Dave Chappelle Opens Up About Prince, “SNL” Drama, Cosby, More in Rare Interview

During the interview, Chappelle explains that Trump’s presidency poses a challenge to comedians. “[Trump]’s so skewed, it’s hard to find an angle that sounds fresh,” he says, “If you talk about him, it’s almost like you’re part of the chorus and not a soloist.”

He goes on to discuss the post-election episode of “Saturday Night Live” he hosted, which featured a sketch starring Chappelle and Chris Rock satirizing the shock of Trump’s victory. He says:

At a certain point [on election night], we were all in the writers’ room, and as the night went on, and Trump was picking up these Electoral [College] votes, everyone stopped writing. And then everyone was just staring at the TV. I saw people tear up sketches they were writing. They’d assumed Hillary was going to win. Now there was essentially no show on Saturday. It was like the wind got knocked out of the writers’ room. I was really worried.

Chappelle reveals that his inspiration for his “SNL” monologue (which explored Black Lives Matter, political protests, and Obama’s legacy) came from Louis C.K., whose advice gave him a sense of reassurance. “I went to a comedy club Friday night [before the show] and saw him,” he told the Times, “And Louis told me: ‘[Forget] the rest of the show. The monologue is all that matters.’ I was stressed out all that day. But right before I went onstage, this calm just washed over me. Everything just felt right.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Chappelle reflects on the death of Prince—an event he previously referred to as “Black 9/11”—and explains the impact it had on him: 

I looked up to him like everybody did. I didn’t know him that well, but the times that we hung out were fun and very memorable and often funny. He was very generous with his advice, and he was very generous with his access. He let me see some of his process. He fostered a community among artists. He used to have these parties where we would go over to his house, and there would be all these musicians that I admired, and they’d just do these jam sessions in the basement. Everybody at the party was playing something. I think when he died there was the icon dying, but then there was this pillar in the community of people dying.

Discussing the sexual assault charges against Bill Cosby, Chappelle told the Times, “So many bad things happened to our heroes: Muhammad Ali had Parkinson’s; Richard Pryor had M.S.; Prince died too young. And Bill just looked like one of the guys who was going to get to the finish line and just die of old age. And this happened. Jesus Christ. It’s awful.”

Chappelle’s new specials, Dave Chappelle: The Age of Spin (filmed at Los Angeles’ Palladium in March 2016) and Dave Chappelle: Deep in the Heart of Texas (Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater in Austin in April 2015), both arrive on Netflix on March 21.

Watch a trailer for the specials below, soundtracked by A Tribe Called Quest:

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