Iconoclast: Dave Chappelle + Maya Angelou [Full Episode]

it's hosted a gala event at the African American Museum in Oakland California to celebrate season two of their critically acclaimed original series iconoclasts the iconic class comes along and breaks things up shakes it up I think it's that unique gift of recognizing truth and trying to live by it Grey Goose entertainment and Sundance Channel teamed up to produce a unique series that will change the way you see celebrity this week Maya Angelou is really actually a smart marriage because it's so different that you're curious and they bring something to one another that the other would not have had or got it experience I really came here to something dumb for iconoclast and for the Sun Dance challenge Dave Chappelle is among the best we have we talked and talked and talked the truth is I think we lifted each other up there was such an incredible experience to fill dr. Maya Angelou spending time with Dave Chappelle a guy whose humor comes from challenging racial stereotypes you would think that she would find some of that humor to be potentially offensive and yet they had this incredible bond this incredible exchange of ideas this is me as still being you said anger yes you dance it you March it you talk it never stop talking it this is the hot-button stuff there is a true debate of different points of view and a passing of the baton from one generation to the next my comic class is a beautiful clashing Serena put all these folks together dave Tripel and Maya Angelou doesn't seem to mix for their audience to see the connection between what each one does visually crease the dynamic that I think is very entertaining when you look at it you go wow and now the Sundance original series iconoclasts with Dave Chappelle and Maya Angelou they're people who had told I'm going to be talking with Dave Chappelle you know it's pretty hard parried by my standards she's probably written more books and I've read and usually speak very softly and I have a huge she's talking about people she knew like I was with my dear friend mouth if you say that to me I'm thinking Jamal Warner she's toggled Malcolm X he's so intelligent that he doesn't want people to know that smiley really America does not invade countries that have weapons of mass destruction that [ __ ] is dangerous now that's means man I started doing stand-up when I was 14 and that's pretty much all I have ever done I myself had the most dangerous job in Washington DC I used to deliver pizzas I feel like I was really for you're surrounded by people yeah the only one in the world with the microphone at stage and they're all looking at you and you can just say what else on your man I got to the top of my field it was quite the climb and then I walked away from Dave Chappelle shock to everybody when he walked away from his very popular Comedy Central show and a fifty million dollar contract last year and people are still wondering what the heck happened to it now since I walked away it's like it's better than them and happy a lot to see me I'm happier to see you there's no fun when it's just me by myself I learned that [ __ ] the hard way or as you guys call it season 3 the lowest episode the episode wasn't last [ __ ] the host was okay I think we're ready to go dr. Angelou can I start the music are we good okay and Scott were ready with the music okay and three two one hello in America and most of the time even when I'm displeased with what my country is doing I am still an American blues displeased unfortunately being an American I don't have to whimper I don't have to wonder I have the right to protest and I like them I am Maya Angelou you listening to Oprah and friends and XM 156 I've been Winston of 25 years I came to speak at Wake Forest thinking that never see this part the South began but waif I started to move me the University offered me the limos tab and I'm here - after that Oh half the semester that if I had taught before I had written books I might never pitch the book serious serious no - jams d hip-hop station cap J came in and said you know you found out last night at Dave Chappelle Dave Chappelle he's funny any babe right people started laughing the moment I said his name and then others said you're going to talk to him and I wondered for the son of a [ __ ] his language I'm excited and I'm a little nervous you know I meet a lot of people very few people on me are like national treasures she's be honest with it but she's like iconic heads of states revered her and artists and people in the public via her it's intimidating here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and say simply very simply with hope good morning there were people who were wondering will I speak to him because I'm almost 50 years older than he and that's this should be speaking to and that's just who he should be speaking to see this this kind of meeting it's kind of like a meeting of generations where somebody my age goes with me somebody that ages a built-in level of respect I've seen thugs in the middle of fight stop fighting with older people come around and say safety silly safety is this her house well this place is cool beautiful winston-salem quiet neighborhood publicist and camera crew hiding in the side acting like this isn't a television show let's get it amen how are you I was just in the neighborhood with the camera crew and some lights and trucks and figured I'd lend abut the fee I was nervous a Cosi I'm so understanding of that I was nervous a little bit no you get some as a little bit me I figure like who you were and I kind of figure yeah I'm a pop culture figures much different I don't know sometimes an iconic figure began with the pop culture I know