- So what happened
to Dave Chappelle? He's here today to talk about
it in his first television interview. Please welcome Dave Chappelle. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING] How you doing? Fine. Fine, fine, fine. I'm glad you're here. Everybody wants to know, why'd
you walk away from $50 million? Well, I wasn't walking
away from the money. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] I was walking away
from the circumstances-- OPRAH WINFREY: Uh-huh. --that were coming with
the newfound plateau. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. It takes a while, when
you punch through a-- to adjust to the atmosphere. It was completely outside
of my frame of reference. I've been in show
business since I was 14. And I've heard the
stories of what happens. And I've seen these
kinds of things play out in front of me--
- OK. --when I saw those things. When you heard the
stories, what do you mean? What stories? I mean, you see
before-- look, Mariah Carey made $100 million deal. And three months
later, she's all of a sudden mysteriously crazy. Or Martin Lawrence
punches through, and he's waving a gun on
the street, screaming, they're trying to kill me. [LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we
hear those stories. And it always happens around
the time when the career would have-- it seems as
though they're crossing over the next plateau. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, yeah. Would you say you lost
your mind, sort of? No.
OPRAH WINFREY: No. Not exactly. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. I wasn't crazy. But it's incredibly stressful. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: And I felt
like, in a lot of instances, I was deliberately being
put through stress. Because, you know, when you're
a guy that generates money, people have a vested
interest in controlling you. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Were they trying to control you? Because, you know, I read
the "Time Magazine" article. And they were quoted
as saying, you had extreme creative
control, and that you really ran your own show. Yeah, OK, but
Oprah, I did two very successful seasons before that. So why, all of a sudden,
on the third time, am I in Africa by myself? Like, what's happening? Yeah. So what happened? Did you find yourself
spiraling downward? Well, first of all, yeah. But I don't want to
make it as a thing where I'm absolving myself
of any responsibility of it. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Obviously, I'm
partially responsible. You know, a lot of
it has to do with me. Was there a tipping
point for you? DAVE CHAPPELLE: I'll
give you an example. The first season ends. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. And in the middle
of the seasons, there was a renegotiation. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Ultimately,
through a series of events and a little
pressure, I ended up settling for way less than what
I wanted, and going forward. And then in season 2,
the DVD is released, and it sets all these
incredible records. Turns out, the back-- OPRAH WINFREY: Half a
million in one day-- DAVE CHAPPELLE: Right. --$2.2 million in a
week, the largest-selling television DVD of all time. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Yeah. Yeah. So now suddenly--
suddenly, this is a bigger money-maker than they thought.
It was already making money. But now, all of a sudden, it's
a whole new revenue stream. And my contract's up.
Mm. [LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: You know? So we finish the season. So now, you know, the show
is gaining popularity. Ratings are up every week. It's-- I'm the
toast of the town. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. And when the
season starts ending, you know, you get the question. So, uh, Dave, uh, what are you
gonna do and blah, blah, blah. And I knew to be real
tight-lipped about it. You know, it wasn't like
Comedy Central was a hot place to be when I showed up there. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. But you turned it around. Your show turned it around,
became the most popular. That's what I was thinking. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, yeah. You know, so-- and then, this the thing. We're having argue--
all these arguments. Dave, you got cut the poop joke.
[LAUGHTER] And there was a lot
of discussions about, we know what our audience wants. I was like, ah, whatever. And I mean, they were
wrong 100% of the time-- OPRAH WINFREY: Uh-huh. --as far as what
people will like. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. DAVE CHAPPELLE: And the show is
an incredibly hard show to do. That's the other thing. "Chappelle Show" was-- I mean, it's fun and
all these things. But there's a tremendous
amount of work that goes into making a show like that. Yeah. People were saying, though,
that you were on drugs, you lost your mind, you went
into a mental institution. What is true? What is not? Not on drugs.
OPRAH WINFREY: Not on drugs. Nah, not for years.
[LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: OK.
