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According to Wikipedia.org, David Chappelle was enraptured by stand-up
comedy since his days as an elementary school student at Woodlin
Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a middle school
student in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his father William was a
professor of voice and music at Antioch College. At 14, Chappelle
gathered the courage to perform on stage at the famed Apollo theater in
Harlem, New York. After the divorce of his parents, attended and
graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts, majoring in literary
and theatre arts.
It was in 2003 that his big break came with Comedy Central, with his own
show called, The Chappelle Show. His comedy was comedy satire
that was not always understood by his audience, and his audience was mainly
young student whites.
In 2005, Chappelle was given a $50 million contract to develop his show.
This was the most lucrative deal that he and many other entertainers had
ever had. But to the surprise of everyone, Chappelle became lost; no one
could find him and speculations became wild of his whereabouts and why with
such a contract inked he would disappear.
Some thought he was in South Africa in a mental institution because he
could not handle such a contract and his obligation to come up with the
creative comedy to match the contract. Whatever his reasons were, his
explanation is not terribly convincing to must. In a lengthy Esquire
Magazine interview, he said his reasons were cultural, professional, and
personal. Spelling that out a little further he said, to summarize and
paraphrase, since whites own most of the media through which he would be
channeling his art, his art would be filtered, hence distorted, and the
relationships with his colleagues would be dysfunctional.
This was the latest explanation for his bolting from Comedy Central's $50
million contract. In a society where capital is king, it is difficult to buy
that rationalization for leaving. All Black people know the art of
walking in place until you can walk as we will. And $50 million
in this society will allow most of us to walk as we will.
He was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey February 3, 2006 in the
first televised interview since he left. He stated in the
interview that he "wasn't crazy" but the environment was
"incredibly stressful."
- I would go to work on the show and I felt awful
every day, that's not the way it was. ... I felt like
some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad,
why keep on showing up to this place? I'm going to
Africa. The hardest thing to do is to be true to
yourself, especially when everybody is watching.
- Being truthful to oneself is a more reasonable
note, and if he is financially able to do so, we
applaud Dave Chappelle. Now he is back, but not with the
Chappelle Show. He has done some standup
appearances in Los
Angeles, Newport, and Kentucky. Dave is back and is his own
person. []
Gibbs
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