Comic Dave Chappelle enraged a Connecticut audience Thursday night after he stopped telling jokes 10 minutes into his show and sat onstage for 20 additional minutes, sullenly smoking cigarettes.
Chappelle performed at the Comcast Theater in Hartford, headlining the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival “Funny or Die” tour with Flight of the Conchords and several other comedians. The tour’s been billed as a comeback for Chappelle, who famously ditched his popular Comedy Central show, and a $50 million paycheck, to head to Africa in 2005.
But an attendee tells us the chuckles ceased after he got rattled by a few hecklers in the audience of 8,000. “At first he came out and told a few warm-up jokes. But after about 10 minutes, about four people in the crowd heckled him,” the source said.
Then, hotheaded Chappelle decided he wasn’t going to perform at all. He sat on a stool, lit a cigarette and waited until the crowd got quiet. “You are booing yourself,” Chappelle declared.
He then made reference to the money he made from both his TV show and the night’s gig, infuriating fans who paid to see him.
“My TV show only has to be 22 minutes . . . I could have read the phone book for 22 minutes, and I would have got $50 million,” Chappelle grumbled. “Tonight is different. My contract only says 25 minutes, and I only have three minutes left. When my three is up my ass is gone.”
At one point, ample-chested author Mack Mama, who was in the audience, handed Chappelle her book, “Tales of an Original Bad Girl,” from which he read aloud. “This is a free plug for you,” Chappelle said.
After his time was up, Chappelle slinked offstage, sniffing, “Not since my son was born has 30 minutes [been] that long.”
“He made it seem like it was all about the money,” said the audience member. “It was a complete turnoff . . . It wasn’t a comeback, it’s a please don’t come back.”
h/t The NY Post