the title a common class it really means to break up the icon and icon is that figure held high by the majority and that's from the Greek icon and classist means breaking the item at last is he or she who breaks up old ideas I have a feeling that you're going to lift up the icon it is my intention to lift you up thank you I wanted to ask you how do you operate what is your way of writing your characters a lot of this stuff that I do is very intuitive and almost all of it comes from stuff that I observed I think more so than that I lived through anything I was like a little suspicious hey every dead black person a police van has cracks sprinkled on who gets shot and sprinklers crack on themselves nobody I was 14 when I started so you know what are you gonna say about yourself when you're 14 there's not much to say you are everything is happening outside of yourself so a lot of things that do I'm talking about myself in some ways inadvertently or indirectly it's cathartic without being obviously cathartic but that's true it's writing to you know very much the same the writing becomes the greater life I keep a hotel room in my town wherever I live and I leave my house about 5:30 in the morning and so I go in to my room I chose this joy one time day I will go and our tenant cleanse myself and I know how to do that but I get on anything that happened last night on the drive over there away from me so I'm back with its network you know what's different by their process than mine there's almost like a quantum leap different is the absence of people I need I need the people so bad I can't write in a vacuum and sometimes the inspiration won't hit you until your front of people and then you look at somebody's face and you like this might be interesting I'll tell this person about this anyone here ever get divorce what happened man what broke you because I need people so much for my process something about celebrity interrupts the process and I see because in order to do what I do I have to be comfortable with making mistakes the same being nothing is more painful than watching a comedian grow with Chappelle's Show first broke big the stand-up thing was a little hard for me because it changed I would walk onstage and I had like this this rock star energy people were listening to me different they won't even really listen it you know I walk out on the stage I'd be like hey everybody how you doing I'm Rick James [ __ ] I'll be a lady in the front row crowd like I'm a blank on the Beatles I can't believe he's in front of camera phones in my face like you know and I was like I don't like this as much already TV and movies I'm like a comedy jukebox and they just put a quarter in me we used to be a real connection between the audience have become more superficial what happens to you when you can't a bigger laugh I laugh when you didn't expect one hour bigger one than you expected what happened on that occasion then I want to know what happens when you expected alive and nothing happened that's very interesting well laughter when I'm at my best I'm not looking for it I love me but you can't get sensitive the how how people live what I left my show was because I did this sketch and I knew what I intended but somebody laughs differently than I intended and I call it other people around what are you talking about it's like I heard to me that I know what I'm talking about like I'm certain him and he always painful whenever I hear likely fled to South Africa like man I've walked out I walk like John Wayne but I wasn't walking away from money I walk away from the perfect storm of [ __ ] told me I was an insane asylum they told you maybe he smokes crack they told you everything but the truth may be corporate America [ __ ] with human beings like their products and investments maybe a [ __ ] brings into the room and says this 50 million dollars as pile of money it's all for you and when you try to grab it he just knows his dick right on top of that I don't want to be co-opted or subvert it I don't want to be my own worst enemy or be used against myself yeah that's what happens to took public people I think that's why I'm so fascinated by the group of artists that you came from my James Baldwin that count blows my mouth these are people who like we have postage stamps up yet did you know Malcolm X oh dear yes fairly he's a truly American phenomena yes so it's mine not absolutely the two of them they're both friends so when you talk to me you talking at once in history bit tonight lice so every human grouping but it's just two people a family people in the neighborhood people in the city and a nation a tribe a species people live in direct relation to the heroes and the Shiro's they have there was a certain consciousness there was the backdrop of my upbringing you know we would have like Malcolm X pictures hanging up at our house kind of a counterculture upbringing like things that I knew about that I was starting to understand we're not in everybody's homes and Martin tinge request I'd rejoined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference because I had left him to go to Mountain was it really separate oh my goodness the Maximus in the states it was so separated Mountain even made Martin look like it at Tom until he understood what was after me and that that's a wonderful thing about the icon you continue to grow and you develop courage the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently if you've seen they know the truth and had enough courage to change your way of thinking to say hey everybody you know what I said last week I don't believe that anymore a little child just freaked me out this was the mark of Martin and a mountain so when Malcolm X came to