Chappelle smoking-hot at awards
Dave Chappelle has built a career on pushing boundaries and challenging social conventions. But his greatest act of defiance may have come at Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
At the end of an evening of tributes and testimonials, Chappelle went on stage to accept his Mark Twain prize for lifetime achievement in comedy, a lit cigarette in hand.
“I want everyone in America to look at me smoking indoors,” he announced.
“I didn’t ask anybody. What are they going to do? Kick me out? This is called leverage!”
A host of comedians and musicians paid tribute to Chappelle, 46, describing him as a uniquely gifted and passionate performer with an appeal that drew other artists into his circle.
Rapper and actor Common praised Chappelle’s bravery and sociological influence.
“He’s a beacon for a lot of different progressive thought,” Common said.
“He brings uncomfortable things up and now we have to discuss it.
“I think he’s one of the greatest, not just entertainers, but the greatest minds we have in this day and age.”
Michael Che, co-host of
Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, said: “He can perform, he can write, he can do characters. That’s why his fan-base is so wide.”
The ceremony was a homecoming for Chappelle, who was raised in suburban Silver Spring, Maryland, and attended Washington’s prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
“Going there was one of the great privileges of my life,” he said. “DC in the 80s was turbulent and I met a bunch of young black artists who taught me it was okay to be different . . . to be weird.”
Chappelle was already a well-established comedian and comedic actor when he was given his own sketch comedy show in 2003. The show on Comedy Central, Chappelle’s Show, was a hit. It combined parodies that often tweaked racial conventions with musical productions featuring hip-hop and soul.
At the height of his popularity, Chappelle shocked by walking away from a lucrative contract extension and abandoning the show while it was preparing for its third season. He disappeared from public view and took an extended trip to Africa.
Chappelle later explained that the pressures of the show’s success and the influence applied by the network had made him feel
“like some kind of a prostitute”.
Chappelle gradually returned to performing, more powerful than ever, and now releases regular stand-up specials under a multimilliondollar deal with Netflix. The departure from his own hit show made him an inspirational symbol for artists and comedians, particularly minorities, for his willingness to sacrifice profit to retain his independence.
Jon Stewart, former host of the The Daily Show, spoke of Chappelle’s decision with respect, saying he and other comedians were in awe of, “the courage that it takes as a performer or an artist to stand for who you know you are — to take a chance on yourself”.
Chappelle noted that the list of award recipients read like a roll call of his heroes, including Richard Pryor and George Carlin: “The shoulders that I stand on are all here on this list.”