CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Raucous laughter reverberated through the orchestra and up into the balcony during the first of two stand-up shows that Dave Chappelle performed at Charlotte's Belk Theater on Thursday night, on the eve of NBA All-Star Weekend.
But now that those shows are over _ now that the laughter has died down _ something's going to happen that Chappelle almost certainly could have predicted: Someone will read this article, and they're going to hear what he said during the early show, and they're going to get angry at him for it. Probably multiple someones.
And you know what? The 45-year-old comedian almost certainly couldn't care less.
"I don't believe 'em," Chappelle growled midway through his performance.
That is, he doesn't believe the people who say they're offended by his often-racially and sexually charged brand of humor. In other words, "All the people that get mad on the internet all the time, I don't believe you. The world would not function if everybody was that_damn mad all the time. I have false outrage about your false outrage."
It wasn't so long ago _ just a little more than a year, in fact _ that Chappelle was besieged by criticism for jokes about transgender men and women in the first pair of Netflix stand-up comedy specials he released in 2017 ("The Age of Spin" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas") ... specials that went on to earn him a Grammy Award, mind you.
Though he seemed to try to atone in a subsequent Netflix special by reading during the show a letter from a transgender fan who scolded him for the jokes (see "Equanimity," which scored him a Grammy and an Emmy), he never actually apologized.
On Thursday night in Charlotte, Chappelle dove headlong into the topic again, first by reemphasizing his belief that most of the anger only exists online.
"Everybody say, 'Dave, you gotta be careful, 'cause the transgenders are after you.' And then every time when I see the transgenders, they're just like, 'Heyyyyyyyyy!'" he said, flashing a flirty smile and putting a lot of wrist into a wave.
Then he launched into a story about his son Sulayman's friendship with a classmate who "realized that he felt like he was a young woman inside," who had opened up about it, and who had gained community support. This was around the time, Chappelle said, when many in the transgender community were angry at him and accusing him of being transphobic.
"My son, I picked him up from school, and he was in a bad mood," Chappelle told the crowd. "I said, 'What's wrong with you, buddy?' And he said, 'I'm tired of this kid' _ and he's talking about the transgender kid. I said, 'Why, I thought you guys were good friends?' He said, 'We are good friends, but he gets on my nerves.' I said, 'Why?' And he goes, 'Whenever he's wrong, I'm not allowed to say he's wrong, 'cause everybody wants to protect him so much.'
"And I'm like, 'Yo, son,' Chappelle took a long pause, before continuing: "'They get on my nerves, too.'
"Just because (you're trans) doesn't make you right about every_damn thing. You right about a lot of (expletive), but I mean ... just give these people their rights so I can say funny (expletive) again."
The crowd roared. The sold-out crowd, members of which had bit, clawed and kicked their way through virtual lines _ or paid hundreds of dollars over face value on the secondary market _ to snap up every single ticket for the Valentine's Night engagement within 24 hours after it was announced last week. (Blumenthal Performing Arts quickly added a second show for later in the evening, and those seats were gone just as fast. I wasn't at the late show.)
Donnell Rawlings, a familiar face to anyone who's seen Comedy Central's old "Chappelle's Show," kicked things off with a very funny 28-minute warmup set that made light of everything from rapper Cardi B's diction to the white male concertgoers he felt seemed unreasonably concerned about spilling their beers during the chaos of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
Then Chappelle walked on stage at 7:45 p.m. wearing white Nikes and what looked like an auto mechanic's jumpsuit (emblazoned with his big trademark "C" on the right bicep and a smaller "Chappelle" over his left breast) as the house DJ cranked Pusha T's "If You Know You Know."
And for 56 minutes that seemed to fly by way too fast _ save, perhaps, for the squirm-inducing 7-{ minutes he spent basically giving a blow-by-blow recap of the infamously gross Chuck Berry sex tape _ he delivered a performance on par with the Netflix specials while chain-smoking his way through a pack of menthol cigarettes.
A few other notable excerpts that might make you laugh, might make you uncomfortable, and make make you angry:
"Anthony Bourdain killed himself ... 'Hey man, what do you do for a living?' 'Me? ... I travel the world and eat baller-a_ meals.' ... Killed himself. ... Knew a dude in high school that was brilliant. ... Got into law school, met a girl ... they fell in love, got married. She divorced him before they graduated and took half of the nothing that he had _ and (expletive) him up so bad he had to leave law school because he couldn't afford it anymore. I'm 45 ... (he's) at least my age, or maybe like a year older than me. This (expletive) works at Foot Locker. He lives with his mother. Never occurred to him to kill himself. This (expletive)'s alive and well. I even suggested it one time."
"I live in Ohio. ... . I live amongst what they call 'poor whites.' Let me tell you something about poor whites that you might not know: It turns out that poor whites love _ and I mean they (expletive) love _ heroin. Can't seem to get enough of it. ... It's a really big problem. ... I see it all the time ... destroying families and ruining lives. You know what it reminds me of? The '80s. It reminds me of us. ... It reminds me of when the black community went through the scourge of crack. And I think it gives me insight into how the white community must have felt watching our community kill ourselves over crack. Because, um _ 'cause I don't care either. Hang in there, whites! Just say no! What's so hard about that?"
"It was Kevin Hart's dream to host the Oscars. Which, I've gotta say, is a pretty strange dream for a black child, isn't it? ... But so someone unearthed decade-old homophobic ... tweets. Have you heard the tweets? Wanna know what (Hart) said? I'm almost scared to repeat it. He said if his son was gay, that he would smash a dollhouse over his head. ... I gotta tell you, I've got a lot of gay friends, believe it or not, and ... pretty much all of them went through hell and high water just to be who the (expletive) they felt like they are. All of 'em. But not one of them _ not a single one _ has ever told me that their father smashed a (expletive) dollhouse over their head. Clearly, (Hart) was joking. Anyway, you'd have to buy the (expletive) a dollhouse to smash it over his head."
"I was on CNN on New Year's Eve ... and whats-his-name Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper ... they said, 'Dave, do you think that you would ever host the Oscars?' I was like, 'Well, if Kevin can't, (expletive), I'm sure I can't. I've said way worse than that.' I'll say way worse than that tonight."
Anyone amused by these jokes probably either was there on Thursday night, or maybe now wishes they could have been.
But to anyone who is uncomfortable about them, or feels angry? Chappelle has a message for you, delivered as his final thoughts in the early show:
"If I ever get in trouble for the things I say, I'll say it right now: I'm going to apologize," he said.
"Just know: I'm not sorry."
