Dave Chappelle arrives on stage at the Eventim Apollo smoking a cigarette, ready to start his first ever full-length show in London having performed a brief ten-minute set back in 2008.
While there’s no doubting that Chappelle is one of the most influential performers in the history of comedy, a decade removed from his prime he’s no longer the ground-breaking force he once was.
Comedy, perhaps more than any art form, is constantly evolving. Pioneering and unique material is quickly assimilated into the mainstream, eventually becoming tired and overused.
Chappelle is finding this out the hard way after returning to stand-up last year following a long hiatus.
He begins with the story of how he was booed off stage at a show in Detroit recently, or rather how he remained on stage despite the booing.
It’s a bold way to open, but ultimately it appears to win the crowd over as he pits them against the Detroit audience. He pulls a similar trick in a later tale when he asks for sympathy that he had to fly coach instead of first-class.
Now in his forties, Chappelle walks an uneasy line between wanting to make important social commentary about issues such as police brutality and the Confederate flag, while at the same time pulling laughs at the expense of Caitlyn Jenner.
“I need you to know that I know what I’m saying is wrong,” he quips after the first of many mentions of Bill Cosby and how he wished the allegations weren’t true.
Despite the build-up, he never really arrives at any insightful conclusion, and so it feels like a way for Chappelle to get laughs while absolving himself of any wrong-doing.
It’s hard not to be reminded of his earlier work which played with the boundaries but ultimately challenged society’s hypocrisies.
Some amusing social insights still emerge (when discussing the similarities between AIDS and Ebola, he asks: “Isn’t it funny how they only kill people that old white people hate?”), which only serves to make those other moments more frustrating.
It’s a shame, because there are flashes of the old brilliance. His closing piece includes a hilarious, farcical story involving a sextape and the FBI which Chappelle escalates with delightful ease.
That’s the Dave Chappelle we remember – saying what he had to say and relying less on his comedic timing and experience.
