I didn't know where to put this thread so I chose this forum at random. Enjoy.
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Beyond the laughs, comic Chappelle is one smart guy
By Rick Kushman -- Bee TV Columnist - (Published July 26, 2004)
LOS ANGELES - Dave Chappelle, one of the hottest, and funniest, comics on television, was talking to TV critics here about how life changes when people start calling you one of the hottest and funniest comics on TV.
He was saying that his stand-up act has both gotten more popular and, sometimes, more difficult. And that led to the subject of Sacramento.
The upshot is Chappelle wants Sacramento to know he's a good guy who means well. The truth is, he's more than that. Chappelle is a rarity in show business not just for his talent - and the man is funny - but also for his thoughtfulness, honesty and all-around integrity.
When you ask Chappelle a question, he gives complex and complete answers. Or he'll say, "let me think about that." Do you know how unusual that is in Hollywood? Nobody thinks in his town. But Chappelle does, and he's sensitive, moderate and very smart.
All of which makes it ironic that he's had some less-than-terrific audience experiences, including in Sacramento, but to explain that, here's the back story.
Chappelle, who was in Los Angeles to talk to critics about a special on Showtime Sept. 4, is the star of the Emmy-nominated "The Chappelle Show" (10 p.m. Tuesdays on Comedy Central). It's mix of comedy that includes sketches, and one bit has spawned a catch phrase that starts "I'm Rick James ..."
Chappelle has talked recently about how foolish, or drunk, fans interrupt his stand-up shows by yelling that out. In a Sacramento performance last month at Memorial Auditorium, that got out of hand with a group of fans up front, and Chappelle tried to quiet them by riffing on them and Sacramento - performing in Sacramento might be as dumb an idea, he said, as chocolate-covered fish - and by walking off stage for a bit.
The ironic part, Chappelle said, is that if the impression left was that he was insulting the Sacramento audience, his intentions, he swears, were to try to protect it.
"This is what happens when I do shows now," he said. "I have a responsibility to ticket holders. My fan base is not a rich fan base.
"Five or six drunk people can destroy an audience if they're screaming out 'Rick James.' So, when I tell the audience, 'You're celebrity worshiping' or 'you're unreasonable,' I'm not talking to the crowd at large, I'm defending the rest of the ticket holders. Half of comedy is crowd control."
Part of his stand-up act involves talking about irrational celebrity worship that stretches from fans screaming out slogans to entirely forgetting there's a difference between TV and life.
"It's so weird in so many ways. Like, when you say a phone number on TV, you have to use a (fake) 555 number because people try to call the characters," he said. "That's the kind of thing I talk about. It's like people forget there's a real person involved.
"I guess that's what's happening now. I'm in a place where my every word is analyzed."
Chappelle, though only 30, is a show biz and TV veteran, a survivor, by his own count, of "a ridiculous amount" of failed sitcoms and pilots, maybe 10 or 11, before he hit big with "The Chappelle Show."
He talked about the network system and why it can so easily go wrong.
"It's a committee of people (developing a show), and not all these people are funny," Chappelle said. "Not all these people are visionaries. They have research they look at. They say it worked this way that time, so it should work this time. They have a million variables because primarily they're investors.
"Early on, I'm the youngest guy in a room full of people who have done it before. You just defer to these people because they have suits on. They just looked like they knew what they were talking about."
It turned out, as it so often does with TV comedy these days, they clearly did not.
"Everything that they told me wouldn't work on television, they were wrong about," he said. "Every convention they were adamant about, we've broken on 'The Chappelle Show' and it's been overwhelmingly successful."
And we're back to where we started. Dave Chappelle is suddenly - and for him, strangely - successful. He is still adapting to being a star, doing stand-up, dealing with the kinds of crowds and issues he never faced before.
"The show came on on Wednesday night, and Thursday my life was completely different. Basically, what you're seeing is a guy publicly adjusting to the altitude," Chappelle said. "It's an ongoing process, and I'm trying to do it with a degree of grace."
You listen to Chappelle talk, this introspective, intelligent guy with a mouthy wit, and you hope when he's done adjusting that his act doesn't change, that he doesn't change. The good news is it doesn't sound like he will.
"I know what my intentions are," he was saying to a couple people after the press conference. "I try to be a well-intentioned guy. I'm just a guy from D.C. who likes to talk."
