Dave Chappelle had an interview with Gayle King of CBS to promote his new Netflix special which was released at midnight (03/21). Of course that wasn’t the only thing being discussed.
He spoke about his departure from Comedy Central after signing a $50 million contract in 2004.
“I was talkin’ to a guy … he basically said to me that comedy is a reconciliation of paradox.” Chappelle continued, “And I think that that was a irreconcilable moment for me. That I was in this very successful place, but the emotional content of it didn’t feel anything like what I imagined success should feel like. It just didn’t feel right.”
Dave also spoke about his “beef” with Keegan-Michael Key and ‘Get Out’ director, Jordan Peele. The duo had a hit sketch comedy show on Comedy Central after Chappelle’s departure that undoubtedly resembled the ‘Chappelle Show’ make up.
Last year at the Roots Picnic Festival, Dave Chappelle took a shot at the duo saying, “Put some respect on my name, y’all don’t know what I’ve been through … watching Key & Peele do my show the last five f**king years.”
While speaking to Gayle during the interview, he hand this to say about the situation, “I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition. So, like the first episode I do, that black white supremacist sketch. And it’s like, ‘Well, that’s 10 minutes long. It should be five minutes long.’ Why should it be five minutes long? Like, these types of conventions. I fought very hard…. So when I watch ‘Key & Peele’ and I see they’re doing a format that I created, and at the end of the show, it says, ‘Created by Key & Peele,’ that hurts my feelings.”
Check out the rest of the interview with Gayle King here and Chappelle’s new stand up on Netflix now.
