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Dave Chappelle: Stil Crazy After All These Years


Ellsworth Toohey

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Yet another meltdown for Dave:

 

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/hc-dave-chappelle-walks-off-stage-0831-20130830,0,3823831.story

 

Either that or he's decided to segue into Andy Kaufman-style "stand up as performance art" shows from now on. 

 

Either way, dude needs to accept that fact that he'll always be remembered for "I'm Rick James, bitch!" for the rest of his life regardless of what else he does.

 

 

EDIT: And I misspelled "Still" in the title header.

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Its not a meltdown. I mean honestly, why would you pay money for a comedy show just so you can heckle the guy you've PAID to come see?

That makes no damn sense. Dave's reaction kinda screwed over those who weren't heckling but I get why he did what he did

 

James

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Hecklers are the absolute worst.  They've ruined so many comedy shows I've been to.

 

The only time I ever saw a heckler make a show better was at a charity comedy show where some drunken woman in the front row was heckling all night and the final comic (I wish I could remember his name, he was damn good) spent half an hour just destroying her.  To the point that she was in tears.  It was amazing.

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Its not a meltdown. I mean honestly, why would you pay money for a comedy show just so you can heckle the guy you've PAID to come see?

 

Because comedy's one of those things that every smart-ass living thinks he or she can do, so when they find themselves with a venue even and an audience, (the fact that that audience is there to see the COMIC and not them is not relevant in their minds,) they've got to take their shot.

 

The problem is that because of the interactive nature of stand-up, this sort of thing gets tolerated (to a point) where it doesn't in any other medium, (other than wrestling, ironically enough.) If you were at a play and someone in the third row started reading the lines of one of the parts, they'd get tossed out pretty quickly. In comedy, the comic is expected to defend themselves from it. I don't blame Chappelle for being completely uninterested in some comedic battle with random ticket-buyers to prove he's funnier.

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I don't understand why comedians, especially in this case, don't use the power of crowd intimidation more often - "all the rest of y'all who paid money to hear this and wanna hear it better get these couple of dumbasses to shut up." Or simply have the fuckers removed. 

 

I've also never understood people who pay to go to concerts and talk the whole time, but there's tons who do.

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It's probably not smart to talk like that to a crowd of people who are likely drinking. Best to just have a handler contact security. You might start some pretty bad fights otherwise. On the other hand, that may be just the thing he needs. Fight! Fight! Fight!

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Hecklers are the absolute worst.  They've ruined so many comedy shows I've been to.

 

The only time I ever saw a heckler make a show better was at a charity comedy show where some drunken woman in the front row was heckling all night and the final comic (I wish I could remember his name, he was damn good) spent half an hour just destroying her.  To the point that she was in tears.  It was amazing.

 

A comic that can actually give it back to hecklers is an awesome sight to behold.

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Hecklers are the absolute worst.  They've ruined so many comedy shows I've been to.

 

The only time I ever saw a heckler make a show better was at a charity comedy show where some drunken woman in the front row was heckling all night and the final comic (I wish I could remember his name, he was damn good) spent half an hour just destroying her.  To the point that she was in tears.  It was amazing.

 

A comic that can actually give it back to hecklers is an awesome sight to behold.

 

 

Oh it was.  3 other comics pretty much tried to ignore her or hit the standard "i don't come knock the dick out of your mouth" line or whatever.  The rest of the audience was completely fed up with her and a few people were shouting out insults at her by the time the headliner came on.  He went into comic assassin mode and just tore this woman to shreds.  Normally watching someone mocked until they are legit pissed and in tears is not my idea of a good time.  On this night though...I'll admit I was enjoying it big time.

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Either way, dude needs to accept that fact that he'll always be remembered for "I'm Rick James, bitch!" for the rest of his life regardless of what else he does.

 

Why?  Is he not supposed to try to move forward and do new things?  I don't get this line of thinking at all.  Not one person wants to remembered for just one thing, unless they discover to cure for AIDS or something meaningful like that.  No actor wants to be known for just one role, no musician wants to be remembered for just one song, no DVDVR poster wants to be known for just one quip.  It may happen, but no one wants it to go down like that and we'll work to keep it from happening.  Come on now.

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Dave is very funny his For What It's Worth special is IMO flawless he had hit his stride and it was during his peak I understand artistic intagerity but why not just embrace it and briefly pander to the idiots so the people who paid to see him the real fans don't feel jibbed.

Would it be that bad if he made it apart if the act? Like do something like start the show off hollering "Im Rick James bitch!!!" Then say something along the lines of "now that that's outta the way" it's better then getting in a fight with the audience fuck once u give those few fans who are there just for the catchphraseez and whatnot are happy and then the people who are their to watch Chappelle be Chappelle can be happy too.

