Dave Chappelle is a stand-up comedian and actor who stands among legends like Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac, and Eddie Murphy.
Dave Chappelle at the Laugh Factory, New York City in 2004
Chappelle’s success reached meteoric heights in 2003 when he partnered with Comedy Central and writer Brennan to create his hit sketch comedy series ‘Chappelle’s Show’. The show's format was pre-recorded skits and live music performances from artists like Erykah Badu and DMX. Chappelle played various characters like Tyrone Biggums a crackhead and celebrities like Prince, Rick James or Samuel L. Jackson.
The show became the best-selling TV show on DVD with over 1.2 million sold within its first week alone. The genius of the show was in its excellent writing satirising many elements of black and pop culture at the time and spawned many early internet memes.
After the virality of his ‘Rick James’ skit, Chappelle became very jaded with the show, notably with Dave performing live stand-up in 2004 in which the crowd became obnoxious chanting the “I’m Rick James, bitch” catchphrase to Chappelle’s dismay saying the show was ruining his life.
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Chappelle in the infamous Rick James skit
The third season was meant to debut in mid-2005 but was delayed when Chappelle walked off set abruptly and flew to South Africa to avoid tabloid harassment and politics of Hollywood. He walked away from the show leaving a $50 million deal behind.
Chappelle said he was disappointed with the direction the show had taken and was under tremendous stress. In a 2006 interview with Orpah Winfrey, Chappelle said celebrities reaching the next echelon of their career often take large sums of money and end up going crazy. “I go home and make the kids some integrity sandwiches.”
It was said that Chappelle was open to returning to the show if his demands were met. Chappelle wanted half the DVD proceeds to be donated to charity - however, Comedy Central failed to reach his demands. In July 2006, Comedy Central released the third and final season without Chappelle’s input.
For more than 30 years, Dave Chappelle has been making people laugh. He studied theater at a performing arts high school in Washington and started sneaking into comedy clubs when he was 14. His career exploded after two hilarious seasons of "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central, and then famously walked away at the height of his success.
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"I was talkin' to a guy… he basically said to me that comedy is a reconciliation of paradox," Chappelle told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King. "And I think that that was a irreconcilable moment for me. That I was in this very successful place, but the emotional content of it didn't feel anything like what I imagined success should feel like.
Chappelle's now back, this time with a three-part stand-up comedy special on Netflix, premiering Tuesday. But Chappelle revealed he does miss his former show. "But 'Chappelle's Show's' like breakin' up with a girl and you still like her. But in your mind you're like, 'That b**** is crazy.
"Fame, yeah, but not so much that I get on a plane to Africa. Fame is not that kind of scary. But it is - fame is a horrifying concept when it's aimed at you, you know?" Chappelle said. "At the end of the day, it's so - you don't have that much control over it. For two seasons his best was Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show." It was critically acclaimed and wildly popular."
“Even when you walked away in 2005, you were still working. It's just that we didn't know all the things that you were doing. "I found an altitude I was comfortable with. I found a way that - to do what I liked to do and avoid some of the parts of it that I was uncomfortable with," Chappelle said."
"Well, I mean, if you look at me, right, physically - now, I'm, like, 40 pounds heavier than I was when I did 'Chappelle's Show.' And people are like, 'How did you gain all that weight?' By resting and eatin' and payin' attention to myself. I have actual relationships with my kids," Chappelle said. "I've been all over the country, touring all my life. But I never saw anything. Now I've seen everything. I could talk to people or I could - I had time to stop if someone said they liked me. It wasn't like I brushed past 'em like, 'I don't want to hear it.' I had time to stop like, 'You do?' You know what I mean? It's like - it was just, like, the way that I engaged the world was different."
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His own history is rooted in stand-up comedy. "Yeah, first night I was on stage. I can remember who introduced me. I can remember what my introduction was. I can remember the whole thing," Chappelle said. "This guy named J.T. Newton, he said, 'You know, folks, everybody starts somewhere. And tonight this young man is doin' stand-up comedy for the first time.' He goes, 'And who knows? We may be witnessing the birth of a star. Please welcome Dave Chapel [sic].' That was it."
"But I did pretty good. They were like screamin'. And he's like, 'That's all for you, kid. That's all for you.' But they would treat it like I was in the Make a Wish Foundation or somethin'. And they just wanted to give me a little boost. But it was encouraging, man. And it felt so good, you know? You'll go through a million bad nights to get those good ones," Chappelle said.
His good nights now involve "Juke Joints" -- part concert, part party. All Dave. "You never go to a party where everyone shows up at the same time. But the 'Juke Joint' is a kind of party where everyone shows up at the same time," Chappelle said. "And we start and we finish the night together. And it's just, like - it's a very eclectic crowd."
"It's like, you know, love and camaraderie and kinship, you know? It's just a reminder. That small town is about 20 miles outside of Dayton, Ohio, and far away from the pressure of big city life.
