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Fresh from taping season 2 of Chappelle's Show, which would sadly turn out to be his last full season, Dave Chappelle brings the fire and magnetism that helped make him a superstar. For his second hour-long special, Chappelle has decided to go to The Fillmore in San Francisco, a nearly 100-year-old venue. Right away we're walked through the history of the place. Lenny Bruce played there. Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, George Carlin, and Paul Mooney played there. This of course adds an air of importance to the set, a kind of "big game" atmosphere. What he ends up bringing, however, is a fairly juvenile performance, with misguided bits on Native Americans or having sex with monkeys, and a really questionable riff on Michael Jackson's molestation allegations including openly questioning the motivations of the child at the center of the the scandal and then later inexplicably criticizing a captive Elizabeth Smart for not doing enough to escape. When he's not busy blaming victims, he does have some pointed criticisms for America's founding fathers and insights into celebrity add some substance to the show, but unfortunately aren't quite enough to raise it to the lofty expectations set with the opening. Thankfully Chappelle has never been a comedian that relied too heavily on strong writing when it came to his stand-up, often being able to sell middle-of-the-road material with charisma and charm. He's able to do that to an extent with this, but there's only so far that carries you. After his first special, people across the world excitedly called their friends with bad interpretations of his gags that they were bubbling over to share. I feel like the phone lines will fall silent this time around.
score 6/10
MassDistraction 21 March 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2983928/ |
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20-4-2021 01:30:05