It sounds like Chappelle had a personal crisis on stage last night.

[Baitball Blogger]

Here's One For You: Why Did Dave Chappelle Walk Off Stage?

Rob Maia of Waterbury — who called Chappelle's show in Wallingford six years ago "one of the best performances I've ever seen" — sat 12 rows back. The comic was flanked by two Jumbotrons. Maia said Chappelle's eyes "looked funny, kind of glossy."

Maia said after 10 minutes on stage, somebody shouted "Oprah!" "He took to that and made a few jokes about that and the comments were pretty funny," Maia said. "After that he was not able to get back into his routine. I don't know if he forgot it. He started making all these references about times when he walked. ... At that point he was bringing up the fact that he had to do only 25 minutes to get paid.

"He smoked cigarettes and said that he was going to take our money and buy bubble gum with it and then spit it out after only two chews," Maia said. "That's when the crowd started to get unruly."

Chappelle began talking about how he would hop a plane to South Africa, as he did when he quit "Chappelle's Show." Then he started lecturing the audience. He then told a story about opening for Richard Pryor when he was 19, and how Pryor left mid-set due to illness, and how his situation was like that one, except he was not sick.

snip

"It was incredilby awkward and very uncomfortable but I found it riveting. It was unbelieveable, I can't believe it's happening," Moriarty said. "He said 'I don't care, I'm the one who's going to have to read about this all day tomorrow, not you.' He was poking fun at the situation but not telling jokes."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/hc-dave-chappelle-walks-off-stage-0831-20130830,0,2836205.story

[NYC_SKP]

1. Tortured genius?

I like him.

[oberliner]

11. Tortured, perhaps.

Genius, perhaps not.

[Hoyt]

2. I like him too, and hope he's OK. He did a 4 day run in Atlanta recently.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. There's a really good article about it over on ebony.com

http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/dave-chappelle-didnt-meltdown-405

"Chappelle wasn’t having a meltdown. This was a Black artist shrugging the weight of White consumption, deciding when enough was enough. This isn’t the first time Chappelle has done so and it isn’t the first time his behavior has been characterized as a meltdown.

There is a long history of asking African-Americans to endure racism silently; it’s characterized as grace, as strength. Chappelle’s Connecticut audience, made up of largely young White males, demanded a shuck and jive. Men who seemed to have missed the fine satire of the Chappelle show demanded he do characters who, out of the context of the show look more like more racist tropes, than mockery of America’s belief in them.

When he expressed shock that he’d sat there and been yelled at for so long, people yelled they paid him. They felt paying for a show meant they could verbally harass him, direct him in any tone of voice, as though they’d bought him."

[Baitball Blogger]

4. Wow. That IS a good article.

Thank you!

I saw the Butler last night and when we were walking into a theater we bumped into someone that my theater mate recognized. We talked briefly and learned she was going to the same movie. The woman, who was white, knew absolutely nothing about the movie, except that it was getting good reviews. "So, what are we going to see?" she said "Are we going to laugh?"

"No. I said. "You will cry."

[alarimer]

5. Really?

It sounds more like someone with issues.

Every "tortured genius" usually has something wrong with them. It just means they can't cope sometimes. If they would simply acknowledge that, I think people would get it. At this point, it's probably like watching NASCAR, never knowing when they might crash. And maybe that's the appeal.

But making excuses is not going to get him the help he needs.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Good armchair psychology.

A+

[oberliner]

12. "a Black artist shrugging the weight of White consumption"

"Chappelle’s Connecticut audience"

"demanded a shuck and jive"

This article is almost a parody of itself.

Incidentally, the show was in Hartford which is predominantly non-white.

[ghostsofgiants]

13. Yes, POC talking about their experiences with racial issues is total self-parody.

And the context of Chappelle's career and experiences and the broader cultural implications of those things are completely irrelevant, right?

[oberliner]

15. No - just the description of this particular concert

White comedians have people call out crap - telling them to do particular jokes or bits from sketches all the time, same as non-white comedians. It's part of being a well-known person who tries to do stand-up in a venue that serves alcohol.

Stand-up comedians get heckled. When the comedian responds negatively - the heckling gets worse. Then the comedian can sometimes get annoyed and just do whatever they feel like on stage for 20 minutes. That is what happened.

[ghostsofgiants]

16. I think it's fair to say that white comedians also have very different experiences...

Especially with their material and how their fans engage with that material. That's why Chappelle quit his show in the first place. This didn't happen in a vacuum.

[oberliner]

17. I'm really just talking about that one particular article

And the way the writer characterized what happened. It read like a parody of itself to me. That's all I really wanted to say. Clearly the article resonated with you, and I respect your take on it.

[madinmaryland]

20. Unfortunately, the show was probably priced out of the range of most Hartford residents.

The attendees were probably from West Hartford, Avon, Farmington, Windsor Locks, etc, which are predominantly white.

[oberliner]

22. "Being a lady of color, I didn’t feel or see this as a issue of racism last evening."

Here is a review from someone else who attended the show (quoted in my subject line). She noted that she found the Ebony article very interesting.

Excerpt:

Being a lady of color, I didn’t feel or see this as a issue of racism last evening. It was a comedy show and sadly, there are loud and disrespectful assholes within the audience of MOST comedy shows, no matter what the race of the entertainer. It doesn’t make it right but comedy shows are breeding grounds for tough and rude crowds.

http://www.sprinklesandbooze.com/wp/

[madinmaryland]

23. I was just commenting on the demographics of Hartford (I lived in the Hartford area for many years).

I haven't been to a comedy show in many years, but as I recall, the comedians can be very acerbic to the guests, which is what the guests seem to expect.

[oberliner]

24. Gotcha

The tickets for the show were not cheap, that's for sure.

I just thought the writer was trying to make some kind of rhetorical point by including the fact that the concert was in Connecticut. I would guess, however, that the racial component of the audience would not be much different in another state. It definitely seemed like she made a point of noting the show was in Connecticut deliberately as if to suggest something about the racial makeup of the state.

[HipChick]

7. I am glad he walked out on them..

What a rude audience..I would let the clock run out on them too

[blogslut]

8. I once saw Ray Charles in concert.

It was a fairly intimate setting - nightclub with 1000 capacity.

About two songs in, the audience started shouting requests at him. He stopped and turned to the crowd and very calmly stated: "You know, I've been in this business for almost 40 years. I think I can decide what I'll play next."

It was beautiful.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. +1

[steve2470]

10. great reply nt

[tonekat]

14. "This was a Black artist shrugging the weight of White consumption"

That sounds like something I would read in the Village Voice in 1970.

[Mother Muckraker]

18. Different people laugh at the same joke... for different reasons.

An audience of young drunk white guys expecting him to "perform"? I guess it reminded him of why he left the first time when a white staffer laughed a little too loudly.

If you're a "white" person (especially non-empathetic men) , you will have a bit of difficulty understanding why. If you're a person of color, you just might get it. If you're black, you'll know right away.

[Earth_First]

19. Thanks for the video...

I just watched the entire video for the first time. Quite honestly, I never really understood the whole situation...

Good on Dave.

[steve2470]

21. yes thanks for that video nt

[CanSocDem]

25. Great video.

I, as an old white guy, sometimes worry that all my favorite comedians in the past 20 years have been black guys. From Bill Cosby to Richard Pryor to Eddie Murphy and now Dave Chappelle.

I think they make me laugh at myself. I hope that's it...

.