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Dave Chappelle

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For the director and photographer, see David LaChapelle.
File:Dave Chappelle.jpg
Dave Chappelle.

David Chappelle (born August 24, 1973, in Washington, D.C.) is an American comedian and actor. ==Biography== Washington, D.C., with his mother Yvonne Seon (a Unitarian minister). He attended high school in Washington D.C., but spent his summers with his father in Yellow Springs.

Television Stardom

In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly television show on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show. His sketch comedy heavily skewers racial stereotypes and slurs, including Chappelle's African-American heritage. This, combined with pointed social and political commentary, quickly gained the show great popularity. By the end of the second season, it was one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, and second only to South Park on Comedy Central. Additionally, the DVD set of the first season became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date. Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $50 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects.

File:I'm RickJames Bitch!.jpg
"I'm Rick James, Bitch!"

One of Chappelle's most widely-known bits has Chappelle portraying late funk musician Rick James during his drug-abusing years in the Rick James sketch. "I'm Rick James, bitch!" — which James acknowledged was a direct quote — has become a part of popular culture, as have many other Chappelle characters and sketches. However, Chappelle eventually grew weary of the phrase's popularity and told audience members who yelled it to "shut the fuck up."

Chappelle also has done two parodies of music videos, "Piss On You" and its remix, which parodies R&B singer R. Kelly's "Feeling on your Booty", and Ignition Remix.

Season 3 Turbulence

The comedian stunned fans and the entertainment industry when he abruptly left during production of the third season of Chappelle's Show. He spent two weeks in South Africa before returning home to his 65-acre farm near Yellow Springs, and then returned to standup comedy. His decision triggered reports that he had mental or drug problems, which he denied. On May 11, news sources (most notably Entertainment Weekly) reported that Chappelle had checked himself into a psychiatric facility in South Africa. Chappelle denies this. On May 14, Time Magazine announced that one of their reporters had interviewed Chappelle in South Africa, and the comedian said no psychiatric treatments were occurring or necessary. Chappelle reportedly went to South Africa to purify himself and to do some soul searching. Chappelle has also said he was unhappy with the direction of his show.

Chappelle's Show is on hiatus as of December 2005 while he sorts out unspecified personal issues. Recent news has located Chappelle back in the United States, at his house in Ohio, and performing impromptu shows in Los Angeles and the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Newport, Kentucky. On August 3rd, co-star Charlie Murphy gave an interview to TV Guide stating that he believes that Dave Chappelle is finished with Chappelle's Show and would not be returning.

Although Chappelle may be done with filming the show, Comedy Central has recently reported that they will release the un-aired sketches of the third season of "Chappelle's Show" into four half hour episodes in mid-2006. A season three trailer was shown on Comedy Central during their Last Laugh '05 and then on their website.

Chappelle was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005, at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show is set to premier at 8:00 PM EST, on February 12, 2006.

He was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on her show on February 3, 2006 in the first televised interview with Chappelle since he left Chappelle's Show. He stated in the interview that he "wasn't crazy" but the environment was "incredibly stressful." He continued:

"I would go to work on the show and I felt awful every day, that's not the way it was. ... I felt like some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad, why keep on showing up to this place? I'm going to Africa. The hardest thing to do is to be true to yourself, especially when everybody is watching."

He did not rule out returning to film the rest of third and fourth seasons of "Chappelle's Show" but only under certain circumstances, such as a better work environment and donating half of the DVD sales to charity.[1]

Chappelle DVDs

Filmography

Trivia

  • Chappelle lives with his wife Elaine (who is of Filipino descent) and two sons (one known to be named Sulayman) on a farm just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. When he is not touring or engaged in filming for television or the big screen, he can be seen in the shops and markets of the small college town.
  • His wife Elaine sometimes appeared in Chappelle's Show. She always plays a woman who's with Chappelle in many skits.
  • He converted to Islam around 1998. He told Time magazine in a May 2005 interview "I don't normally talk about my religion publicly because I don't want people to associate me and my flaws with this beautiful thing. And I believe it is a beautiful religion if you learn it the right way." http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1061415,00.html
  • Chappelle's Show has a large hip-hop following and has featured such progressive rappers as: Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and Kanye West. The show has also spotlighted musical guests such as Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, Outkast, De La Soul, Fat Joe, and Erykah Badu.
  • Chappelle is a computer and video game enthusiast, including an affinity for World of Warcraft, Street Fighter and Grand Theft Auto. On Chappelle's Show, he paid homage to the Grand Theft Auto series in a sketch.
  • Chappelle's Show Season One Uncensored! DVD box set has become the #1 best-selling TV show on DVD with over 2 million units sold.

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dave Chappelle.

Official websites

Additional websites

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