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Entertainment
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Written by Craig Nine
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Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
 For the last 2 years Urban comedy has reached a new level with the
comic genius of Dave Chappelle. The Chappelle Show on Comedy Central
has to be the top comedy sketch show of the last few years. Dave hosts
every episode as he does an onstage standup routine & introduces
his sketches.
No one is safe to be spoofed Chappelle has played sketches as R. Kelly in “Pee on You” music video, Prince, Samuel Jackson, Lil Jon & unforgettably hilarious as his role of Soul & Rock legend Rick James before he pasted away.
His own cast of characters that he plays on the show are now household names like Tron an urban hustler, Tyron Biggums a crack addict first introduced by showing his day of teaching at a drug awareness at an elementary school, & Clayton Bigsby an African American white supremacist who being blind from birth never knew he was actually black. The Clayton Bigsby character was inspired by Dave’s own grandfather who was a light skinned black blind from birth who boarded a bus the day after Martin Luther King’s assassination & heard a white person had boarded the bus full of blacks in the DC neighborhood. His grandfather thought to himself that the white person must be foolish to board a bus full of blacks that day until he realized that they were talking about him.
The cast of writers & guests include Paul Mooney who wrote for nearly all of the great black comedy legends, Charlie Murphy brother of Eddie Murphy who shines on his own as a comedian, Neil Brennan co-writer of the Chappelle Show who has been a long time writing partner with Dave, Donnel Rawlings whose voice is as popular as the show with his famous phrase “I’m Rich Bitch” that plays at the end of each episode, & Japanese actor Yoshio Mita.
Recently Chappelle taped a future DVD of a Dave Chappelle Block Party that featured hip hop & R&B artists such as Erykah Badu, Common, Kool G. Rap, The Roots, Big Daddy Kane, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, & a reunion performance of the Fugees with Pras, Wyclef, & Lauryn Hill. The DVD is set to be released some time next year.
I got the opportunity to go to a live taping of the Chappelle Show in New York & it was the best live show I’ve ever seen. Donnel Rawling opens with an unaired standup routine for about half an hour then Dave takes over does a stand up routine for about another half hour before the show even begins to be taped!!! He really gives his audience the royal treatment.
I believe that Dave’s work will enter into a cult urban culture of dedicated fans of his creative ideas. A few fan sites are popping up now & when the 3rd season starts soon Chappelle Show fever will rise more with new catch phrases that will drive you insane but you’ll love every minute of watching the show.
Dave Chappelle Official Site: www.davechappelle.com
Comedy Central’s Chappelle Show:
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/chappellesshow
With video clips from the show
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 20 February 2005 )
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