Al Weisel
Dave Chapelle
By AI Weisel
US Magazine, July 1997, p. 97
When Eddie Murphy needed a comic foil to go up against Buddy Love, his Dr. Jeckyll persona in The Nutty Professor, he picked Dave Chappelle, a young comedian from Washington, D.C., now on the verge of becoming the biggest name in comedy since, well, Murphy himself. Like Murphy's professor, Chappelle, 23, has a split personality: mild mannered and intensely serious offstage, untamed and hilarious in front of an audience. Chappelle landed his first major film role, in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, when he was just 19. Two years later, he had a starring role on the ABC sitcom Buddies, about an interracial friendship. Although the show fizzled after only one season, the blow was softened for Chappelle by a $1 million contract with Disney to develop film and television projects. Chappelle recently struck a deal with director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer to co-write, co-produce and co-star in King of the Park, a biopic about Chappelle's friend and mentor, Charlie Barnett, a street comedian who died of AIDS last year. In addition to upcoming roles in Woo (a romantic comedy with Jada Pinkett) and Tom DiCillo's The Real Blonde, Chappelle is featured in this month's Con Air, a pull-out-all-the-stops action pic with Nicolas Cage and John Malkovich about convicts who hijack an airplane. Chappelle's ad-libbing was so funny during the shoot that his part as a wisecracking con was expanded. "Whatever the scene is, he embellishes it and makes it better" says the film's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. "He's going to be a big star."
Has anyone you admire ever told you that you were funny?
Eddie Murphy. If he tells you you're funny, that's really great. He's like the Michael Jordan of comedy. He made a lot of us want to be comedians. This whole black comedy boom started with him.
When did he tell you that?
On the set of The Nutty Professor. It was the first day of work, and I was scared to meet him. I heard all those crazy stories that he was a mean guy, and I said, I'll meet him later. He came in, and he was wearing the Sherman suit, the fat suit. Someone said, "There goes Eddie," and I was like, "Where?" He comes over and says, "Hey, man, you're real funny," and he tells me all these jokes of mine he liked. Just the fact that he knew who I was blew me away.
Didn't you get booed at the Apollo the first time you performed there?
Yeah. I was 15. As soon as they said, we got a comedian from Washington, D.C., they started booing. I never felt that before, a whole room of people booing like they hated me. It didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. That's when I knew that I'd be fine in show business. I mean, how much worse could it possibly be?
Has your comedy routine changed over the years?
Yeah. I'm just starting to talk about myself, relationships, things that are private.
Tell me something that you turned into a routine.
I was arrested.
You were arrested? For what?
It was a misdemeanor. The thing that got me in trouble most of all was my big mouth - me not knowing when to shut up. The police thought I was a drug dealer because I was a young dude with a lot of money on me.
Let's talk about 'Con Air.' What was it like working on that movie?
It was a blast. There were so many different kinds of personalities. A bunch of testosterone in the middle of Utah. We just had a ball. And the movie's good, too.
So, who was the funniest person on the set?
Everybody was funny. Even the guys who played the corpses were funny. The crew made a replica of me out of silicone. They took these obscene pictures with my replica and said, if you ever make it, these are going to be in the [National] Enquirer.
You've got an incredible range of projects for someone your age. What's next?
I'm working on another sitcom [for ABC], but this time I'm co-creating it. Hopefully, this will do better than Buddies. If it doesn't, at least I'll like the show. I'll be able to sleep at night, knowing I didn't put another bad black show on the air.■
Al Weisel is the co-author, with Larry Frascella, of Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, being published in October 2005.
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