The Age of Spin: Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium

source: The Age of Spin: Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium

Watch this on Netflix tonight, really really enjoy this. Love entire show, all these puns been put together very well.

Chappelle took the stage and belted out some great comedy. His stories about OJ Simpson were funny and kind of telling on the changing opinions and emotions as the years went by. His stuff on Cosby was very good... maybe even insightful. My favorite was the imaginary superhero that only gained superpowers after he raped a woman. So, he rapes women, but he saves lives. And, he saves, more than he rapes. Reminds me of the Japanese, Hanzo the Razor series. In all, a very nicely constructed set. Some maturity... some bigotry... some confessions of acts that were not particularly nice at the time. I say, see it...

I never thought Dave Chappelle could talk for an hour and only make me laugh 3 times. And not like full-guffaw either, just little akward chuckles. Humor can be mean and shocking as long as it's well constructed and performed, but while the performance was fine the content fell flat for me. Chappelle just seemed to fall short everytime he wanted to rip on something not within his personal life experience. Yes, you can make jokes about these things. But if my reaction to the punchline is "you seem to have missed some relevant aspects of politics in the Philippines while making this Pacquiao joke," you're not doing a good job. Frankly, it felt lazy.

Dave Chappelle is undoubtedly a modern day great of standup comedy. The age of spin: Dave Chappelle live at the Hollywood palladium 2017 is one of the cleverest, most relevant comedy shows I've ever watched. He's not just sharp, he weaves in the current climate of anger and disappointment into issues dividing the people, like discrimination over race, gender, etc. He looks at complex and complicated issues like the OJ Simpson trial and Bill Cosby rape allegations and traces the history of rights movements, the world war, the ensuing cold war, the change in social and cultural roles, brilliantly. He reminds us that when idols fall, what we should never ignore is the contribution they have invariably made over decades, visible and invisible, that have touched the lives of millions, and not dismiss them outright or judge them as easily as we do. Dave Chappelle, in his comeback, shows that what made him such a massively popular star in the field of entertainment two decades ago, is very much alive in him. He is relevant because he stays relevant not just because he choses topics that are current, but because he has an acute sensitivity to history and contemporary social currents, which he merges brilliantly with his acerbic, irreverent mind to create entertainment that makes us laugh out loud, but also, lingers in our minds much later, making us think deeply. He'll have a place in entertainment as one of the legends of comedy.

I had heard a lot about Dave Chappelle and have watched quite a few of his videos on Youtube. The best think I found on YouTube was his speech after Trump was elected. It was a speech about him going to the White House at the party with only black people at the party (except for Bradley Cooper - which was funny). It was a moving speech. Someone commented in the comments section on you tube that it should be a Ted talk and I agreed. So the anticipation was high and I wanted his very expensive Netflix specials to be funny, but it just wasn't. After 11 minutes in, I didn't even sketch a smile nevermind laugh.

Have seen this stand up half a dozen times. Love the OJ nostalgia and Bill Cosby jokes. Dave has the best rhythm and killed this special. He will go down as one of the greatest stand-ups of all time. Watch it a couple times. Gets funnier and funnier. We've missed Chapelle. Dozens of other comedians have been doing Dave Chapelle's routine.

I am a big fan of Chappelle's older stuff, both his stand-ups and his show so needless to say I was very excited about this new stand up. Watching it was the saddest thing ever, the man completely lost his humor and seems to have just accumulated frustrations and issues, not funny just sad...

The king is back, bit@$! So yeah. I just finished watching both specials back to back. There is one special that is good and another that is freaking epic as heck. This happens to be the freaking epic as heck one. I guess Dave had a little rust to shake off for the last special but whatever. This special proves way he is still the best in the game. And be warned, this special is EXTREMELY edgy and will upset more than a few people. As I noted in my review for his other special, Dave filmed them a few years ago and sat on them... and cashed them out for a huge paycheck. Fracking iconic.

Growing up with routines like Killin' Them Softly (2000) and For What It's Worth (2004), I have to say that his new material Isn't that bad and you should give it a chance if you're a fan of his earlier work. Don't watch it though, if you think you're expecting the old Chappelle. He have aged quite a bit and, more than ever, aggressively challenges the values of Americans everywhere.