Dave Chappelle delivered an evening of nonstop laughter Monday night, but even if his routine hadn’t elicited so much as a giggle, I still would have been smiling. That’s because it was plainly evident during the first of his two shows at the House of Blues that the comedian is happy and healthy. I, like a lot of his longtime fans, was worried there for a while.
Most anyone reading this is well aware that Chappelle walked away from his hit Comedy Central series, Chappelle’s Show, in 2005 and was out of the spotlight for several years. He’s been touring regularly for a couple of years now, but there have been hiccups along the way, such as the time in 2013 when he played chicken with a Hartford crowd who refused to shut their mouths. There was also a 2012 show in Austin that went off the rails when Chappelle confiscated a device someone was using to record his set.
Because of incidents like those, there were signs posted throughout the House of Blues that warned patrons to keep our phones out of sight and to refrain from heckling or even talking during the show. The DJ who warmed up the crowd before and after the two opening comics repeatedly issued both warnings.
Fortunately, everybody behaved themselves, remembering that they’d paid more than $50 to hear a comedian, not to try to be a comedian. Besides, the funniest amateur in the room wouldn’t have had a prayer of measuring up to Chappelle. He started with riffs on the year’s biggest headlines, such as the rape allegations against Bill Cosby, the death of Michael Brown, and Donald Sterling’s downfall as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. He then moved into routines about his wife, his dog, and his children, with setups and callbacks that weaved in and out of all his domestic topics. No spoilers here, but I will say that one bit about a Twitter feud with Katt Williams was one I’d previously heard him deliver on a talk show. Still, his delivery had me guffawing, even though I knew the punchline.
Part of the appeal of Monday’s performance was that Chappelle’s jokes had even him laughing. Wearing a tank top that shows off his newly buff frame, he spent most of his set perched on a stool. But every so often he’d fall from it and stumble around the stage because he’d cracked himself up. Chappelle truly seems to be enjoying his life and career again. As he recently said in a lengthy interview with GQ, if he ends up like Robin Williams, suspect foul play.
Dave Chappelle will perform twice Tuesday at the House of Blues. If you can’t get tickets to either of those shows, he’s playing Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as Tulsa on Friday. It would definitely be worth the road trip.
