I was wondering how many of you miss Dave Chappelle? I thought he was great. He was a big star in the early 00’s who more or less gave up his show (which was a hit, even inventing the phrase, ‘I’m Rick James bitch!’)
At the time when he walked away from his hit show, it was thought that this was someone who could not handle fame. He left and went to Africa to dodge the media following him around.
He has a large farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio (what does the term ‘Yellow Springs’ come to mind mentally for you?) His father was a teacher at Antioch College and he says that he loves the area and the quality of life. Ohio seemed like a strange place to want to retire, since it is so cold there and somewhat economically depressed.
I think he did what I would do if I was in his shoes. Make a lot of money and then when you have enough that you can retire and live within your means, you can live free and do as you want. The only things I would indulge in weathy that I cannot now is traveling the World. After that, I would live the life of an upper middle class person with a house, TV, computers. I’d live in Washington State (again, Ohio, why?)
He’s a Muslim and was a muslim when he was in show business. he has several kids and gave them Muslim names Sulayman (cool name) Ibrahim, and daughter Sonal (Sonal sounds like a sleep medication)
He should of finished his show’s run and then retired. He sort of quit too soon.
(As an aside, he looked like the son of Jimmie Walker (JJ from Good Times) and wish they would play father and son in a movie. That would be great.)
I do think his show was excellent but I respect what he did. He’s not completely retired, since he does still do standup gigs. I think he does them pretty often, but he doesn’t do big tours or anything - just does what he wants when he feels like it.
I loved The Chappelle Show and the man is a comedic genius. He’s not just funny, he’s a true genius.
That said Chappelle himself has some really serious mental issues. I think that like Jonathan Winters and other famous comedians he went bonkers and had to stop or die. Unfortunately he also seems to be a major league asshole- his comments about how the network wanted to control him (dude- you signed a $50 million contract with them, HELL YEAH they probably want a say-so but they also know that you know what you’re doing) and about the unfairness of the white power structure in Hollywood (uh, dude, again, you’re in possession of a $50 million contract- $50 mil is power, and there are probably more blacks with major power in entertainment than any other field [Oprah, Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, etc.]) and how people would call out “I’m Rick James Bitch!” whenever they saw him (celebrities get pestered by obnoxious fans- who knew?) and other self important self pitying diatribes got really old. Quitting a show for personal reasons is fine, it’s his life, but don’t try to act like it’s some grand and important social statement.
Honestly? It makes me think that the town was maybe named after some springs that were yellowish in color (a Wiki search shows this to be the case, due to iron deposits in the springs staining the rocks yellow)
Sometimes a place called “Black Rock” is called so because it features a large black rock and the namer wasn’t feeling terribly imaginative, you know?
I live about 40 minutes south of Yellow Springs. If I’d never seen the place, I, too, would probably wonder “why Ohio?” Having been there countless times, though, I can assure you that it is a wonderful, beautiful little farming community, and the citizenry (certainly the faculty and students of Antioch college) tend to be more socially progressive than is common for this area of Ohio (and that’d definitely be a selling point for me).
Another Chappelle Show fan here. And I too was disappointed by his departure. When I heard he was making B;lock Party i thought, ‘wow - he’s taking his career in a whole new direction’, but that doesn’t seem to have panned out.
Anyway I can’t begrudge him his wishes. Even if he never did another comedy sketch in his life, his left us a little richer for the ones he did do.
As I remember, the first season of his Comedy Central series was a big seller on DVD. Really big. So when they asked him to do a second season, he didn’t really want to do it, so he asked for the ridiculous amount of $50 million. They agreed, because the DVD sales were so lucrative. But then he really didn’t want to do it, so he disappeared and when to South Africa for a while.
I’m surprised that in this post 9/11 age he was able to even get into the cockpit. I had assumed they kept those doors locked at all times now and that they were heavily reinforced.
That was a private plane. I was on a commercial flight a couple of years ago sitting near the front of the plane and got up to use the bathroom near the cockpit. The flight attendant asked me to wait a few minutes. She then got out the beverage cart, used it to barricade the area behind the bathroom, after which the pilot exited the cockpit to use that bathroom. In other words, they’re extremely cautious on commercial flights.
So you’re saying if I want to hijack a plane, hire a Jackie Chan to jump over the beverage cart, and then we’re in?
I need to pull out my Chapelle Show DVDs. It’s been about 5 years since I’ve seen the show. That Rick James Bitch thing was as annoying as hell though. It was funny the FIRST time I saw it. Hearing it OVER AND OVER AND OVER for the next year was not, though. I can’t say I blame the guy for wanting to get away from that.
