Dave Chapelle lays the smack down on his audience

ialsohaveadream · 06-19-2004, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Dave Chappelle got so angry with the crowd Tuesday night at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium that the stand-up comic walked off the stage for nearly two minutes. Upon his return, he told the audience, "You people are stupid."

What got the comic so riled up? According to Chappelle, it was audience members who wouldn't "shut up and listen - like you're supposed to."

Chappelle is the creator and star of the No. 1-rated show on Comedy Central. It's that fame that helped the comic sell out the nearly 4,000-seat Memorial Auditorium weeks in advance of the show. And that popularity also caused the frustration for the performer, as audience members continually shouted a character's catchphrase from "Chappelle's Show" - it starts, "I'm Rick James ..." and ends with the b-word.

"The show is ruining my life," Chappelle told the crowd. Besides requiring him to work "20 hours a day," he said, it has made him a "star," which has resulted in the inability of fans to treat him as an individual.

"This (stand-up) is the most important thing I do, and because I'm on TV, you make it hard for me to do it," he said.

"People can't distinguish between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show. You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking."

Shouts continued to interrupt Chappelle's routine until he stopped to give a lecture on "how comedy usually works: I say something. You mull it over and decide whether you want to laugh or not, and then you do or not. Then I say something else, and you think about that.

"It's worked well all across the country, but you people ..."

Performing in Sacramento, the comic said, might turn out "to be a bad idea - like chocolate-covered fish."

Chappelle told the crowd he knew why they liked his sketch-comedy show: "Because it's good. You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you're not smart enough to get what I'm doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong.

"You people are stupid."

Much of Chappelle's act - with its jokes about genitals,and sex talk, tales of strip-club escapades and frequent use of the n-word - is unprintable in a family newspaper. But that's not the best part, anyway. Chappelle is most effective when he ventures into social commentary - race, poverty, the cult of personality.

One of his better rants had to do with children and at what age they might be responsible for their own lives. Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old Utah girl who was kidnapped from her home, figured prominently in the commentary. He contrasted her case - she was discovered about nine months after her abduction only a few miles from her home - with that of 7-year-old Erica Pratt, who gnawed through her duct tape bindings to free herself from kidnappers in Philadelphia and was responsible for the arrest of the two men who had taken her. Pratt is African American, and her story received much less attention than did Smart's.

Then Chappelle placed Smart's case in opposition to that of Lionel Tate of Florida, who was convicted of murder in the death of a 6-year-old neighbor. Smart, at 15, was considered a child. But at 14, two years after the crime, Tate was sentenced as an adult to life in prison without parole. (A previously rejected plea bargain was later accepted, and he is now free.)

"When is a 15-year-old a kid and a 12-year-old an adult?" he asked, indicating it might be because one was white and one was not.

Chappelle said race relations are at such a low point in America that, "You can't say anything real when it comes to race. That's why Bill Cosby's in such trouble for saying black folks have got to take responsibility for their own lives.

"I spoke at my high school last week," he said, "and I told them, 'You've got to focus. Stop blaming white people for your problems.' "

He then added, sarcastically, " 'Learn to play basketball, tell jokes or sell crack. That's the only way I've seen people get out.' "

Chappelle's harshest words were addressed to those audience members who worship entertainers and athletes.

"Stop listening to celebrities," he said. "They do what they do for money - that's all. I don't even know why you're listening to me. I've done commercials for both Coke and Pepsi. Truth is, I can't even taste the difference, but Pepsi paid me last, so there it is."

Celebrity worship harms the object of affection as well, Chappelle said. "One day people love you more than they've ever loved anything in the world. And the next, you're in front of a courthouse dancing on top of a car."

In case the audience didn't get the reference to Michael Jackson, he said, "You know why Michael Jackson's had so many surgeries? He wanted you to like him more."

Chappelle, obviously, will not pander to his fans. "You guys are the worst listeners in the country," he told the Sacramento audience. "It's like 'The Silence of the Lambs.' Without the silence."

Oh yeah, source here.

Dave Chapelle, if he puts out another hour-long HBO special, could just jump up to the #1 spot on the stand-up ladder, considering Chris Rock's mediocre performance after his last HBO special.

