Love Quote by David Cross

David Cross isn’t just name-dropping Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin; he’s sketching a whole ethic of comedy in miniature: taste as a form of community service. The line sounds casual, almost tossed off, but it quietly stakes a claim about what kind of scene he wants to build and be associated with. Barry and Benjamin signal a particular comic DNA: deadpan discipline, anti-showbiz posture, jokes that land because they refuse to beg for approval. Saying he “loves doing stuff” with them reads like camaraderie, but the subtext is curation. These are his people, which means this is his standard.

“We give the stage” is the tell. It frames the stage not as a pedestal for the headliner but as a resource to distribute. Cross casts himself less as star than as host or gatekeeper who’s deliberately redirecting attention toward “good bands and funny people.” That phrasing is blunt on purpose: no genre hierarchies, no precious distinction between music and comedy, just quality and the shared adrenaline of live performance.

Context matters here: Cross comes out of alt-comedy, where the brand was skepticism toward mainstream polish and a hunger to create parallel institutions - rooms, showcases, tours - that reward originality over marketability. The quote doubles as a subtle mission statement. It’s not altruism so much as ecosystem-building: if you control the room, you can protect the vibe, elevate your peers, and keep the work sharp. In a culture that treats stages like trophies, Cross treats them like invitations.