Dave Chappelle owns his audience
 

http://www.sacticket.com/24hour/ente...-8798481c.html

Chappelle lets rude crowd have it
By JIM CARNES, Sacramento Bee

(MN) - Dave Chappelle got so angry with the crowd Tuesday night at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium that the stand-up comic walked off the stage for nearly two minutes. Upon his return, he told the audience, "You people are stupid."

What got the comic so riled up? According to Chappelle, it was audience members who wouldn't "shut up and listen - like you're supposed to."

Chappelle is the creator and star of the No. 1-rated show on Comedy Central. It's that fame that helped the comic sell out the nearly 4,000-seat Memorial Auditorium weeks in advance of the show. And that popularity also caused the frustration for the performer, as audience members continually shouted a character's catchphrase from "Chappelle's Show" - it starts, "I'm Rick James ..." and ends with the b-word.

"The show is ruining my life," Chappelle told the crowd. Besides requiring him to work "20 hours a day," he said, it has made him a "star," which has resulted in the inability of fans to treat him as an individual.

"This (stand-up) is the most important thing I do, and because I'm on TV, you make it hard for me to do it," he said.

"People can't distinguish between what's real and fake. This ain't a TV show. You're not watching Comedy Central. I'm real up here talking."

Shouts continued to interrupt Chappelle's routine until he stopped to give a lecture on "how comedy usually works: I say something. You mull it over and decide whether you want to laugh or not, and then you do or not. Then I say something else, and you think about that.

"It's worked well all across the country, but you people ..."

Performing in Sacramento, the comic said, might turn out "to be a bad idea - like chocolate-covered fish."

Chappelle told the crowd he knew why they liked his sketch-comedy show: "Because it's good. 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.

"You people are stupid."

Much of Chappelle's act - with its jokes about genitals,and sex talk, tales of strip-club escapades and frequent use of the n-word - is unprintable in a family newspaper. But that's not the best part, anyway. Chappelle is most effective when he ventures into social commentary - race, poverty, the cult of personality.

One of his better rants had to do with children and at what age they might be responsible for their own lives. Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old Utah girl who was kidnapped from her home, figured prominently in the commentary. He contrasted her case - she was discovered about nine months after her abduction only a few miles from her home - with that of 7-year-old Erica Pratt, who gnawed through her duct tape bindings to free herself from kidnappers in Philadelphia and was responsible for the arrest of the two men who had taken her. Pratt is African American, and her story received much less attention than did Smart's.

Then Chappelle placed Smart's case in opposition to that of Lionel Tate of Florida, who was convicted of murder in the death of a 6-year-old neighbor. Smart, at 15, was considered a child. But at 14, two years after the crime, Tate was sentenced as an adult to life in prison without parole. (A previously rejected plea bargain was later accepted, and he is now free.)

"When is a 15-year-old a kid and a 12-year-old an adult?" he asked, indicating it might be because one was white and one was not.

Chappelle said race relations are at such a low point in America that, "You can't say anything real when it comes to race. That's why Bill Cosby's in such trouble for saying black folks have got to take responsibility for their own lives.

"I spoke at my high school last week," he said, "and I told them, 'You've got to focus. Stop blaming white people for your problems.' "

He then added, sarcastically, " 'Learn to play basketball, tell jokes or sell crack. That's the only way I've seen people get out.' "

Chappelle's harshest words were addressed to those audience members who worship entertainers and athletes.

"Stop listening to celebrities," he said. "They do what they do for money - that's all. I don't even know why you're listening to me. I've done commercials for both Coke and Pepsi. Truth is, I can't even taste the difference, but Pepsi paid me last, so there it is."

Celebrity worship harms the object of affection as well, Chappelle said. "One day people love you more than they've ever loved anything in the world. And the next, you're in front of a courthouse dancing on top of a car."

In case the audience didn't get the reference to Michael Jackson, he said, "You know why Michael Jackson's had so many surgeries? He wanted you to like him more."

Chappelle, obviously, will not pander to his fans. "You guys are the worst listeners in the country," he told the Sacramento audience. "It's like 'The Silence of the Lambs.' Without the silence."

Dont ugo to comedy shows to listen? Isnt that the point? I can see why he got pissed

The people didnt go there to here the crowd do poor imitations, so why are they ruining it.

http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=chappelle

Sounds like a skit of "When keeping it real goes wrong"

Funny thing is my brother-in-law went and was bragging how cool he was heckling Chappelle.

I sent him the link....

I would not be happy if I could not enjoy show. its like people talking in a movie.

hmmm....smart guy

never paid attention to his show before

god thats the fucking worst..People yapping in the damn theatre. Just wanna gag em

Hey... he found an opportunity to give a rant I'm sure he's wanted to give for a while, AND created the most memorable stop of his tour in the process... oh, AND got a bunch of free press!

NICE! :thumbsup

Good for him!

Glad to see that he stood up!

Fuck the dude is funny as hell also!

the man is a genius! Dave isn't afraid to say anything and I give him mad props!

Man people stay on the same bit so long, it must really piss of Dave to have to hear that shit 10 million times an hour.

I saw him live at the house of blues... the first thing his opening act said before introducting him and the first thing dave spoke about was how he's sick of people saying that shit and interruping the shows... and how he didn't want people to do it

fucking awesome show though, the guy is hilarious stand up!

then at the end that guy that does the robot in some of his sketches came out and walked around the stage

good times :)

http://www.clubgmr.com/rick.gif

HAHAHAHA

I wouldnt heckle him, but that was the funniest bit EVER...

M.

Steve Martin used to say, "I can do this show MYSELF...I often DO."

I like Dave but it sounds like he is being a pre-madonna.
:1orglaugh

is that referring to the time BEFORE Madonna was famous??? :1orglaugh

I love it when PPL try to use words outside of their vocab :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh (I'm laughing at you, not with you, in case you're wondering)

hahahaha

yes god i hated it before madonna

i think this is a joke

lol

Poor Dave, that skit ruined his life!:(

ouch, Chappelle really got pissed off

He is a comic genius and he had good reason to be pissed at the morns in the audience spoiling the show for him and everybody else. :2 cents:

Indeed. :thumbsup