Africa and came to us in West Africa McDonough he said I have met blue-eyed blonde-haired white men at Mecca and I can call them brother and I've learned not all whites are the devil's it's important for you to talk about sin people it's an enemy of the humanity because there's icons the level of virtue they have seems impossible this is why it's dangerous to make anybody seem larger than life because a young person coming up sees this larger-than-life figure this greatest a gigantic personality and has to say I can never be that I can never do that you see when the truth is those men and those women were in the right place at the right time in Haute something did something talk about the better this is something that I just mare in this stage of my life and getting an appreciation for and maybe being a public person kind of helped me appreciate it for what the sixties must have been like for anybody what was it eight or nine assassinations what does that do to the generation having lived through that having no news people this is me I imagine I'd still be angry I'd be angry of my country I'd be angry at anybody who let that happen to my friend if you're not angry you're either a stone are you too sick to be angry it should be angry away do you there's a difference you must not be bitter that's all let me show you why bitterness is like cancer it eats up on the East it doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure so use that anger yes you write it you paint it you dance it you March it you see votive you do everything about it you talk it never stop talking it you I have a thesis and that is that human beings are more alike than we are unaligned that's what being American is that we look so differently and yeah and we are all American exciting theses you written books you teach and you're from a time when your society will tell you that these types of things are probably not even in the realm of possibility the fact that you even leave abroad a global perspective pre globalization oval yeah what do you attribute that to actually did - no no's is a condition so powerful it may be that which holds the stars in the firmament it may be that which pushes and urges the blood in the veins courage you have to have courage to love somebody because you miss everything everything I started learning courage from my grandmother who raised me I had been with her the time I was three until I was seven and then I was taken up to that st. Louis - my mother's people they were every died they were very sophisticated I was there a couple of months when my mother's boyfriend raped me the man was put in jail for one day and I been released when the police came into my of a mother's house they came and then told her that the man had been found dead and it seemed he was kicked to death they said that within my hearing I decided that my voice had killed the matter so I wouldn't speak I spent six years of my life as a mute and words became very important to me I think words are what hurts people as much as the intentions behind words so I think that's been one of the reasons why I can say some pretty ugly words that would traditionally hurt people but when I hear they feel I guess isn't heard me because they can they can feel the intention behind the word Justin how I'm using it if y'all ever listen to Malcolm X you say some deep [ __ ] listen to this he said in America there are house [ __ ] and their field [ __ ] and he broke it all down he said the house making lives in the house with the master he loves the master he wears the same clothes master he's the same food he doesn't mention himself filming on the other hand sleeps outside food as bad clothes the bad they beat him unreasonably and he hates the Masters [ __ ] guts and Malcolm said I am a field [ __ ] I say the same thing I'm a field [ __ ] that somehow managed to find his way into the house I believe that a word is a thing it is non visible and audible only for the time it's there it hangs in the air but I believe it is the thing I believe it goes into the upholstery and then to the rugs and into my hair into my clothes finally even into my body I believe the words are things and I live on them and let's get the word the n-word which I really they were obliged to call it that because it was created to divest people of their humanity therefore now when I see a bottle come from the pharmacy it says P o I som and then there's skull and bones then I know that the content of that thing the bottle is nothing but the trunk then it's poison if I pour that content into Bavarian crystal it is still poison well and this thing I'm just saying mind you it's just an idea that virtual things it's a particular rebels a good friend of Mines guy his name's mos def and we were having a conversation about that word in particular what was initially used the dehumanizes we adapter and speak of camaraderie with it this is a mutual struggle and he said I know you gonna just crush me in a minute nothing you're my grandson no I might not listen to you and be elevated by you and taught something elevated to me I know this is a this is the hot-button stuff I don't care do you I think I need to talk to you and I need you to talk to me and it's all that evil is I'm scared right now mr. nice kid he said something to the effect uh it used to be an exclusive word didn't they spoke their word about you would exclude you and he said what was interesting now is that culturally the pendulum shift is so far the other way well it's cool to be great the now it's exclusive the other way contrary to popular belief and cold who I am I don't think in terms of race but I know that being a black man I just have a very unique experience on the serve people