Chapelle actually IS a lunatic

My wife TiVo'd the Oprah interview with Dave Chapelle last week. To tell the truth, it just made me sad. The interview started off with him rambling without actually saying anything or answering any questions, much like the Tom Cruise interview, except without the ADD hyperactivity.

You can click the image to watch part of the interview.

When he finally started talking about why he fled to Africa without even telling his wife and kids, he gave these as his reasons:

1) He was filming a skit, and one of the staff (like a mic operator or something) laughed at one of the jokes. But Dave could tell that this guy was laughing at him, not with him, and that there was something evil and racist about it. I put this as number one, because Dave himself listed this as his number-one reason he needed to flee to Africa.

2) Everyone, including his co-writer that he's worked with since he was a teenager, was trying to convince Dave that he was crazy. This was done as a plot to get him to take pills so that they could control him and take his money. As evidence of this, he came into work one day and found that there was just a wall where his office used to be, but everyone was trying to convince him (as part of the above plot) that the walls and his office and everything were all where they were supposed to be. I wish I was making this up.

3) When one of the skits they wrote involved Dave wearing a dress, he decided at the last minute he wouldn't do it. The writers and producers all tried to talk him into going through with it, which confused and angered him. After some research, Dave realized that all comedians were put into dresses at one point or another by their producers, and that this was done intentionally to prove to the public that the comedians were really just prostitutes being pimped out. In fact, Dave realized that the whole point of this particular skit was to prove to everyone that Dave Chapelle was just someone's prostitute.

4) And so on...

Oprah tried to steer the conversation towards sanity, making it a discussion about responsible social commentary in comedy sketches, and why she won't do certain kinds of shows anymore. Dave contributed to this by saying that he would finish the current season only if the DVD sales profits could go to all his fans, the Katrina victims, his old high school..., at which point Oprah cut him off and told him that he can't just start promising millions of dollars to people on national TV. Dave responded with, "well, I didn't say I'd actually give them the money."

He was extremely laid back during the whole interview and slurred his speech, much more so that the usual laid-back nature of his character. His eyes were also very glazed. I'm pretty sure he's on heavy meds.

I imagine that my interpretation of the interview was a very critical one, others may think he is entirely reasonable and just had a hard time dealing with sudden wealth and a lot of money-grabbers. But if everyone around you is telling you that you aren't well mentally, and you determine it's a conspiracy to take your money, then you probably need to listen to them a little more.