- I'm just playing. No, I'm not on drugs. OPRAH WINFREY: And you
weren't on drugs at the time. No, no, not at
all, not at all. OPRAH WINFREY: No, OK. DAVE CHAPPELLE: I'm telling you,
I was incredibly stressed out, you know? Love is like a nutrient. And I was deficient
on vitamin love. OPRAH WINFREY: Really? [AUDIENCE SAYING "AW"] Were you really? [LAUGHTER] Ah. I'm on Oprah, baby. [LAUGHTER] Ah. Now, really,
what was going on? Man, where do you start? Damn this story. [LAUGHTER] I-- I was doing sketches
that were funny, but socially irresponsible. OPRAH WINFREY: Mm. I felt like I was
deliberately being encouraged, and I was overwhelmed. So it's like you're getting
flooded with things, and you don't pay attention
to things like your ethics or when you get so overwhelmed. It's like you had
won the lottery. Explain. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Let's say for
your handlers, for instance. Yeah. A lot of these
people traditionally get paid on percentage basises. The more you work-- OPRAH WINFREY: The
more they make. DAVE CHAPPELLE:
--the more they make. Yeah. You make that real money,
they lost their minds. I thought they were crazy. You know, it was like,
you got to do everything. Yeah, yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: So I
got all these things. Then I got, you know, your
own personal problems that get inflamed when this
kind of money comes in. And I got to write a
show and do the show. And I was overwhelmed. And it was almost like-- I don't know. It was almost as if this
was happening deliberately. OK. You mentioned a
moment ago that you felt that there were
some things that weren't socially responsible. Like what? Like, there's this one sketch
that we did that was about this pixie that would appear
whenever racist things happens, whenever someone make you
feel like they calling you that N-word, but don't say it. And it was it was funny. And the premise
of the sketch was that every race had this,
like, pixie, this, like, racial complex. And-- but the pixie
was in blackface. Now, blackface is a
very difficult image. But the reason I had chosen
blackface at the time was because this was gonna to
be the visual personification of the N-word. Right. It was-- it was a good
spirit or intention behind it. But what I didn't consider is
how many people watch the show, and how-- the way people use
television is subjective. I completely understand. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Yeah. I-- finish, because I
have a story to tell you. So then when I'm on
the set and we're finally taping the sketch,
somebody on the set that was on white laughed
in such a way-- I know the difference of
people laughing with me and people laughing at me. And it was the first time
I'd ever gotten a laugh that I was uncomfortable with. OPRAH WINFREY: Mm. Not just
uncomfortable, but like, should I fire this person? [LAUGHTER] And at the same
time, I'm just not a naturally assertive person. What was it about the laugh? I know all these
people be watching TV, that there's a lot of
people who understand exactly what I'm doing. Then there's another group
of people who are just fans, like the people that-- the
kind of people that scream "I'm Rick James," be at my concerts. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. They're just along
for a different kind of celebrity worship ride. They're gonna get something-- Completely different. DAVE CHAPPELLE:
Completely different. Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE:
That concerned me. - Yeah.
- I didn't want-- I got to-- I mean, I
don't want black people to be disappointed in me
for putting that out there. OPRAH WINFREY: No,
you didn't want to be disappointed in yourself. You know what, Oprah? [LAUGHTER] You're right. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. I still haven't gotten to
why you just disappeared. So you had that moment.
The guys are laughing too much. Was that the tipping
point for you? Was that the straw? That was the
first tipping point. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. And then they
put in the people that I had pneumonia
or god knows what. OPRAH WINFREY: Mm-hmm. It was walking
pneumonia, 'cause I was walking all over the place. [LAUGHTER] I was relaxing. And then after that, I was
coming back to the show. And then they were like,
well, Dave, you know, you should just back
up the pneumonia story. And I was like, you know,
that was your thing. I'm not-- I'm not backing
up a pneumonia story. And then the next day,
it was in the paper that I had writer's block. Then I knew
something was getting ready to get stressful, because
I hadn't even started writing. It wasn't-- I was on
schedule to write. So I was like, what's-- you know, what's going on? Are they gonna-- OPRAH WINFREY: So these are
your people trying to feed-- DAVE CHAPPELLE: Manipulate. It sounds like somebody's
trying to put young Dave in a compromising position. [LAUGHTER] Mm-mm, Oprah. OPRAH WINFREY: Mm-mm, mm-mm. DAVE CHAPPELLE: But you know,
OK, so now it got worse. And when I said I'm not gonna
do it, then all of a sudden, it was like, well, now
he has walking pneumonia. And then I knew
long before I walked I had considered walking. OPRAH WINFREY: You
had considered it. I had considered walking. Because I went back to
work, and the vitamin love was gone, because it was
a real ugly negotiation. It's a situation,
where now, everybody's taking credit for this
and that and the other. It's all-- it's just-- it was getting ridiculous. And I knew I was gonna leave. So I got ahead of
schedule, and I bounced. And I didn't tell anybody
where I was going. The whole time, they're trying
to convince me I'm insane. They were trying to get me
to take psychotic medication. Yeah, like I'm sitting around--
you know, I was stressed out. But the people that were
telling me I was insane, I believe that they
knew what was going on. So this was troublesome. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: I said, I'm
not taking this medicine, man. Because I know how these
people be trying to control you or maybe discredit you. I was afraid, like, you know-- OPRAH WINFREY: But
you were stressed out. That's why-- DAVE CHAPPELLE:
There's no question. But it's very
stressful for someone to constantly walk behind
you and say you're insane. Oh, hey, how 'bout this? I show up to work
the first week, and they-- where my office used
to be, they built a wall there. [LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: Why? I didn't know why. But it came out later
that they were like, well, they said you wanted it. I don't want to be
walled up at the office. [LAUGHTER] I like hanging out and talking. OPRAH WINFREY: OK, so you
got up and you walked out, and nobody knew
where you were going. Did your family know? Nah. Well, no, I called my brother.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Me and my brother
are really cool. I called him up and was
like, I'm going to Africa. He was like, cool man. That's good. Did your wife and children
know where you were going? DAVE CHAPPELLE: No.