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Would it be that bad if he made it apart if the act? Like do something like start the show off hollering "Im Rick James bitch!!!" Then say something along the lines of "now that that's outta the way" it's better then getting in a fight with the audience fuck once u give those few fans who are there just for the catchphraseez and whatnot are happy and then the people who are their to watch Chappelle be Chappelle can be happy too.

I think it gets tiresome doing it after awhile. Comedians (and the audience as well) just don't like it when people shout shit unrelated to the routine. Sure, there are some that are willing to go along with. You have comics like Mike Epps and Katt Williams doing their stuff from Next Friday and Friday After Next almost verbatim, but I would think part of that is coercion. I doesn't help that Katt Williams has a history with hecklers worse than Dave probably ever will have. If you're shouting material that is ten years old after comics have worked so hard to craft new material, I doubt the reaction from the comic (especially one that doesn't have anything to lose) would be anything other than volatile. I do agree though that it is extremely funny when people get dressed down for doing it.

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Chappelle during his prime (2000-"mid-life crisis") is one of my favorite comedians. Some of the skits on Chappelle's Show will never be touched. But I've never been sympathetic about the "break-down" he had and his subsequent move to Africa. Wahhhh I've reached the pinnacle of my profession that millions dream of attaining and I don't know how to handle the eight figures that my bosses want to pay me Wahhhhh.

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Chappelle during his prime (2000-"mid-life crisis") is one of my favorite comedians. Some of the skits on Chappelle's Show will never be touched. But I've never been sympathetic about the "break-down" he had and his subsequent move to Africa. Wahhhh I've reached the pinnacle of my profession that millions dream of attaining and I don't know how to handle the eight figures that my bosses want to pay me Wahhhhh.

You have to look at his bosses though. Unless you're one of the untouchables (Trey and Matt from South Park, Stewart, and now Colbert), they have NO requirement to be loyal to you. Dave probably did not see himself in that category despite the success of the series through two seasons. Look at what Comedy Central did to Katt Williams during the height of his success. He was on the verge of his getting his own Comedy Central series and more specials. Then they pulled the stunt at the Roast of Flava Flav. They treat him shitty before the show, give him no heads up on what other people are going to say, and then give him a script with incendiary racist material targeted toward Flava Flav. Just because Katt gritted his teeth and did it for the money one time doesn't mean that Dave had to over the course of years.

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Either way, dude needs to accept that fact that he'll always be remembered for "I'm Rick James, bitch!" for the rest of his life regardless of what else he does.

 

Why?  Is he not supposed to try to move forward and do new things?  I don't get this line of thinking at all.  Not one person wants to remembered for just one thing, unless they discover to cure for AIDS or something meaningful like that.  No actor wants to be known for just one role, no musician wants to be remembered for just one song, no DVDVR poster wants to be known for just one quip.  It may happen, but no one wants it to go down like that and we'll work to keep it from happening.  Come on now.

 

That is one more than most people get. Nothing wrong with striving for more, but don't be pissy that you are remember for one thing you created.  

Burgundy, I'm not sure what you wrote as you and Victator are on my "ignore user" list due to your insanely offensive statements you made about gun owners in the Trayvon Martin thread.

 

 

AWESOMENice to see Hoardak/Ganc is back. 

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Either way, dude needs to accept that fact that he'll always be remembered for "I'm Rick James, bitch!" for the rest of his life regardless of what else he does.

 

Why?  Is he not supposed to try to move forward and do new things?  I don't get this line of thinking at all.  Not one person wants to remembered for just one thing, unless they discover to cure for AIDS or something meaningful like that.  No actor wants to be known for just one role, no musician wants to be remembered for just one song, no DVDVR poster wants to be known for just one quip.  It may happen, but no one wants it to go down like that and we'll work to keep it from happening.  Come on now.

 

That is one more than most people get. Nothing wrong with striving for more, but don't be pissy that you are remember for one thing you created.

 

I'm not intending to compare myself to Chappelle in any way, shape or form, but I found it strangely off-putting when I heard people telling my jokes back to me, (like, "erm...should I laugh at my own punchline?") and that was in the context of people praising the show. Hearing old jokes yelled at me for what has to be the millionth time when I'm trying to do entirely different material would be pretty fucking annoying. I'm not really very sympathetic to the "he's rich and famous so he should shut up and be grateful that he's rich and famous" argument in response to that.

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And to go a little further. If he were in tiny dive bars/clubs, struggling to make money and this was happening, I would feel bad. 

 

But he is working in big venues and maybe five people out of hundreds are doing it. He should suck it up. I also think venues should toss people who yell shit during performances. 

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