A New 'Chappelle's Show'? Fingers Crossed

When started rumors circulated yesterday via E! that Dave Chappelle was ramping up his standup appearances in order to prepare for a brand new show, possibly streaming exclusively on Netflix, we were geeked. While his reps have denied it, there's clearly something afoot in Chappelle's world.

Here's what we know so far:

Chappelle bolted from his baby “Chappelle’s Show” at the start of a third season, after having produced two seasons worth of the funniest, most challenging and entertaining comedy shows ever made. Not only was the show controversial - at times it was flat-out piss your pants funny.

But the pressure of producing a high-quality, highly-rated, always-controversial show for a network (which wasn’t always on board with what he was doing) proved to be too much for Chappelle.

He famously bolted from the show, leaving behind his $50 million contract and going on a walkabout in South Africa, without telling anyone (including his wife) where he was going. When he returned from the trip a couple weeks later, he did an interview with Oprah, explaining that he really didn't like what he'd become:

“I felt like some kind of prostitute or something. If I feel so bad, why keep on showing up to this place?”

Chappelle said he was feeling guilty about “being asleep at the wheel.”

"I felt guilty about it because I forgot the hostility of the environment of show business. ... There's some quote that someone told me that says, 'Success takes you where character cannot sustain you.'"

Stand Up Guy

Five years later, reports are circulating that Chappelle has dramatically increased the frequency of his standup performances, and that he’ll soon be returning to some form of a new show.

E! reported yesterday that “The audience downtown at the Comedy Cellar [NYC] last night waiting for a lineup that included Nick Griffin, Sherrod Small and Dave Attell, were shocked when Chappelle appeared out of the shadows around 11:30 and stepped on the stage to do a set.”

"He came in, didn't tell anyone he was coming, went on stage and did just over an hour. But that's short for him. Everybody liked seeing him,” a Comedy Cellar employee told the pub.

Chappelle has been doing hit and run comedy shows frequently over the past few years, including a marathon six-hour standup routine at the Laugh Factory back in 2007.

While Chappelle’s attitude towards performing on TV have changed, his sense of humor continues to be on point.

"A lot's changed since I was on TV,” he said during a surprise 2009 performance.

“We have a black president now. Actually, Obama called me and asked me to help him with his campaign. He said he had two rules for me — don't use the 'N' word, and stay off TV. Figures the first black president would run on a platform of only taxing the rich, and now I'm rich!"

Chappelle on Netflix?

While the chances are basically nil that Chappelle returns to business as usual from back in 2006, he may very well be coming to the next generation of TV.

According to The Daily:

“The beloved comic is planning a new TV show with a paid subscription service like Netflix, Sony’s Crackle, or Hulu, which are now competing in the original programming game.”

Quoting merely “plugged-in sources,” the pub couldn’t offer too much in the way of specifics, and Chapelle’s reps are calling the statements "untrue," but the idea of Chappelle returning via some sort of new, non-traditional format sounds way more likely than him stepping in to some sort of regular cable network show.

Perhaps Chappelle’s comments to Oprah back in 2006 shed some light on what could come next.

"Here's a scenario that I could come back to the show—I can't believe I'm saying this—but this is what I want to do," he says. "I do want to do my show again provided, one, I can make the proper work environment. But more importantly, I want to give. ... I don't want the money. I don't want the drama. I just want to do my show. I want to have fun again."

Whenever that happens next, we'll be looking forward to it.