plenty of space to test his audience's sensitivity to the unsayable. This time, he's created a US-style club night, bringing with him his regular supporters Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry and introducing the wonderfully kooky Kristen Schaal, as well as a stellar support cast of British comics for the run, including Jimmy Carr, Ed Byrne and Andrew Maxwell.
Cross kicks off with a short set of his own, musing on the way owning a dog in New York makes you more attractive to women, unless you negate the effect by calling the dog Pussy Magnet, and how the tale of two gay flamingos at London Zoo adopting an abandoned chick shows that flamingos are more evolved than Americans. But a couple of setpieces fall flat, and on the whole Cross feels low-key, leaving the biggest laughs of the night for Barry and especially Carr, who makes Cross's offensive jokes look like a Royal Variety performance. Altogether, though, it really is a lovely night out, as long as your notion of lovely includes some near-the-knuckle material about paedophiles.
