Dave Chappelle is finally ready to talk. We don’t know what he’ll say to Oprah when he appears on her show this afternoon for his first TV interview since his meltdown last spring, but it may be similar to what he said to James Lipton at a taping in December for the Feb. 12 episode of Inside the Actors Studio.
According to USA Today, he told Lipton he was frightened by his own fame. ”It’s a weird place to be. And there’s really no going back. You can’t get unfamous. You can get infamous but you can’t get unfamous. So I got scared. I’m not going to lie. I was scared to death.” As for his future plans, he told Lipton, ”I don’t know how this whole Dave Chappelle thing is going to end. I feel like I’m going to be some kind of parable — either what you’re supposed to do or not supposed to do. … I’m going to be a legend or just that tragic [expletive] story, but I’m going to go all the way. I’m eager to find out how this is going to resolve itself.” So are we, Dave. Here at PopWatch HQ, we’ll be checking out Chappelle’s chat with Oprah; look for our post-show analysis later this afternoon.
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Darn it Popwatch! You guys know that “out of the loop” losers like me get up to date on tv by reading your column, right? Posted yesterday, an hermano would have totally set the tivo to record Oprah. Oh well. I still look forward to the recap.
Regarding Chappelle, he went from struggling comedian who had worked the stand up scene for more than a decade, to a guy who was suddenly recognizable by pretty much everyone in the country. For someone to achieve that level of success at a young age after so many bitter defeats (Men in Tights, Half Baked, that awful Buddies tv show) has to have created a lot of anxiety and pressure. Here he was in season 1 hoping to achieve the success of Red Fox, Eddie Murphy n’ Richard Pryor. Less than two years later, it was clear that Chappelle had found a way to make Black humor completely accesible and acceptable to a nationwide audience. I have to assume that would bring a lot of stress to a guy.
IMHO, Chappelle is a comic genius. I continue to keep up hope that he, Paul Moonie, Charlie Murphy and Neil will continue to write comedy gold. Maybe we could get Chappelle to work with Aaron MgGruder?
Look, I think Dave Chappelle is talented and funny, and I watched his show. It was hit and miss, but overall pretty good, but he wasn’t at the level of Elvis or something. He had a popular show on Comedy Central, and a catch phrase that was already getting old, I think he overreacted.
I understand that it’s very, very weird to be famous after years of tolling away on the C to D-List, however, you have a TV show on basic cable that people (including a lot of stoner college students) love. Get over yourself and just do the show. Jerry Seinfeld didn’t run away screaming when his show got really popular. Sometimes a show is good and sometimes it isn’t but it’s nothing unless you actually go to the set and film it!
*Sigh*
You’re really making a comparison between Seinfeld’s success and Chappelle’s? Besides the fact that their entirely different people (Uptight ob-com vs. ex-pothead family man) their styles of humor were completely different.
Seinfeld’s humor wasn’t nearly as culturally sensitive. (Beyond the “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” thing.) The closest comparison to be made to Dave’s show is In Living Color, in that it was a sketch show about (for the most part) race relations in America between blacks and whites that made fun of everyone equally. (I still crack up at the whole Sharpton/Farrakhan comedy hour: “Jew’s on first, whitey’s on second, and conspiracy is on third.”) And they slowly descended into mediocrity. It’s not the easiest thing to keep funny and balanced without getting either preachy, excessively offensive or lame. Maybe Dave was just afraid of the inevitable slide into crap.
If I hadn’t seen it advertised on a billboard, I wouldn’t have known about Chappelle’s appearance on Oprah until it was too late. I cannot STAND Oprah but tape will be rolling this afternoon.
Chappelle’s Show was among the greatest sketch shows ever produced. Like all sketch shows (the first season of Mr. Show, anyone?), it had its mediocre moments, but the great bits shined with pure comedic genius. To call his show “hit-and-miss” is ridiculous, as that is the nature of all sketch comedy.
Said he wasn’t crazy, but clearly sounded like it.