like Richard Pryor or any artists they can relate this experience as a black person and fost and they see all these white people come to their shows and immediately likewise you surprised it's only white people like what you're saying no cuz it's a human experience you know in the past I used to always tell a lot of jokes about white people and I notice without white people here with us tonight good evening whites if I know if it was like to be embarrassed so we feel marginalized the implication is Authority nobody likes doing things when I say jokes about white people don't think for a second that I'm talking about you don't forget I almost have fifty million dollars boys no you make enough money in America they'll pull back the curtain and introduce you to the real white people you guys just think you're white Dave Chappelle it's very intelligent these were raised that goes without saying a person as well raised knows to to respect the elders doesn't mean that you have to agree with anything even a little bit of what the elder says but you respect the elder for surviving there tell me about the painting oh yeah I have it is considered to be a serious connection of African American art these players all have story power you you live mostly artists over there it's considered done biggest master word it's called kumasi market I'm Donna does it remind you of being they were getting very mats it takes you very much you see the arms of the women John Biggers was one painted who always painted the way black Americans looked and Africans looked so you can see the black and the brown and the beige and the gold and straight ahead the large painting is Phoebe and it was painted for Jacqueline Kennedy and for Coretta Scott King and it's called the funeral will not let you forget the titles those political right now ain't now this one with the gentleman with the cigarette I can't take my eyes off that was given to me by my brother he asked that I put it as the last piece I'd see before I go into the bedroom and that my husband would see so that we could say to each other stop it whatever you said earlier forget it there's all these family members oh that's my great-grandmother who had been enslaved and when slavery was abolished she named herself Kentucky Shannon she said because she loved the sound of it when I was asked to do the show I had seen her speak in Dayton she was talking a lot about her life experiences and when I watched her speak that particular night there's a lot of things she said they resonated I didn't know until today that you had asked for me I didn't know my mother oh my god mother had had tickets to see to see you and date and I went with him you were so incredibly engaged in a point that was as if you were talking just to me and if it at that particular time was right after I walked away from my show and it was you were saying thing I needed to hear that a really says it's important it's not in fact imperative that each knows that there's a line young which you will not go and knots of money is dangled before people's eyes many times they will tell you yes when they know no because the singer before their eyes and because of you and somewhat a damn J you're giving this up they mean that I'm not making this money because you've given it that I know it I know it too well very well but the thing is you have some place there nobody kiss my kin can take you beyond somewhere in the bend of your elbow see nobody so else oh look at the ocean now you being her grandson and be really Jegs always for breathability National Arts Club New York City New York November 10th 1990 that piece is it right the leading african-american softer in the nation that has memory toy Bethune Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman with the hands clasped that's a Miss Elizabeth Catlett you're not gonna believe this I got this one this is from the Duke Ellington School they are well you know grandma gave that one to the school oh these things are just Ellington piece yeah I've got the UH the award first from my high school that's also it Dwight he's a gentleman I can't shake my own high school I don't know what Travis brothers from what Sam Jack sees in it this guy he did something magic he fast for long periods of time to the British disappeared my grandmother used to have art like this African art you see your dad will take you there from I can't save myself I hear people say well I'll go to a preparer just feeling like I'm home oh well feel so when I got us out there cuz like I thought I got home but that's because there wasn't McDonald said a sorry did you know did you know thought is well yes here we are biscuits recipe and they did rise up pretty ladies man yes we do have some of fried apples excellent with chicken you know there's never ever been a peace treaty or armistice or just a meeting when anybody gets together that food did not play an important part she's black from the south and in America and the time when being black and the South was probably a really difficult existence on a lot of levels and she survived all of it she just stepped out from underneath the oppression and kind of soaked up where life could be you look at her nail it's towards the end of her life she has a room full of people who love her respect to see her daily in tactics graceful can be done this is called aging that that road is a song when you see me busting stump him don't study and get it wrong tire don't be amazing every good mango and the same person I was back then the littlest hide the littlest in some lists knows and some less man but any man left can still breathe in a yeah she just shows me like okay this is old what life is about this is like his life is