*Dave Chappelle took home the 22nd Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center Sunday night (Oct. 27).
“I have a profound appreciation for music,” Chappelle told Billboard before the show. “The culture of comedy and music is really oddly similar. We’re like kindred spirits, comedians and musicians, just the way we interact with each other. It’s a natural friendship.”
The event will be televised Jan. 7 on PBS, and several of your favorite stars were on hand to celebrate the comic legend, including musicians Common, John Legend, Q-Tip, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Erykah Badu and Chance the Rapper, and comics such as Aziz Ansari, Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Kenan Thompson, Michael Che and Colin Jost, plus Lorne Michaels, his longtime writing partner Neal Brennan, Morgan Freeman and Bradley Cooper.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Musician and Composer Damien Sneed Presents ‘A Tribute to Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul’ Tonight, Monday, October 28
Dave Chappelle: “Political correctness has its place… I, personally, am not afraid of other people’s freedom of expression. I don’t use it as a weapon. It just makes me feel better. And I’m sorry if I hurt anybody. Etc., etc. Yada, yada, yada. Everything I’m supposed to say.” pic.twitter.com/xOTyST29ZC
— The Hill (@thehill) October 28, 2019
Many of the A-list guests shared humorous tales of personal experiences with Chappelle, including Haddish who recalled having drinks with Dave and Marlon Wayans in the earlier morning hours one Christmas, and when Chappelle announced they were going bowling, she noted that no bowling alleys were open at that hour. That’s when he replied: “Do you realize I’m Dave Chappelle?”
“We pulled up to this huge gate, I mean huge,” Haddish recalled of what happened next. “I was like, ‘Are we gonna be bowling at Jurassic Park?’ We get out of the car, go to the door, and guess who opened the door? Eddie Murphy opened the door! I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it. Axel Foley has a bowling alley!’”
As reported by Vulture, Bradley Cooper took the opportunity to make clear something Chappelle said in his SNL monologue back in 2016. In it, he talked about being at an Obama White House party where everybody was black except for Bradley Cooper, who was “there for some reason.”
“I’m still mad about SNL,” Cooper joked at the event. “In your monologue, you did say we were at the White House and you saw a sea of faces and there was one white guy, and you thought, Oh, Bradley Cooper’s here. We went to that together, motherfucker. What are you talking about?”
Dave Chappelle received the Mark Twain Prize, considered the top honor in comedy. Jon Stewart, Bradley Cooper, Tiffany Haddish, Kenan Thompson, and Sarah Silverman were just some of the guests who testified to how far-reaching his influence has been. https://t.co/iz6BDRSyVD
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 28, 2019
In his speech that concluded the event, Chappelle made it clear that comedy should be risky.
“There’s something so true about this genre, when done correctly, that I will fight anybody that gets in a true practitioner of this art form’s way,” he said. “Because I know your heart. This is the truth, and you are obstructing it. I’m not talking about the content. I’m talking about the art form. Do you understand?” A few people in the audience responded, “Yes.”
“Do we have an agreement?” he added, while the audience applauded.
“What I really wanted to say tonight, and I’m glad to get the platform to do it: I’m gay! I am gay, and I can’t wait to see what this does for my career, being handled like this.”
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