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David Chappelle has been enraptured by stand-up comedy since his days as an elementary school student at Woodlin Elementary School in ], and a middle school student in ]. His father, William, was a professor of voice and music at ] in Yellow Springs. At 14, Chappelle gathered the courage to perform on stage at the famed ] in ], New York. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to ], with his mother, Yvonne Seon (a ] minister). He spent summers with his father in Yellow Springs and graduated from ] (a renowned performing arts high school in Washington, DC), where he majored in literary and theatre arts. David Chappelle has been enraptured by stand-up comedy since his days as an elementary school student at Woodlin Elementary School in ], and a middle school student in ]. His father, William, was a professor of voice and music at ] in Yellow Springs. At 14, Chappelle gathered the courage to perform on stage at the famed ] in ], New York. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to ], with his mother, Yvonne Seon (a ] minister). He spent summers with his father in Yellow Springs and graduated from ] (a renowned performing arts high school in Washington, DC), where he majored in literary and theatre arts.


Tryed to skateboard then fell and broke his arm
==Actor and stand-up==
In ] Dave made his first TV appearance on ]. In the ] Dave made his first appearance as an actor in ] as Ahchoo, and then in '']'' as Ozzie. The period from ] to ] for Dave was a repetitive cycle of TV appearances, fairly minor stand-up shows, and rather low-budget films. One of the most notable things Dave did during this time was that he was given his first shot at his own show, The Dave Chappelle Project, but the show was short-lived. In ], however, Dave became a hit cult movie star in '']'', a film Dave co-wrote (with ]) and produced (uncredited), which follows the lives of four ]. After ''Half Baked'', Dave did more TV appearances, stand-up shows, and films. In ], Dave made a rather large hit appearance on his HBO one-night stand-up show, ''Dave Chappelle: Killin' 'Em Softly''.


==Television stardom== ==Television stardom==

Revision as of 17:26, 1 June 2006

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.

Early life

David Chappelle has been enraptured by stand-up comedy since his days as an elementary school student at Woodlin Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a middle school student in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His father, William, was a professor of voice and music at Antioch College in Yellow Springs. At 14, Chappelle gathered the courage to perform on stage at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to Washington, D.C., with his mother, Yvonne Seon (a Unitarian Universalist minister). He spent summers with his father in Yellow Springs and graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts (a renowned performing arts high school in Washington, DC), where he majored in literary and theatre arts.

Tryed to skateboard then fell and broke his arm

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 himself acknowledged was a direct quote—has become a part of popular culture, as have many other Chappelle characters and sketches. Unfortunately, this type of popularity has not always sat well with Chappelle himself. At an appearance at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Chappelle stopped the show to deal with an audience member who would not stop repeating the Rick James phrase, and he even took the gesture a step further at the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, CA, where he berated the crowd and walked off the stage for overusing it during his act.

Chappelle has also 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, 2005, 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, 2005, 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. He has recently claimed that he felt pressured by network executives regarding the show's content.

Chappelle's Show is on hiatus as of May 2006 while he sorts out unspecified personal issues. On 2005-08-03, co-star Charlie Murphy (brother of comedian Eddie Murphy) gave an interview to TV Guide stating that he believed that Dave Chappelle was finished with Chappelle's Show and would not be returning. Although Chappelle might have been done with filming the show, Comedy Central had reported that they were to release the un-aired sketches of the third season of "Chappelle's Show" into a couple of half hour episodes in mid-2006. A season three trailer was shown on Comedy Central during their Last Laugh '05 and then on their web site.

Chappelle himself, however, has expressed disdain at the possibility of his material from the unfinished third season being aired, saying not only does he feel that it is "a bully move", but also that he would not return to the show if Comedy Central were to air the unfinished material.

On May 30, 2006, Comedy Central announced plans to air "Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes" on July 9, 2006. An uncensored DVD release of the episodes will be available on July 25, 2006. Chappelle has made no comment on the release of the unaired episodes.

Return to stand-up and beyond

In late 2005, Chappelle was reported to be back in the United States, at his house in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and performing impromptu shows in Los Angeles and Newport, Kentucky.

Chappelle was interviewed for Inside the Actors Studio on December 18, 2005, at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The show premiered 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 Chappelle's Show to "finish what we started", but only under certain circumstances such as a better working environment. One of these circumstances, however, was that Comedy Central would not release the Season 3 episodes that had already been filmed; the planned release of the "Lost Episodes" dvd is a sure sign that the production of future episodes is not hopeful. He also stated he would like to donate half of the DVD sales to charity, and to people that supported him. During an interview Chappelle said how the death of his father had an impact in his decision to go to South Africa to get away from the stress of stardom. Chappelle looked up to his father for advice during his life and said in an interview at Inside the Actors Studio that he never had the chance to mourn his father's death. He also said the rumors that he was in drug treatment only persuaded him to stay in South Africa.

Chappelle wrote and is featured in a Michel Gondry-directed film titled Dave Chappelle's Block Party that chronicles a Chappelle-hosted event, from the summer of 2004, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The highlight of the event was the reunion of popular '90s rap group The Fugees. Chappelle toured several cities in February and March 2006 to promote the film under the moniker "Block Party All-Stars featuring Dave Chappelle." The movie was released on March 3, 2006.

Chappelle DVDs

  • Chappelle's Show - Season One, 2004
  • Chappelle's Show - Season Two, 2004
  • Chappelle's Show - Lost Episodes, releasing July 25, 2006
  • Dave Chappelle - Killin' Them Softly, 2000
  • Dave Chappelle - For What It's Worth, 2004

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.
  • 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."
  • 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, Common, De La Soul, Fat Joe, Anthony Hamilton, DMX and Erykah Badu.
  • Chappelle is a computer and video game enthusiast, including an affinity for World of Warcraft, NBA Street, Street Fighter and Grand Theft Auto. On Chappelle's Show, he paid homage to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in a sketch. He has also done a sketch in which he challenges and beats a child with cancer in the video game Street Hoops.
  • Chappelle's Show Season One Uncensored! DVD box set is the best-selling TV show on DVD with over 3 million copies sold.
  • Chappelle appeared on Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam. He performed two poems, titled "Fuck Ashton Kutcher" and "How I Got The Lead on Jeopardy".
  • Richard Pryor said that he has passed the torch to Dave Chappelle.
  • Dave Chappelle created an iTunes Celebrity Playlist and selected the DangerDoom track "Mince Meat" for his Block Party Picks. He stated, "Two very consistently good artists collaborate to make my head nod. Doom, Mouse - Thank You. Wherever you are, nice album."

References

External links

Official websites

Additional websites

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