I attended the Austin show and left frustrated and, frankly, amazed. People kept doing more and more obnoxious things and Dave let it happen without the usual counter-heckler talking down or by telling security to back off. He also spent a good amount of time talking to a guy in the audience who worked at a motorcycle shop in town that was repairing his ride and arranging a cruise around Austin for the next day. It was bizarre and had nothing to do with race.
I have been to many comedy shows and while there are hecklers in the smaller venues it is easier for the performer to control. It is the larger venues that many comics seem to lose control and get lost trying to get the crowd back.
Dave is trying to come back to comedy by jumping into these large venues right away after many years away. From what Iāve seen, heard and read he is just out of practice and gets in over his head too easily.
no, itās impossible that he had no material to deliver and was not prepared. he has plenty of recent material. and believe me it is hella funny. iāve seen him twice over the last 4 years at the independent in SF.
he is very sensitive to audience interactions - before each show in SF the bouncers were going up and down the line saying āabsolutely no hecklingā and ādonāt try to initiate any interactions with dave.ā it seemed a little crazy to be honest. but after all of that, he interacted with the crowd many, many times during both shows and it was amicable. i think he really just does not like people yelling āiām rick james, bitch!ā at him all night.
at the last show i attended, some guy in the front row passed out and collapsed. it was near the end of his show and he just stopped and laid down with his torso hanging off the stage, talking to the guy, genuinely concerned. we all had to clear out so the paramedics could get in, and he politely asked everyone to clear out.
chappelle is an all right guy. he might just not be a ātraditionalā comedian. why the hell should we expect him to conform to our idea of what a comedian should and should not be able to do vis a vis handling hecklers?
I am (non-sarcastically) glad you had a good experience at one of his shows. That still doesnāt change the fact that this was obviously not one of his better shows. He had a bad night. The audience had a bad night. What works one night in Austin (you mentioned SF not Austin, sorry about that) isnāt necessarily going to work another night in Hartford. Every audience is unique and even if youāve done a show 100 times, itās different every night. It happensā¦to everyone.
Nope, still not seeing it. Still not seeing how this is race-related. It sounds like he had a crap audience and a crap set, and neither handled it well, and things escalated, and so on.
But not seeing why the whole minstrel show thing is being pulled out. It seems disingenuous to me.
Heās not Up-And-Coming-Starving-New-Artist, heās mothering Dave Chappelle. Heās already done all that back to front and then some. He doesnāt care anymore: audiences know full well what theyāre supposed to do, and if they donāt, they can go f themselves, heās gonna get paid anyway.
There isnāt a comedian in the world who is cut out for that career. Itās introspective, psychologically intrusive, worrying, frenetic, damaging, the list goes on.
The best way to make people laugh is by making them laugh at themselves. And you can only really see that by watching yourself in minute detail. And comparing it to some kind of value system. Generally, the worse stuff is, the funnier you can make it.
Exceptions? One of the funniest sketches Iāve seen was Lee Evans talking about baked beans. But heās utterly crazy. And ultimately, was describing a moment in a life Iād rather never experience.
I went to see Chappelle at the Pittsburgh, PA show last night (8/30). All of the comics (including Chappelle) joked about how bad the Hartford, CT show went. Dave also made comments about how down he felt after the show and gave kudos to some loved ones for supporting him. Between being a fan of his TV show, seeing his interview on Inside the Actors Studio and, finally getting to see him live, the impression he gives me is that he is a performer who wants to give people a good show. (And, in Pittsburgh, he did.)
All that aside. I donāt get where or how race enters into this. It sounds like a bunch of people at the Hartford show were drunk and being belligerent. No professional should have to put up with that. He waited for the crowd to behave itself. It didnāt and he chose not to perform. End of story.
Framing what happened at his performance as a racial issue does a great disservice to people whoāve experienced real racism. The Ebony writer says this āspeaks to a long complicated history: the relationship between the White audience and the Black entertainer,ā which is ludicrous and illustrates her own hangups. Mr. Chappelle reacted poorly to some rowdy fans, who could have been more properly ejected if they were interrupting, period.
Why must people constantly make things racial? Okay. It was predominately a āwhiteā crowd. But so what? If the majority of them were truly racist, or could not stand that he was black, they simply wouldnāt go. They wouldnāt give him money or a chance to speak. So, really. Itās idiotic to imply the crowd was looking down on him because of racial differences.
Trying to act like it doesnāt exist will not make it go away. Racism was not a fad that flared up in 1860 and 1950, itās been a deeply embedded part of our culture from the start and weāre still pulling the shrapnel from our collective soul.
Trying to act like this was a ridiculous klan rally is just trying to deflect from the situation. The basic problem here is that Dave wants to have a mature and thoughtful relationship with the audience, but itās full of dudebros who want a minstrel show.
Youāre right - paying money doesnāt entitle one to be hostile to the entertainer, it does not entitle one to be disruptive with the progression of the show, it does not entitle one to disturb neighboring audience members, etcā¦ What paying money entitles one to is to experience a live performance. Itās a contract between parties. I give you my money and you give me your performance. All people who have jobs know this contract. The mailman delivers the mail in hail and sleet and snow. A comic has some known hazards - to Chappele, a long time veteran, heckling is a known hazard. And facing that hazard is not a cue or excuse to sit down, literally, on the job. You give all those who paid to be there the respect that is due them by giving your best despite inclement conditions. You donāt fuck them because some people were assholes. you donāt punish EVERYONE for the poor behavior of some. For me, Chapele fucked up. He should have handled things differently because what he did fucked a lot of undeserving people over.
Anyone else getting tired of these racist diatribes against āwhite males?ā It seems āwhite maleā is the new blackā¦the current and fashionable way for the bigotry-inclined to feel superior to others while still being politically correct, since itās no longer acceptable to bash minorities.
Chappelle clearly came into this show with the intention of staging a walkout, since that is what he talked about from the word go. The audience was justified in being upset at not getting what they paid for, same as if you took your car to a mechanic and the mechanic just ignored the problem while taking your money. āWhite maleā has nothing to do with it and to insist that it does is bigoted and presumptuous, unless you are somehow a mind reader and know whatās going on inside the heads of everyone in the audience.
Considering how often stand-up comics pick on and ridicule members of the audience as part of their act and the audience member is expected to endure the assault gracefully, Chappelle comes across as remarkably thin-skinned.
What Iām getting tired of is the relatively recent and common white reflex of accusing those who point out racism of being racists. In a country like the U.S., which continues to be de facto white supremacist, itās downright Orwellian.
I think it is a more āit is known to people that might careā. I didnāt know it until this. I also know probably wonāt ever buy a ticket to see one of his shows because I would feel like a real sucker if I drop a pile of money for tickets to see a guy who might walk off if there are annoying drunks in the crowdā¦ you knowā¦ because there will definitely be annoying drunks in the crowd. I think Iāll just stick to recordings.
I think if he had a big blinking disclaimer when you buy the tickets that he might walk off, buy at your own risk, the annoyance would be less. Finding out that sometimes this performer takes your money and sometimes doesnāt perform if he isnāt feeling it AFTER they have your money and you drove to wherever to see him, well, that leaves people pissed.
