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What would you be willing to do for $50 million?
Or maybe a better question is: What wouldn’t you do?
This is something Dave Chappelle has first-hand experience in.
Today we’re telling a story about a hit TV show, creative freedom, personal integrity, and one of the greatest comedians in the game.
We’re going to tell you all about how Dave Chappelle turned down $50 million because you can’t buy his freedom, but first, here's some background.
Dave Chappelle is a comedian, producer, actor, and writer.
He is best known for his stand-up comedy specials and his successful TV show Chappelle’s Show, which aired for three seasons between 2003 and 2006.
He’s also appeared in a number of movies, including You’ve Got Mail, Undercover Brother, and Half Baked.
Chappelle has won a number of awards, including an Emmy in 2017 for his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live.
In 2016, he signed a deal with Netflix for $20 million per release, and he has released four specials since then.
Also, Chappelle and Jon Stewart launched a combined comedy tour in 2018, which has continued into 2019.
The Chappelle Show was a small fraction of his 30 year comedy career, but it made a huge impact on him personally and on pop culture in general.
Let’s go back to the start.
In the early ‘90s, Dave moved to New York City to begin his stand-up career, which quickly began to take off,
even though there were some low points like getting booed off the stage at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
After an appearance on Def Comedy Jam on HBO in 1992, his popularity soared.
He began getting a number of opportunities like late-night talk show appearances and small movie roles.
He made 3 appearances on Star Search a total of three times but lost to another comedian each time.
In 1996 he appeared in an ABC sitcom called Buddies, but the show was canceled after only five episodes were aired.
In 1998, he wrote a sitcom named after him that was based on his stand-up career.
It was picked up by Fox, but when the executives wanted to add more white characters to broaden its appeal,
Chappelle abandoned the sitcom and considered giving up on the entertainment business altogether.
But, instead, he began working on the script for Half Baked along with his friend Neil Brennan, which would be his first starring role.
But his next collaboration with Neil Brennan would be much more successful.
One day in 2002 Chappelle was watching Hugh Hefner’s 1960s talk show Playboy After Dark, and he was inspired.
He called up Neil Brennan and told him they should work on developing a sketch show.
They got to work, and once they had a clear idea for the show, they went to HBO to make a pitch.
HBO was not interested, but Chappelle did not give up.
When he made a pitch to Comedy Central, they were sold based on just two sketches presented to them.
They ordered a full season, and the Chappelle Show was born.
It debuted in 2003 when Chappelle was 32 years old and it quickly rose in popularity.
Chappelle became a household name and several catchphrases from his show became ingrained in pop culture.
You know which ones we’re talking about.
The show had its own unique brand of humor focused on racial stereotypes, pop culture, and politics.
It soon became Comedy Central’s most popular show with sketches like Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,
the Racial Draft, Wayne Brady’s Show, and the Player Hater’s Ball.
For the first season of the show, expectations among the network execs were fairly low as they weren’t expecting it to bring in a lot of revenue.
They gave Dave complete creative control, and when he pushed back on their suggestions
like their idea that sketches should be a maximum of five minutes—they listened, and this turned out to be a recipe for success.
In the middle of the first season, Chappelle entered contract negotiations for season two.
He ended up settling for way less than he was pushing for.
Week after week, the ratings got higher and the show brought in more and more revenue.
Then season two was released on DVD and became the fastest-selling DVD set in history with one-day sales of 500,000 copies and 1.2 million sold in the first week.
Then it was time to negotiate his contract for season 3 and 4.
The record-breaking DVD sales gave Chappelle the leverage to secure a $50 million contract in addition to a portion of the DVD revenues.
But as the show became more financially successful, Chappelle began to notice a shift.
Something was starting not to feel right.
He began to question his work on the show and the intentions of his inner circle.
One day he was working on a sketch about a pixie who appears in blackface.
He says there was good intention behind the sketch, but he noticed a white crew member laughing at him instead of with him.
He said it was the first time a laugh made him feel uncomfortable, and he thought about immediately firing the crewmember.
Instead, he began to do some deep introspection.
He felt the weight of the social responsibility of someone with his platform.
He knew what he was trying to communicate with his sketches, but it was easy for people to get the wrong idea.
He began to feel that some of his sketches were socially irresponsible, and he felt like he was losing control of the creative vision he had for the show.
Chappelle believed that the fame and the money were putting him in a box where people tried to control his every move.
He realized that he had a 50-million-dollar decision to make.
He concluded that his soul was priceless and his freedom was not for sale and began to come up with an exit plan.
Most people think Dave just ran off on a whim and hopped on the first flight to South Africa,
but the truth is he knew he would be leaving a while before he actually did.
He didn’t want people to say that he was incapable of finishing his show, so he worked hard to get ahead of schedule, and then he was ready to disappear.
He didn’t tell anyone, including his wife, that he was leaving.
The only exception was his brother, who he called right before he boarded the plane to give him a list of people to contact once he was out of the country.
The rumors soon started flying saying he was on drugs, he was checking into a mental facility, or he couldn’t handle fame anymore.
None of these were the case.
He went to South Africa because he needed a quiet place to think and reflect away from the fame and the executives
and the yes men who had made up his inner circle.
He stayed in South Africa for two weeks and returned home to his family in Ohio,
having made up his mind that he would give up his show and the $50 million contract because his freedom isn't for sale.
After leaving the show, Chappelle took a major step back from the spotlight.
He focused on spending time with his family. He enjoyed the fruits of his success.
He traveled and actually took the time to enjoy his trips.
He began to embrace life in a different way that brought him more happiness.
Does he regret his decision?
Thinking back on it years later, he likes to make jokes about it, but he says the difference in his lifestyle as far as material things was minuscule.
And to have the freedom to reclaim his life and live it on his own terms was not worth all the money in the world.
In any case, now thanks to his deal with Netflix, his net worth has exceeded $50 million and is likely to continue growing.
You can earn all the money in the world, but if at the end of the day you’re not happy, fulfilled, and appreciating life, what is it all for?
If your freedom, integrity, or happiness is compromised, what is that worth to you?
Dave couldn’t, and he made the most difficult decision of his life without compromising and ended up so much happier because of it.
Success still happened for him but on his own terms. Something to consider.
And if you want some help to gain a little clarity on how to achieve both happiness and success, check out the book The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau,
, who set a goal to visit every country in the world by age 35.
Chris speaks of his encounters with people all around the world who are working towards extraordinary goals and what he learned from these experiences.
You can hear this captivating novel on Audible and save yourself $25.
Just go to alux.com/freebook and sign up, to get the audiobook version for free thanks to our incredible partnership with Audible!
While researching his story, we’ve come across this incredible quote from Chappelle that we’d like to share with you that goes like this:
Everyone has experienced failures on the path to success, and the last thing most people want to do is dwell on them.
But you should, at least long enough to figure out what went wrong, what lessons you can take away from it, and how to move forward better.
Every failure is bringing you one step closer to success.
Now that we’re wrapping up this story, we’d like to know:
Let us know in the comments.
And, of course, for sticking with us until the end of the video, here's your bonus...
Dave Chappelle was offered the role of Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump.
He turned it down because he thought the film would tank.
Oh, how wrong he was.
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