squidpants

so I was flipping channels ta minute ago when figure skating was on the Olympics and saw Dave Chappelle on "Inside the Actor's Studio." It was kind of surprising to see him on the show, and it was really a fantastic interview, he's a really interesting and smart guy. They didn't talk much about his movies, probably because there aren't many, but more about Hollywood and life. I really recommend the show, he went from pretty funny and light to pretty serious and a little bit sad about things. It looks like it's on next March 5th at 8.

I don't really feel like I'm giving the show any justice with my description, but he talked about Hollywood being difficult and causing people to do weird stuff, like Martin Lawrence waving a gun around in traffic and Mariah Carey taking her clothes off on TRL, and why he went to Africa - he said he was kind of stressed out and scared and didn't really know what he was doing with his life - he didn't really have any friends, and he was hanging around. He talked about the $50 million dollars he got offered for the Chappelle Show and how it kind of made him defensive about it - he compared it to the cartoons where the guy is really hungry, and he looks at his friend and the friend looks like a chicken dinner.

He talked about other stresses in the entertainment world, and that he wants to be honest all the time, and sometimes it's difficult to do so in Hollywood. He talked about how he thinks people in America need to be more open and honest about things, which I definitely agree with. He said something to the effect that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world, by default, but if we actually got together and had honest discussions about things, we could be the greatest country ever. He talked a lot about race as well. Maybe these aren't great descriptions, but it was really pretty moving and fascinating. James Lipton, who I usually think is kind of corny, asked good questions and the two really seemed to like each other - they were funny and everything flowed well.

Chappelle kind of got progressively more down as the show went on, by his body language and tone, he sort of sunk into his chair and was talking about doing things right and, corny as it is, being yourself. After the interview the students asked him questions, and the answers were really interesting, about being how you are and living right and things like that. Again, lame description, but it was really good.

There's more on this Chappelle Show forum, lots of people saying "thanks" and things like that. Apparently this was the first or second time the show has been on.