seems capable of anything, and not just because he once walked away from his hit Comedy Central show, or because he walked off stage after being heckled during a show on .
He’s a pop-culture alchemist, combining comedy with hip-hop in his “Block Party” film, or popping up in random places to do small but marathon sets and prove he’s still a stand-up force. So when he announced a “birthday show” at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with surprise guests, the speculation was intense. Would he show up with hip-hop luminaries? Actor-ly friends? Other national comics? Nobody?
The Dave Chappelle who showed up to Red Rocks on Sunday, Aug. 24 to celebrate his 41st birthday with a sold-out crowd of 9,450 didn’t have many big tricks up his sleeve. But that’s OK. Chappelle’s agreeable stage presence and capacity for turning from tested material to brilliant crowd work has made him a must-see live, and on Sunday night he at least provided a few worthy surprises.
The show run-up included a long set by Atlanta’s , who tried to energize the slow-to-filter-in crowd before Colorado comics and (who had just headlined the previous night’s High Plains Comedy Festival in Denver) showed up for short performances.
Fonseca, who is wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsy, immediately mocked his speech impediment and stage presence. “Is there anyone here from Commerce City?” he asked. “Well, I’m sorry, because I can’t talk any slower.” He also mocked disability culture in general, as when he invoked the idea of a “disability pride parade” with the observation: “There’s no parking. And it takes f***ing forever.”
Blue followed, joking that Fonseca was “my dad” and acknowledging that two consecutive comics with cerebral palsy would be a lot on the average stand-up show. “I’ll leave when this Make-A-Wish is over!” Blue said, before delving into topics ranging from bizarre Japanese culture to marriage and ketchup bottles at the airport security line.
Chappelle buddy Donnell Rawlings, who has appeared on “Chappelle’s Show” and many others, delivered a repetitive set that coasted on Rawling’s high energy and stage-prowling presence. The first 10 to 15 times he yelled “I’m RIPPED!” while mocking “GNC fitness dudes” at malls was funny enough in context. By the 25th or 30th time the joke had completely lost any bite and just felt lazy.
An odd, unannounced intermission less than an hour into the show turned on the house lights and dragged on for nearly a half hour while stage hands fumbled with a white curtain at the front of the stage. Could this not have been accomplished before the capacity crowd arrived? The momentum didn’t suffer too much, however, given the happy, stoned vibe in the audience, which found them singing along (at DJ Trauma’s repeated requests) to ’90s R&B and hip-hop hits while a cheeky security guard danced in the front row.
Chappelle finally took the stage looking ripped (as Rawlings might say) in a black, short-sleeved shirt, a cigarette protruding from his pursed lips. He immediately situated himself in Colorado culture, pointing out that this show was the third time he’d performed in Denver this year alone (make that four if you count his last-minute set ). He also riffed on buying marijuana on the street and being the only black man jogging at Wash Park, which led into an off-and-on treatise on race relations that threaded itself throughout the night.
“Racism will be over when they open a Whole Foods in the ghetto!” he said, his leg lifted on a monitor. He also spent a good deal of time talking about the cultural cachet of the word “pussy” — a joke that imagined Lil Wayne as a “CSI” investigator was particular inspired — and explaining a San Francisco incident in which he was criticized for being homophobic, although the adoring crowd didn’t seem to have begrudged him anything because of it. In other words, skewering political correctness to friendly ears.
Too friendly, at times. The “weed heckles,” as Chappelle dubbed them, began trickling in throughout the latter half of the set, with fans screaming out “Go Broncos!” “We love you, Dave!” “Happy birthday!” and other seemingly drunken nonsense that threatened to stop the show. A tension spread after each one, given Chappelle’s history. “This isn’t TV,” he said during one of the only visibly angry moments of the night. “You’re in the front row. I can see your face!” Still, he rolled with the inebriated amatuers, turning the subject back to race relations after dissecting the heckle “Atta boy, Dave!” “A black man does not like to be called a ‘boy,'” he said, before launching into a solid bit about the Donald Sterling controversy.
Really, Chappelle was game for anything. Some minor mic feedback got great laughs after Chappelle said “Is my boat here? That’s how hard I’m balling.” More heckles turned him thoughtful about the nature of celebrity, and his disappearance from the spotlight: “Being a missing celebrity is the loneliest place in the world,” he observed after saying he was planning to move out of the country for a time.
Despite the loose, stop-start nature of the overall event, Chappelle kept a handle on the crowd and himself. I had to leave shortly before the end of the show, but the surprises apparently continued with an “after-party” set and light show from hip-hop legend Biz Markie after Chappelle’s stand-up (see below). Chappelle’s birthday party may not have been the best introduction for newbies, but he succeeded in making fans feel like they were hanging out with him in a party atmosphere — spilled drinks, clouds of weed smoke and booming music included.
Dave Chappelle’s birthday afterparty at Red Rocks, hosted by Biz Markie
— Alex Burness (@alex_burness)
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John Wenzel is an A&E reporter and critic for The Denver Post. Follow him @johnwenzel.
