which will be airing in December, so set your tivo’s for, “TV from England” and enjoy. It’s called, “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret” and I’m really happy with it. It has a fucking AMAZING cast. And outside of not securing the rights to “Happy Jack” by The Who, everything turned out pretty much as I wanted it to. Will Arnett and Spike Jonez and Amber Tamblyn represent the American side of things at its best and the insanely, unfairly talented Sharon Horgan (Pulling) , Russell Tovey (Being Human) and Matt King (Peep Show) represent the British in all their naked glory. Oh! Also, the Russo brothers (Arrested Development pilot and most of the best episodes) directed. And what a fucking treat working with everyone over there. Pretty much the exact opposite experience of doing a show here. The studio and network all treat you like an equal. Shockingly, they will defer to you! Never any insipid notes like, “can you make the Irish woman with rickets a German teen-age boy with secret chocolate wings and a time machine? And also make him claymation? We think that will really broaden our audience that we’re trying to sell Gatorade to. We have a study that shows that electric grape flavored Gatorade is the flavor of choice with fans of claymation, time-traveling, chocolate German angels.” The folks at RDF (the studio) and Channel 4 (network) could not have been more pleasant, equitable, or fun to work with. Also, Jon Benjamin (of the Worcester Benjamins) and I have completed and turned in a pilot for Adult Swim which we both have high hopes for. I can’t tell you anything about it because it’s a secret. But a funny secret nonetheless.
I've also got a book coming out at the end of August titled, "I Drink For A Reason" which is also funny. I will be doing a smallish tour, hopefully with Nick Swardson filling in the bill, up and down and here, diagonally, across the United States of America and Two Places in Canada starting in mid September.
Bob and I keep fueling the pipe dream we have of writing/performing/touring/filming together. Every time we are lucky enough to get to hang out and do shows together (and with the resultant new sketches being written and performed) we always end up sweaty(Bob), drunk (me) and in a time-hardened lovers lock rolling around on the ground swearing we're gonna do something together, "for real this time!!" We will of course. I'm just hoping it's before I need to change the prescription on my bifocals.
OH! Also, check out kickstarter.com! It's this very cool website that is a community fundraising site for creative projects. You pledge money to fund a project but you don't have to pay a cent unless it gets funded 100%. Then, depending on the artist, you get some sort of premium depending on how much money you contribute. Anywhere from five bucks to a couple of hundred. I got on board very early on in its development and am going to try to raise money to go to McMurdo (base? town? I'm not even sure) in the South Pole in Antarctica and do a comedy show for the 1,000 or so people who work/live there. It costs like 20 grand to get international clearance and fly down there. Could be cool. And weird. More likely weird.
Goddamn, what else? Mark Rivers is having a baby. Eh, whatever.
Anyway, sorry for being so anti-social but I really have been working on a ton of stuff. I hope to see you at a bookstore or theater or music club near you soon. Enjoy the summer! I'll be upstate at my house in the woods on my trampoline with my dog and some b-b-q.
David Cross