still very funny

Quinoa1984

Killin' Them Softly, what I consider to be Dave Chappelle's non-cinematic breakthrough (the cinematic could be with Half Baked), was a very potent mix of comedy, dealing with some celebrity jokes and great humor involving the hood (the 'baby' bit is classic). With this special, Chappelle comes off from his hit TV show, and so some of his initial energy could be lacking. It isn't, but one doesn't see exactly the same brilliance here. I mean that though in just the overall sense, that there are a couple of bits that aren't totally consistently funny (the 'Monkey' bit, the bit on the 15 year old kidnapped girl). Throughout, however, there are bits that really do make it known why Chappelle is where he's at today.

For example, his take on why he can't smoke weed with black people anymore (and the pros and cons of smoking with white people) is gut-busting, or his take on the Michael Jackson case (last year this was filmed, by the way, which should be taken into perspective), or his lines on how he's dealing with his newfound fame (and what he'll do with a certain part of his privates). He is on fire I'd say 80 percent of the time, and the other 20 percent he's still witty even when the punchlines don't connect.

The Chappelle fans who love everything about his show will find much happiness with the DVD, and those who are just casual comedy stand-up fans will still see some of the low-key smarts and absurdities that launched Chappelle in the past half decade.

score 9/10

Quinoa1984 20 September 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1176756/