- No. Nobody knew. No. I bounced. Now, that sounds
a little crazy. It's not crazy, because the
situation kind of warranted it. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. Because certain
people around me were putting my
sanity in question, I would meet too much
obstruction if I would say I'm doing something like this.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, OK. So I figured-- it wasn't that I
didn't tell my wife. It was like, I'm not
telling her till after I'm gone, which was a mistake. But it wasn't a crazy mistake. It's just a dude's. [LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah.
Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: It's just like-- As a husband, she should
have known where you were gone. Is that what you're saying? She was gonna know. You know, I basically-- I called my brother. I told-- and I gave him a list. You call so-and-so and
so-and-so and so-and-so. And I took off. Then I called my wife. OK. Why were you going to
Africa, specifically? One, I needed a break. OPRAH WINFREY: Needed a break. Two, we have family
friends down there. And three, I just felt
like it was a place where I could really reflect. Just a place that I got to go. And what did you
conclude about yourself? Oh, well, that I
wasn't paying attention. I felt really guilty about
being asleep at the wheel. OPRAH WINFREY: Mm. I felt guilty
about it, because I forgot the hostility of the
environment of show business. It's-- you know, it's
not a docile environment. It's a challenging environment.
OPRAH WINFREY: Yes. You know? And there's some quote
that someone had told me. It says, success takes you where
character cannot sustain you. Wow, that's a good quote. Yeah, I don't care who you
think you are or how you think you do it, you cannot imagine
what celebrities go through, as far as how your integrity
and your self image and all these things are challenged. OPRAH WINFREY: OK, this is a
theory that I've always had, and I've discussed this
with other people, the idea that if you don't know who you
are when this big thing hits, when the big stuff comes, if
you don't know who you are and can't stand in the
center of yourself, then you end up confused
and feeling thwarted and feeling diffused
in many directions. Because everybody
is pulling on you. Would you say that that
was a part of your issue, trying to figure-- find the center for yourself? DAVE CHAPPELLE: Absolutely. When you are suddenly
given a $50 million contract, when you've been making
I-don't-know-what before, that is a lot to orchestrate,
to handle, and a lot for other people to figure out. In that sense, it was like,
all right, you're the CEO of a $50 million company.
Good luck. [LAUGHTER]
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, yeah. Now you figure it out.
- Right. But you've worked
your whole life for it. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Yeah.
- You wanted it. You, you know,
struggled to get it. Sacrificed. You sacrificed,
rejected many times, told that things wouldn't work,
wouldn't work, wouldn't work. And then all of a sudden,
you're the genius, and we're gonna give
you $50 million. And that was too much
for you to handle? No. That's the thing that I
always read that makes me mad. No. It was the fame. He couldn't stand the fame. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. I love being famous. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. [LAUGHTER]
- It's phenomenal. When I came out here and
everybody was like, hooray, I was like, ah, back on TV! [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] OK, so that's clear. It's not the fame. It's what? It's the way that
people around you position themselves around
you to get in your pockets and in your mind. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, it's infuriating to me. You know, one of the phrases
I always loved is, to whom much is given, much is expected. And part of it is-- I know, I'm like Spider-Man. Peter, with great power
comes great responsibility. [LAUGHTER] OPRAH WINFREY: No,
no, no, but it does. It does. And part of that is not
just being up on stage. It's handling the
rest of the business and handling all the people
that are lined up at your door, for whatever reason. Yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You just don't
get the $50 million with no strings attached. DAVE CHAPPELLE: Yeah,
but at a certain point it was like, all
right, this is enough. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Colleagues were quoted
as saying that you had become increasingly paranoid. Would you say you were paranoid? Sure. First of all, what
is a black man without his paranoia intact? [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] If you get-- you might
win $100 in a poker game and be on the subway, you
gonna look over your shoulder. [LAUGHTER] They just said in everything
I had $50 million. That's like making
me a marked man. So did you go to a
psychiatric hospital? In South Africa?
OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah. Who--
[LAUGHTER] Huh? Oh, yeah, that's right. I was so-- I'm only asking
because I needed to ask. No, I'm just--
I got to get people thinking. All right, who goes
from America to Africa for medical attention? [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] So true. I cannot imagine-- OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah, yeah. This is sounding like
the most irresponsible journalism in the world. I cannot imagine
being a journalist and hearing this
from these people, and just running with it. It was on everything--
- Yeah. DAVE CHAPPELLE: --as a fact. OPRAH WINFREY: Yeah.
u/Mburns15 has provided this detailed explanation:
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I wish more people watched this. She repeatedly calls him "crazy" or "insane" bc he wouldn't give up his soul for money. I can remember watching this back in the day, and just feeling so bad for Dave to be talked to in such an inconsiderate way.
One of the many reasons I hate Oprah.
Also, I love Dave.