By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Dave Chappelle has had people begging for him to return to the stage and get back into standup ever since he walked away from his very popular show, “Chappelle’s Show.” Dave says he had to walk away from the hit Comedy Central show because he started to feel like the big wigs of the network were pushing him to make a mockery out of black people and he wasn’t comfortable with it. So instead, the comedian passed up millions for season three and took a trip to Africa to reflect on his decision.
Dave is much more low-key these days as a result of him quitting his hit show, and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to live the Hollywood kind of life, so he moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio where he says he can just live as a normal person. However, the comedian has decided to make a brief return to stand up, and he’s currently headlining the “Funny or Die Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Tour” that has him gracing stages throughout the country.
Interestingly enough, new reports are claiming the comedian’s tour isn’t without drama as he walked off the stage on Thursday night during his show in Hartford, Connecticut at the Comcast Theatre. Multiple news outlets in Connecticut are reporting he got frustrated with the crowd after some of the audience began yelling during his routine. Some sources say he sat on the stool on stage for about thirty minutes smoking a cigarette and telling the crowd how “awful” they were before walking out. And some in attendance claim the comedian actually started his routine but stopped a few minutes into it because the audience refused to quiet down.
Although most of the media is pretty much putting all the blame on Dave, a reader of Urban Belle exclusively tipped us off and told us it’s actually the audience’s fault he walked off the stage:
“I was there last night. Dave Chappelle got so frustrated he just walked right off the stage. I’m not upset because he told us at the very beginning that he doesn’t tolerate heckling during his show and he would end the show if people wouldn’t quiet down. Some people in the audience were drunk and cracking jokes about Rick James and Dave had enough about five minutes into his routine. It was terrible because he couldn’t even get a word in without someone being obnoxious and yelling! A lot of people are demanding a refund but I don’t blame Dave at all. The venue was too small, people were too drunk and out of control and I knew it was going to end badly when he walked on the stage. They were just as obnoxious to the other performers.”
Others in attendance claim the crowd was just excited to see Dave and they were only yelling how much they loved him. Regardless, there’s a lot of people demanding to get their money back. There’s no word yet on if that will happen though.
Check out the video of Dave walking out below:
Love me some Dave but I’d be mad too if he walked off the stage. Tickets ain’t cheap!
Right!
Clearly I wasn’t there but I know he hates when people throw the Chappelle’s Show stuff in his face. Poor Dave.
I believe the fan. I saw Dave in Atlanta recently and he told us as soon as he got on the stage not to take pictures, don’t film, and do not scream during the show. He said if we did, he would bounce. People took him seriously and he had a great show. He even let people heckle and take pictures of him after the show. I also know he took pictures with fans after the show too for the people who waited by his tour bus. The media is always trying to make him look crazy.
I think the Rick James thing angers the hell out of him LOL.
I’m not saying the d-cks in the audience were right, but he shouldn’t have walked off the stage. He should be used to hecklers by now. Have them escorted out and keep going.
I’m Team Dave…always. I need to go get some tickets to see him. #shrugs
People were probably drunk and stupid. I’m sure he’s not completely at fault here.
But why not just have the stupid people kicked out? That’s what security is paid to do.
I agree. No need to punish the good fans with the bad ones.
I don’t buy for a second that Dave is the terrible and crazy person the media keeps trying to paint him as. I think he wants to still do comedy but he wants to separate himself from his show and it’s hard to do that when idiots keep yelling “I’m Rick Jame b*tch” every two seconds.
He’s on tour?! I gotta go get tickets!
LOL that’s the same thing I said!
I don’t blame him for walking of the stage. People start drinking and they want to act stupid. And they think they should be able to because they paid for a ticket. Smh.
I’m not saying the audience was right to do what they did, but Dave has to be a professional. He can’t get bratty because people act stupid. Kick them out and keep performing.