DarkFury · 06-20-2004, 12:16 AM

He shoulda told them... "I'M DAVE CHAPPELLE.. BEEYOTCH!!!

ialsohaveadream · 06-20-2004, 07:15 AM

The man's racial jokes are seriously catching up to Chris Rock's in his prime.

Rock: "You know who our next great black leader should be? Pat Riley. He may not get us to the promised land, but at least he'll get us to the playoffs."

Chapelle: "I walk by a strip club like a white guy in a horror movie....'I'd better investigate'."

Those aren't anywhere near their best, but they're obscenity-free, so I could post them.

redcolours · 06-20-2004, 08:29 AM

man, its taken Dave Chappelle over a decade to be this popular. i remember him from Robinhood: Men In Tights.

ialsohaveadream · 06-20-2004, 09:37 AM

I remember Chris Rock from CB4 and New Jack City. Things usually aren't overnight in stand-up. Hell, Jon Stewart had a crappy MTV show and then took years to recover.

Mike_N_Ike · 06-20-2004, 12:49 PM

I'm not surprised at all that this happened. I got to see him in Irvine last week and I was expecting him to walk off the stage there. At one point it was so bad that he couldn't get through a sentence without somebody in the audience yelling out "I'm rick james bitch," or the little john "WWWWWWHAT?!" There was even one idiot who yelled out "white power" in the middle of his act. He basically said, yeah I know that's a line from my show but if you say it again I'm going to leave this stage and then the audience is going to kick your ass. I give him a lot of credit for all the sh*t he put up with there. He even stayed on stage for a lot longer than he was supposed to because he could tell that we were enjoying the show.

Hahaha, poor guy - I know he's a comic and it's his job to make jokes, but he even said when he went to Disneyworld and tried to get a picture with his kid and the characters, Mickey kept saying "I'm rick james bitch!"

Quote:

Chappelle, obviously, will not pander to his fans. "You guys are the worst listeners in the country,"

Well I guess it makes me a little happy to know that he doesn't consider us the worst.

ski · 06-20-2004, 04:16 PM

Quote:

One of his better rants had to do with children and at what age they might be responsible for their own lives. Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old Utah girl who was kidnapped from her home, figured prominently in the commentary. He contrasted her case - she was discovered about nine months after her abduction only a few miles from her home - with that of 7-year-old Erica Pratt, who gnawed through her duct tape bindings to free herself from kidnappers in Philadelphia and was responsible for the arrest of the two men who had taken her. Pratt is African American, and her story received much less attention than did Smart's.

Looks like Dave should get some original material first

Mike_N_Ike · 06-21-2004, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skiAtomic

Looks like Dave should get some original material first

I'm sure it's possible that Dave Chappelle was out browsing the Maddox site for material but I seriously doubt it. I think it's a different type of humor.

ski · 06-21-2004, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike_N_Ike

I'm sure it's possible that Dave Chappelle was out browsing the Maddox site for material but I seriously doubt it. I think it's a different type of humor.

Ehh, now that I think about it, you're right. I bet any comedian that saw that story would come to a similar act about it

06-20-2004, 12:16 AM	#2
DarkFury Secretary of the Navy Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Chillin' N Da 'Hood Posts: 34,997	He shoulda told them... "I'M DAVE CHAPPELLE.. BEEYOTCH!!! __________________ DarkFury's Pimptopia - Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game! Home of the Original OG Pimp (accept NO imitations)

06-20-2004, 08:29 AM	#4
redcolours in living colour Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: above a raging c Posts: 1,739	man, its taken Dave Chappelle over a decade to be this popular. i remember him from Robinhood: Men In Tights. __________________ there are pictures, but no,nothing happens on my site.

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06-20-2004, 07:15 AM	#3
ialsohaveadream Fleet Admiral Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 8,077	The man's racial jokes are seriously catching up to Chris Rock's in his prime. Rock: "You know who our next great black leader should be? Pat Riley. He may not get us to the promised land, but at least he'll get us to the playoffs." Chapelle: "I walk by a strip club like a white guy in a horror movie....'I'd better investigate'." Those aren't anywhere near their best, but they're obscenity-free, so I could post them.

06-20-2004, 09:37 AM	#5
ialsohaveadream Fleet Admiral Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 8,077	I remember Chris Rock from CB4 and New Jack City. Things usually aren't overnight in stand-up. Hell, Jon Stewart had a crappy MTV show and then took years to recover.

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