for those who didnt know , he is BACK
Chappelle treats Ypsi audience to 3 hours of laughs
By Mekeisha Madden Toby / The Detroit News
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Comedian Dave Chappelle delivered arguably one of his best performances to date Friday night at Eastern Michigan University.
That, or he was possessed.
Either way the crowd of thousands laughed nonstop as the 32-year-old candidly joked for nearly three hours about everything from the 2004 presidential election to his own career. He even managed to combine the two. Chappelle compared the election to pro wrestling, calling President Bush the "Hulkster."
"It was fixed. You knew he was going to win."
The joke then moved to whether or not a woman or a black man could be president. Chappelle said his friends say he could run for president, but he pointed out that he couldn't even make it "through three seasons on television."
"When the going gets tough, the tough go to Africa," Chappelle said in his punch line, referring to his indefinite hiatus from his hit sketch program "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central and his subsequent "retreat" to South Africa. In late April, the comedian walked off the set in the middle of taping, halting the show's production and delaying its May debut. Chappelle's exodus sparked rumors of alleged drug use and mental illness.
"I thought Newsweek was a reputable publication and I was reading in it that I was smoking crack rocks," Chappelle joked later in the show. "I started to believe what I read. I thought, 'Oh no. I'm doing crack rocks?'"
Despite his candor, Chappelle just couldn't shake hecklers, who ignored posted signs threatening ejection for heckling and continuously shouting gibberish. The less savvy even insisted on yelling that they were Rick James.
A year ago, when Chappelle performed at Detroit's State Theatre, hecklers noticeably bothered him, even preventing him from delivering punch lines. Not anymore. The new Chappelle made the chatterboxes part of his act, serving up raw and spontaneous quips.
At one point Chappelle pretended to be a heckler, planning his day and life around what he would scream during Chappelle's standup.
Chappelle's lickity-split wit and candor touched and impressed fan Ryan Harper, 26, of Ann Arbor. "It was a great show. He just turned out the jokes through it all," said Harper, a cashier. "You could see his vulnerability. Everything he said wasn't planned out and prepared and it was so much more real than his TV show.
"I have a new found respect for him now."
The chain-smoking Chappelle rounded out the show with two mock auditions for "Cops," a bit that included the agility of the cameraman. He also applauded rapper Kanye West for criticizing the president but joshed that West may no longer have a career.
One of his funniest segments occurred when he struggled to pronounce Ypsilanti, where the show took place.
By the end of the show, Chappelle referred to the college town as "Ipsy Lipsy".
Some of the audience missed the joke when they cut out early. Not Matt Ferreira and his buddy Namel Blake, both 18-year-old EMU freshmen. Neither had seen Chappelle live. Both were so excited and thrilled that Ferreira ignored the growing numbness of his legs, and Blake his full bladder.
"I'm from New Jersey and I actually got to see him while away at school," said Ferreira, a business major from Aberdeen. N.J.
Blake, who is from Brooklyn, said, "He's even better live."
You can reach Mekeisha Madden Toby at (313) 222-2501 or mmadden @detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/events/0...ent-333812.htm