David Cross Takes Bob Odenkirk’s Freedom 250 Spot
david cross is stepping into Bob Odenkirk’s Freedom 250 slot after Odenkirk said he was canceling his appearance. The swap emerged during a Tribeca Festival interview tied to their film Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, turning a comedy appearance into a neat little industry handoff.
Freedom 250 Lineup Shift
Bob Odenkirk said, “Happy to do this. I don’t know about David, but I was busy this morning canceling my appearance at the Freedom 250.” He added, “The bottom line is, I was supposed to go on after Vanilla Ice and before Bret Michaels, and then I heard that Bret dropped out, and then I was moved to before Vanilla Ice.”
That lineup detail is the part that gives the change its shape. Freedom 250 was not a stand-alone comedy booking; it sat inside a broader bill that already included Vanilla Ice and Bret Michaels, so Odenkirk’s exit and Cross’s substitution alter the order for anyone following the event closely.
Cross Takes The Slot
David Cross said, “What I am doing is I’m going in your spot but I’m going as you, and what I’m going to do is mock your old bit, Milli Vanilli Ice. I’ll be doing that.” He also said, “I’d been saying I wanted to do it for quite a while, and I thought, ‘I’m getting old, and I need to do it.’”
Cross described the decision as something he had wanted to do for a while, which makes the replacement feel less like a last-minute patch and more like an opportunity he had already been waiting to take. For a reader tracking the event, the practical takeaway is simple: the slot stays in the same comic lane, but the person filling it changes.
Mr. Show Friends On Film
Odenkirk and Cross are longtime friends and the comedy duo behind Mr. Show, and they appear together in Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, directed by Michael LaHaie. The film follows them as they travel across Peru toward Machu Picchu, with the Tribeca Festival premiere serving as the setting for the interview in which the Freedom 250 change came up.
Odenkirk also said, “There’s no thing that I do that’s going to reward me as much as time spent doing this job with him.” Cross said, “Who could I go with that I’d want to hang out with for a while that likes hiking?” and, “I thought of Bob immediately.”
The film context gives the swap a sharper edge: these two are not just trading jokes in public, they are still operating as a pair with a shared history, a shared project, and a public rhythm that makes one comedian standing in for the other feel natural rather than improvised. For anyone headed to Freedom 250, the useful read is that Cross now owns the stage time Odenkirk backed out of, and he plans to use it by lampooning Odenkirk’s own bit.
