To make a long story short, I found a ticket last minute on Craigslist, was all set to buy it, then couldn't find anyone to cover my shift at work. I work at a gym, with like 20 other people, so it's usually really easy to get rid of shifts. So I gave away my ticket, and instead decided to pick up a shift interning after work at IO for someone. They had Lollapalooza tickets, and I thought I'd pay it forward so at least someone would get to do something fun today. Then my boss called, who is awesome, and offered to cover my shift at work if I was still looking. But I had just taken on this other dude's shift, so I couldn't, and I turned her down. THEN someone called me from IO and offered to pick up my intern shift. The guy selling Chappelle tickets told me he'd sell mine last in case I changed my mind, so I knew it was still there. By this point the show was gonna start in 20 minutes, so I figured it wasn't worth it calling in a favor from my boss just to pay 100 bucks to be late to the show.
Dave, as most people know, hardly ever does standup anymore. Since his show ended 6 years ago, he's just been popping up all over the country randomly doing shows. At one point he held the record for longest comedy set; 6 hours and 12 minutes. (The record was later broken by Dane Cooke, who did 7 hours. I would imagine Dane would run out of steam around 45 mins, so I don't know what the remaining 6 hours 15 mins were about).
ANYWAY. So I watched Chappelle's 2005 documentary about a free concert he threw in Brooklyn. He's joined by Mos Def, The Roots, Erykah Badu, and The Fugees and a whole bunch more of that ilk.
Did you know Mos Def changed his name to Yasiin Bey?
The film follows Dave as he travels around, collecting bands and audience members for his show. The film is directed by Michel Gondry, but you'd hardly notice; very little of Gondry's signature craziness comes out. Which is kinda cool cause it shows the width of his directing skills. He can go from heavily stylized music videos to something like Block Party.
There wasn't a single mummy in this documentary
More than anything, the movie lets you see a side of Dave you don't see on his show. He's smart, kind, and very interested in people. It's always rewarding to see my comedic idols turn out to be decent people. The more I learn about people like him and Louis Ck the more impressed I am. Same with when I watched his 'Inside the Actor's Studio' episode.
So, it wasn't as great as getting to see him live, but a pretty good substitute. I owned the dvd, so you'll have to hunt for it online. But here's a Fugees song from the movie:
No comments:
Post a Comment