For most stand-up comedians, dealing with hecklers is a part of their job, no different than teachers handling intrusive parents or bloggers being challenged by BigDick69. They can either ignore them or try to shut them down — rarely is walking off stage an option; that free drink ticket isn’t going to earn itself.
Most comedians aren’t Dave Chappelle, though, who’s in the midst of a “comeback tour,” after previously getting sick of frat bros screaming “I’M RICK JAMES, BITCH!” at him. In Hartford, CT, last night, Chappelle ran into his ol’ friends for an unhappy reunion.
Here’s video taken by an audience member of the moment he walked off to Kanye’s “New Slaves”…
Dave Chappelle walked off stage to a chorus of boos and heckles last night after a rowdy audience ruined his stand-up comeback. The comic faced a barrage of hollers from the moment he took to the stage at the 30,000-seat Comcast Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut.
About ten minutes into his set, he complained that people were making too much noise, and abandoned his prepared routine. He pulled up a stool and started smoking and making idle chat until he had completed the 25 minutes he was contractually obliged to be on stage.
“You are booing yourself,” he said over the wall of noise. “Go home and look in the mirror and say ‘boo’ at yourself. At the moment, that’s how I feel about you.”
He added: “Ah, fuck you, I’m the one that has to get the review in the paper tomorrow. I’m going to have to read about this shit for months.” (Via)
A shockingly cognizant YouTube commenter at the show added:
He’d already asked the crowd before this (several times) to stop yelling and let him do his set, but certain people in the crowd wouldn’t stop yelling. The owners of the venue didn’t do anything and let a handful of people ruin the show for everyone. After nearly a half hour, Dave Chappelle said goodnight and walked off the stage (shown in this video). (Via)
While another posting as “Olia Yelner” on Under the Gun said:
I was there and it was BS. Out of 10,000 people in this semi-outdoor venue, a handful were yelling- but they were yelling positive things- that they love Dave and are glad that he’s back. So he totally flips out. He did a few minutes of jokes- people are saying three minutes because it’s what Dave said- and then sat down with cigarettes and a bottle of water. A bunch of people left and it became quiet but he did not continue with his set. He wasted the rest of the time by BSing with people in the front row. This isn’t a problem with Hartford because none of the other well-know comedians pulled that kind of nonsense. He’s an entertainer who makes a lot of money telling dirty jokes to drunk people- maybe he should be less of a diva and deal with the crowd, it’s a comedy show, not the opera. Then again, maybe it’s part of some mental health condition. (Via)
And so it goes, with every attendee providing their own unique perspective on what happened, very similar to the heckling incident involving Chappelle in Austin last summer. Somewhere out there, Andy Kaufman is proudly giggling, especially at the chair part, because he’s alive you see.
(via Getty Image) (Via)
