As high-wire openings to a standup show go, this will take some beating. David Cross begins I’m from the Future with the narrative of a woman’s journey to, and experience in, Auschwitz. The anticipation in the room ebbs into anxiety: what’s he up to? Distressing details pile up, and you feel queasy that he’s using this material, presumably, just to tee up a punchline. Can he pull it off?
He does: the tension is released, and it’s not Cross who is left looking crass for abusing the memory of the Holocaust. Neat trick, that – although you’re soon reminded that Cross can do crass too. Much of the show addresses Covid, and the schism between law-abiders and libertarians. There’s some fine, heavily sarcastic material here, as the Brooklynite turns vaccine phobia on its head (who wouldn’t want to have magnet powers?) and, ranting in character as an anti-vaxxer, flags the paranoia of those who bang on about their refusal to live in fear.