happening as we speak thirty the last fun birthday is 21 after that it's like it just shut that's not happen when I was younger if they called me it was like do you want to do a run on the road I could go out three weeks four weeks six weeks eight weeks didn't make a difference to me now I got kids like two weeks I come back and like say is that a mustache growing it's like the kids changed you can see that the difference is and it makes you just appreciate time and appreciate the life is a linear journey so you know what what's that gonna build up one of the things I've learned or am even still in process of learning it's a don't pick it up and don't let down when someone says you the best year the greatest year the most wonderful if the finest in the artists of the time and blah blah you said ah if you pick that up you also have to pick it up when they say you had nothing you lost it you used to be and what happened dental today I don't pick it up I don't lay it down let me tell you fine John Chilton was doing his movie toiling justice in the ants would I come out to Los Angeles and do a cameo I walked out of my trailer that morning and there was one young man cursing like you could see the blue come out of his mouth and then he and another fellow they were at each other's throats they hand each others clothes so I went up to the one young man and I said excuse me may I speak because I wouldn't give us a man salmon but may I speak to you for a minute is it if I say man hey I've heard that before but do you know how immature do you know that our people snapped a spoon fashioned in the filter hatches of slave ships in their own and in each other's excrement and urine and menstrual flow so that you can live 200 years later do you know that do you know that a people stood on option blocks so that you could live he said that's no but I just went when's the last time anyone told you how important you are and he started to the tears started to come out I had no Kleenex or anything so I just wiped his face of that hand and talk to him and miss Janet Danson came I don't believe you actually talked to Tupac Shakur so I didn't know to pension I didn't know 6-pack never the name because it in my life and my age group you understand it just didn't I didn't know that two facts mother but me another she said her son had called me right after I had spoken to him and she wanted to thank me she said you may have saved his life and I thank you dr. Angelou in that one story she painted a more human picture of him then the entire media did during is the career you know people were afraid to fight the media me like he was a scary thing and she talked about why he was a young man and confusing a difficult situation and that's kind of what I like about dr. Angelou because I know I'm not perfect and whatever but it's something that she can look at me and she kind of she can kind of put the picture together she knows I'm just I do try to figure it out each of us had the chance to be somebody and it's my delight that you would ask for me so that I can have the chance it the joy the thrill of talking to you so that I can be somebody I am Maya Angelou and I'd like you my audience write to me tell me what to think I want to talk to all of you so please tell me what is it like to be in America it's not over whenever you hear about me and they be try and talk that shield with the sad music Dave Chappelle had it all don't we believe in that [ __ ] that was a choice that I mean I'm cool with that choice people funny man Dave Chappelle looks at an ordinary thing and turns it and listen to the side it's it and it becomes funny like I can't get another job people would call me they don't be asked me to come over there but you know how they be saying it's slick like marriage you had a bad breakup we'd never do that to you all this could be yours wait a minute thank you these guys don't think of a better way to spend my birthday I think it's like what Muddy Waters calls the crossroads so it's hard to imagine what's beyond the crossroad you know what it's funny now than 33 I have no idea what to do well what I want to see happen unless Andy Samberg a part I don't flip ado my photo album and I say this is me with Barack Obama the first black president I'd want a better singer and then I flip the picture and I say this is when they were saying the piece of Court for the Middle East and I'm a Mike he'll be a comedian and he'll never talk about race I'm able to believe we can change and that's what keeps me alive oh yes and this listed where we came from I was so focused on toggle I heard that forgot I was having this conversation attention in front of America this is a life-changing experience and which ways or how I don't know indeed but I don't not gonna forget it yeah I don't be bragging to somebody about it I'm right Matt and hopefully I see you around maybe on the lecture circuit and the other time my dirty jokes while you're going in tell you I think that Dave Chappelle and I are soul mates he thinks quite profoundly it's our personal thirty thing it was another humbling experience but I like all of the humbling experiences it was fun she was a teacher and I was a student did I get a lot to think about today absolutely that I touched on a pivotal part of my history and witness to tell my absolutely my mother being frist yeah you you

Channel: Goodnesday

Views: 1,504,812

Rating: 4.9210548 out of 5

Keywords: Dave Chappelle, Maya Angelou, Iconoclasts (TV Program)

Id: okc6COsgzoE

Length: 47min 40sec (2860 seconds)

Published: Thu May 29 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/maldonado_vive_ahre]

Thanks for sharing

[u/Synsane]

Did not know he did this. This was great to watch.