Dave Chappelle is only a week into a 13-city tour called The Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival that he’s co-headlining with Flight of the Conchords for Funny or Die, but he’s already running into trouble. Last night during a stop in Hartford, Connecticut, Chappelle reportedly stopped his act after 10 minutes because the audience was being too rowdy and shouting stuff out at him. Fans in the audience were reportedly yelling Chappelle’s Show quotes like “I’m Rick James!” at Chappelle right off the bat, causing him to have trouble getting his act out. When he asked them to stop shouting, the people in the crowd refused to calm down. Chappelle then sat on a stool and started smoking while chit-chatting with the crowd for 15 more minutes to meet the required 25 minutes he was contractually obligated to perform for. At one point, he even read a book onstage that an audience member gave him.
Here are some quotes from the tail end of Chappelle’s performance:
“One time I saw Damon Wayans onstage … someone in the audience screamed out, ‘Hey, do Homey the Clown!’ And he’s like, ‘Hey, I just want to do my jokes.’ And someone else goes, ‘Hey do Homey the Clown!’ He goes, ‘I really don’t want to do that.’ And the crowd goes, ‘Homey the Clown, Homey the Clown.’ He goes, ‘You really wanna see Homey the Clown?’ ‘Yeah!’ And then he farted in the microphone, and I’d never seen somebody do that before. And then he said, ‘Homey don’t play that.’ He dropped the mic, and then he walked offstage. I fucked up when I left my show, you know why? Because my show only has to be 22 minutes of television. I coulda went on television. I coulda read the phone book for 22 minutes. And I woulda got 50 million dollars. I shoulda done that shit, but my ego wouldn’t let me. But tonight is different. Tonight, my contract says 25 minutes, and I only have three minutes left. And when my three minutes is up, my ass is gone. I’m going straight to the bank and doing night deposit.”
The audience then proceeded to boo Chappelle, which made him respond, “You’re booing yourself. I want you to go home and look in the mirror and say ‘Boo.’ Remember, that’s how I feel about you.” The crowd booed him more, and he replied, “Ah, fuck you. I’m the one that has to get the review in the paper tomorrow. I’ll have to read about this shit for months. And the next time, I go on television and they interview me and they say, ‘Why’d you go back to Africa, I’m not gonna say Hartford did it. [laughs]”
Chappelle then concluded his performance by saying, “All right, you guys. I like some of you. I hate some of you. I forgive some of you, but I don’t forget all of you. You guys are totally ruining my chances for running for Congress or something. Thank you. Good night.” With his 25 minutes up, he set his mic on the floor and walked off stage while Kanye West’s “New Slaves” played.
Check out some terrible quality video from the performance below:
