Video After The Jump
It's been eleven years since Dave Chappelle walked away from his hugely successful sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show. Thankfully, he's returning to the airwaves via a three-part stand-up comedy special beginning Tuesday, March 21.
He's being paid handsomely for it, with Netflix handing over a $60 million dollar check for his services.
Dave recently sat down with Gayle King of CBS This Morning for an in depth conversation about his career and much more.
On leaving Chappelle's Show
I was talkin’ to a guy… he basically said to me that comedy is a reconciliation of paradox. And I think that that was a irreconcilable moment for me. That I was in this very successful place, but the emotional content of it didn’t feel anything like what I imagined success should feel like. It just didn’t feel right.
Does he miss Chappelle's Show?
Yeah ...But Chappelle’s Show’s like breakin’ up with a girl and you still like her. But in your mind you’re like, ‘That bitch is crazy. I’m not goin’ back.
Did fame scare him and cause him to temporarily go to South Africa?
Not so much that I'd get on a plane and go to Africa. Fame is not that kind of scary, but fame is a horrifying concept when it's aimed at you. At the end of the day you don't have that much control over it.
On his famous Prince sketch on Chappelle's Show
We tried to get Prince. We were like, 'Yeah we got this sketch and it's about you.' And Prince was like, 'No.' But then he saw the sketch and he loved it.
On why Key & Peele hurt his feelings
I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition. So, like the first episode I do, that black white supremacist sketch. And it’s like, ‘Well, that’s 10 minutes long. It should be five minutes long.’ Why should it be five minutes long? Like, these types of conventions. I fought very hard. … So when I watch Key & Peele and I see they’re doing a format that I created, and at the end of the show, it says, ‘Created by Key & Peele,’ that hurts my feelings.
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