Dave Chappelle, one of the funniest men ever, was the one person I recently thought “I wonder what he thinks about these unprecedented times. I bet his next stand-up show will be epic.”
And sure enough, Dave delivers just what I ordered: a 27-minute fiery salvo comedy special that comes off more like a man ablaze with his thoughts than something meant for you to laugh along with. His spot-on analysis of society’s ills and wills continues to be his mighty swinging sword in delivering truth to power and to the proficiently dumb individuals he prepares to carve up in comedy and civic duty.
Chappelle is in rare form even for something put together off the stream of thoughts. Seething with anger that he controls on a rough pivot while speaking on slavery, Kobe Bryant, and Candace Owens’ most recent rant about George Floyd being seen as a hero or martyr in the Black community.
“We didn’t see him as a hero, you did. They killed him so that wasn’t right, so he’s the guy. We’re not desperate for heroes in the Black community. Any ni**a that survives this nightmare is my goddamn hero.”
The titled special, “8:46,” is in reference to the amount of time that, now internationally known victim of police brutality, George Floyd‘s neck was under the knee of a Minneapolis cop suffocating to death. Debuted on Netflix’s Youtube account, Chappelle’s first public stage performance in 87 days (the set was recorded on June 6th, 2020) speeds by and is a whiz of passion, side talk, and real ass commentary on topics of the moment. He even squeezed in a joke that touched on rapper Azealia Banks’ accusation of an alleged sex episode with Chappelle. The mere mention of this shows how brazen the chain-smoking Ohio resident is (the show is seemingly set in a socially distanced practicing open field in Beaver Creek, OH) even with personal themes.
Watch as Chappelle runs through his notebook of cues to the masked crowd of attendees, whose laughs can be heard through the facial coverings. A word from Chappelle about the project’s quality control standards, “Normally I wouldn’t show you something so unrefined, I hope you understand.”
Hey Dave, we get it, some sh*t just needs to come out as raw as it is. Thanks for always having a fearless perspective on our ever mind-blowing times.
