-Our first guest is a Grammy- and Emmy-winning comedian
who has a new podcast called "The Midnight Miracle,"
which Is available now on Luminary.
Please welcome the one and only Dave Chappelle!
[ Cheers and applause ] -Oh!
Yes! Dave!
-What's happening, Jimmy?
-Thank you so much for being here.
It is great to see you.
-It's great to see you. I'm sorry I'm not there.
I didn't know you guys were doing in-studio stuff.
I'd have pulled up. Shout-out to Steve Higgins.
Shout-out to The Roots. -There you go, yeah.
Absolutely. We're happy you're here.
[ Cheers and applause ]
When everything closed down, you were the first
of the comedians to do outdoor socially distant shows.
-Yeah, couldn't wait. -I mean, it wasn't just comedy.
There was music, too. But what made you want to do it?
-You know, a lot of it started when the protests started,
the George Floyd of it all. -Yeah.
-And, boy, I really missed having a microphone in my hand
when something like that tragic happens.
And so, the first night, I had to call the governor,
Governor DeWine, to get an approval,
which he luckily gave us.
We had 60 people in a 5-acre corn field,
and we ended up doing about 54 shows in 15 weeks.
-That's amazing. That is unbelievable
that you pulled that off. -And I got to say --
I got to shout out -- Like, a lot of great comedians
came out here and donated their talents.
And it was just great being with everyone
after being quarantined.
And a shout-out to everyone who came, because it was wonderful.
-Please tell me you documented some of this.
-Oh, yeah, I documented all of it, very thoroughly.
-Oh, good, good, good. -So, the very first night,
I had called my neighbors just so I could film it.
Just for, like, you know, posterity's sake.
And that first night ended up being that set
that I released "8:46."
My neighbors, Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert,
they won an Oscar last year for a great documentary,
"American Factory," that the Obamas produced.
-Oh, yeah. -And I see them all the time
at the grocery stores and everything,
and I literally just knocked on their door.
We sat down and talked about it.
So they ended up filming all 54 shows.
It was amazing. -No way.
So you have all of them? -It was great.
-Wow! That's -- That's --
That special you did was so needed and so powerful.
Did you feel how powerful it was?
-It was a weird process. I didn't expect that I would
put anything out, but it became a thing
where I wouldn't feel right telling jokes
until I addressed that,
'cause people listen to me different.
And that was one of those moments where I understood that,
and we let it rip.
So it was gut-wrenching putting it out.
To be honest, I was real nervous about it,
but I'm glad that I did.
-Yeah, we all needed it. Clearly, the world needed it.
Because it's the number-one video on YouTube from 2020.
-I beat a dancing squirrel with that video, bro.
[ Laughter ]
-That's a very close second, but you got the title.
-Take that, squirrel. -[ Laughs ]
That's a pretty funny video, that squirrel.
Also, you know, I follow you on social media even though
you don't really post things on social media.
-No. -No.
Like, Twitter, I think the last time
you posted was 2012 or something.
-Twitter is a bathroom wall.
[ Laughter ]
-I totally agree. It is.
-Why would I write all my thoughts on a bathroom wall?
Donald Trump, you heard that?
[ Laughter ]
-That's right. [ Applause ]
-And don't cut that [bleep] in post, Jimmy.
-No, I don't -- I don't --
I don't cut any of that stuff, man.
I -- What?
[ Laughter ]
-I was gonna do a joke about drawing a [bleep]
on a bathroom wall. -All right, all right.
We'll cut that, we'll cut that. -Cut that in post.
-We'll cut that one, yeah. [ Laughter ]
We'll cut the [bleep]. We'll leave the Trump.
I know. -Yeah, there you go.
Cut the [bleep] He said cut the [bleep]
[ Laughter ]
-I didn't say it. I didn't say it.
We're gonna cut that. No one will ever see it.
That's something just me and you experienced.
That never happened. No one will ever know it happened.
So, anyways, you posted a video called "Unforgiven."
You asked your fans to boycott "Chappelle's Show," your show.
-Yeah.
-What happened, and how did that all work out?
-Well, without going into too much detail...
-Yeah. -...that [bleep] worked.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. So, I think you have to go into a little more detail.
-All right, all right. First of all,
shout-out to everybody that helped me out with that
by not watching the show.
Shout-out to Ted Sarandos, that runs Netflix,
because he had the courage to take off "Chappelle's Show"
from the platform at financial detriment to that company,
and it opened the door for us to resolve a longstanding issue.
And shout-out to Chris McCarthy at CBS-Viacom because that guy
really did work hard with me to make this thing right,
and he was wonderful to work with on that.
-Yeah, you didn't have any of the rights
or anything to your material, to what you were doing.
Something like that? -Something like that.
-Yeah, I gotcha. -Something like that, yeah.
But all's well that ends well.
I do now, so, please, by all means, watch it.
-Oh, there you go, yeah. So please watch.
Watch "Chappelle's Show."
It's on every streaming platform that you can think of.
-And I'm very grateful, man.
Like, people who --
People are wonderful to me.
That was -- That was -- I was very moved by the response
of that and the support that I got from people all over.
And I just want to say thank you.
If you're watching, it meant more
than you could ever imagine.
-Oh, we love you. -I love y'all.
[ Cheers and applause ] -We do.
-I love you, yeah, I do.
-We want to talk about your new podcast when we come back.
More with Dave Chappelle after the break, ladies and gentlemen.