"I have time to think about things. And I think for a comedian, if you don't have time to think, you're just not as effective. That if you-- you know, it gets a little corporate."
But when he was doing "Chappelle's Show," he said there were "certain conventions of the show that the network resisted."
“I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition,” Chappelle said. “So, like the first episode I do, that black white supremacist sketch. And it’s like, ‘Well, that’s 10 minutes long. It should be five minutes long.’ Why should it be five minutes long? Like, these types of conventions. I fought very hard.
"Comedy is weird. The line, the line moves. It changes," Chappelle said, adding, "but I think a lot of, especially in comedy, a lot of it has to do with intent."
From the outside, it looks like Dave Chappelle is at the top of his career. He’s 32 years old, and his “Chappelle’s Show” is the #1 TV series on the #1 comedy channel. After gaining a huge fan base in the first two seasons, Chappelle is finally offered a megadeal-$50 million dollars.
So what does Chappelle do? To everyone’s surprise, Chappelle turns down the deal, walks away in the middle of the third season’s production, goes on a media blackout, and ends up in South Africa. Chappelle did not return to standup comedy, his life calling, for eight years. Everyone else? We were stumped. No one just walks away from that kind of fortune and fame. So, people tried to fit him into a box, label him 'crazy.'
During a June 2004 stand-up performance in Sacramento, California, Chappelle left the stage due to audience members interrupting the show by shouting, "I'm Rick James, bitch!," which became a catchphrase from the popular "Rick James" sketch. After a few minutes, Chappelle returned and continued by saying, "The show is ruining my life." He stated that he disliked working "20 hours a day" and that the popularity of the show was making it difficult for him to continue his stand-up career which was "the most important thing" to him.
All of these forces built up until the best option in his mind was boarding a flight to South Africa without even telling his wife, in order to get distance, rest, and reflection. He was able to let go of chasing success, reinvent himself, and then launch his career again with a solid inner foundation. Three years after returning to comedy in 2013, Chappelle was given a $20 million per special deal with Netflix.
Comedian Dave Chappelle campaigns for Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang
“Now those in the room that know Stevie personally [have heard him] say this thing many times through the years that we’ve known him,” Chappelle says. “But this last time he said it, what he said was, ‘I am moving to Ghana so that I can be valued and respected more,’ that’s almost exactly the phrase he used.”
Both artists, who have impacted the world, in addition to Black and pop culture, have frequently commented on how racism and indifference to Black lives in America forced them to change their way of life. Chappelle, who famously ended the Chappelle Show to live in South Africa, finds it appalling that the idea of Stevie Wonder, a 25-time Grammy Award-winning artist is undervalued and disrespected, given all that he has created for the world.
“As a Black American, who amongst us is more valued and respected than Stevie Wonder?” Chappelle asks. “The idea that he would feel this way at this stage in his life and career […] I think that Stevie is the soul of American culture and if the soul leaves the body then this thing is dead. I thought I’ll follow him over there, or I’ll go myself.
Since 2018’s “Year of Return” initiative, Ghana has been a hotbed for Black Americans-celebrities and regular folx alike-who find the West African nation as a possible new home. Now in its second pillar, “Beyond the Return,” is aimed at not only promoting tourism, but also fostering economic relations, trade and investments from the diaspora in Africa and the world at large.
Chappelle’s aspiration highlights a growing sentiment within the Black community-to escape persecution and assault from white America. After signing an eight-figure megadeal with Comedy Central in 2004, Dave Chappelle abandoned his hit show in May 2005, fleeing to South Africa in the middle of filming the show's third season.
During a 2003 stand-up performance, he reportedly told his audience, "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.
After his flight to South Africa, where he stayed with a friend, rumors raged about drug abuse, mental instability and problems with the network. The only one of those things that seemed supported by his behavior were the creative struggles with Comedy Central.
Yet in an interview with TIME just after Chappelle flew the coop, the comedian refused to blame the show's producers. "All that stuff about partying and taking crack is not true," he told TIME. "Why do I live on a farm in Ohio? To support my partying lifestyle?"
Chappelle returned to his Ohio estate after several weeks in Africa, but he never went back to The Dave Chappelle Show - though he later promoted the documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party in 2006. He has returned to stand-up sporadically and was even rumored to play Rick James - one of his most popular parodies on his show - in a biopic, though that eventually fell through.
Here's a table that summarizes the key events in Dave Chappelle's career:
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2003 | Partners with Comedy Central to create "Chappelle's Show" |
| 2004 | Experiences audience disruptions during stand-up performance |
| 2005 | Abruptly leaves "Chappelle's Show" and travels to South Africa |
| 2006 | Comedy Central releases the final season without Chappelle's input |
| 2013 | Returns to comedy |
| 2016 | Signs a deal with Netflix for stand-up specials |
| 2018 | Ghana's "Year of Return" initiative begins |
Dave Chappelle On Opening Tribute To Black Comedians & Barack Obama || Dave Chappelle
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