___________________________________
Beyond the laughs, comic Chappelle is one smart guy
By Rick Kushman -- Bee TV Columnist - (Published July 26, 2004)
LOS ANGELES - Dave Chappelle, one of the hottest, and funniest, comics on television, was talking to TV critics here about how life changes when people start calling you one of the hottest and funniest comics on TV.
He was saying that his stand-up act has both gotten more popular and, sometimes, more difficult. And that led to the subject of Sacramento.
The upshot is Chappelle wants Sacramento to know he's a good guy who means well. The truth is, he's more than that. Chappelle is a rarity in show business not just for his talent - and the man is funny - but also for his thoughtfulness, honesty and all-around integrity.
When you ask Chappelle a question, he gives complex and complete answers. Or he'll say, "let me think about that." Do you know how unusual that is in Hollywood? Nobody thinks in his town. But Chappelle does, and he's sensitive, moderate and very smart.
All of which makes it ironic that he's had some less-than-terrific audience experiences, including in Sacramento, but to explain that, here's the back story.
Chappelle, who was in Los Angeles to talk to critics about a special on Showtime Sept. 4, is the star of the Emmy-nominated "The Chappelle Show" (10 p.m. Tuesdays on Comedy Central). It's mix of comedy that includes sketches, and one bit has spawned a catch phrase that starts "I'm Rick James ..."
Chappelle has talked recently about how foolish, or drunk, fans interrupt his stand-up shows by yelling that out. In a Sacramento performance last month at Memorial Auditorium, that got out of hand with a group of fans up front, and Chappelle tried to quiet them by riffing on them and Sacramento - performing in Sacramento might be as dumb an idea, he said, as chocolate-covered fish - and by walking off stage for a bit.
The ironic part, Chappelle said, is that if the impression left was that he was insulting the Sacramento audience, his intentions, he swears, were to try to protect it.
"This is what happens when I do shows now," he said. "I have a responsibility to ticket holders. My fan base is not a rich fan base.
"Five or six drunk people can destroy an audience if they're screaming out 'Rick James.' So, when I tell the audience, 'You're celebrity worshiping' or 'you're unreasonable,' I'm not talking to the crowd at large, I'm defending the rest of the ticket holders. Half of comedy is crowd control."
Part of his stand-up act involves talking about irrational celebrity worship that stretches from fans screaming out slogans to entirely forgetting there's a difference between TV and life.
"It's so weird in so many ways. Like, when you say a phone number on TV, you have to use a (fake) 555 number because people try to call the characters," he said. "That's the kind of thing I talk about. It's like people forget there's a real person involved.
"I guess that's what's happening now. I'm in a place where my every word is analyzed."
Chappelle, though only 30, is a show biz and TV veteran, a survivor, by his own count, of "a ridiculous amount" of failed sitcoms and pilots, maybe 10 or 11, before he hit big with "The Chappelle Show."
He talked about the network system and why it can so easily go wrong.
"It's a committee of people (developing a show), and not all these people are funny," Chappelle said. "Not all these people are visionaries. They have research they look at. They say it worked this way that time, so it should work this time. They have a million variables because primarily they're investors.
"Early on, I'm the youngest guy in a room full of people who have done it before. You just defer to these people because they have suits on. They just looked like they knew what they were talking about."
It turned out, as it so often does with TV comedy these days, they clearly did not.
"Everything that they told me wouldn't work on television, they were wrong about," he said. "Every convention they were adamant about, we've broken on 'The Chappelle Show' and it's been overwhelmingly successful."
And we're back to where we started. Dave Chappelle is suddenly - and for him, strangely - successful. He is still adapting to being a star, doing stand-up, dealing with the kinds of crowds and issues he never faced before.
"The show came on on Wednesday night, and Thursday my life was completely different. Basically, what you're seeing is a guy publicly adjusting to the altitude," Chappelle said. "It's an ongoing process, and I'm trying to do it with a degree of grace."
You listen to Chappelle talk, this introspective, intelligent guy with a mouthy wit, and you hope when he's done adjusting that his act doesn't change, that he doesn't change. The good news is it doesn't sound like he will.
"I know what my intentions are," he was saying to a couple people after the press conference. "I try to be a well-intentioned guy. I'm just a guy from D.C. who likes to talk."
