Hoard Memories with Loved Ones with Dave Chappelle

I used to shadow my dad around town. He had this thing he would do, not with everybody, but certain people. Hey, how you doing? Hey, I'm good, man. And he would look at him and be like, now how are you doing? And then they, well, you know, then they'd say what the real thing was. But then it taught me again. Everyone's like a book that I haven't read. Yes. And man, sometimes I can get past the cover. And man, I learned so much from so many unlikely people. So, and then of course I take those lessons around the world and make millions and millions of dogs. ["Million and a million dogs"] This episode is brought to you by Chase Home Lending. Hey, little girl, how are you doing? Well, I'm doing just fine. We've got a special episode ahead. We are out of the studio and we are in Ohio in a beautiful town. Yellow Springs. I was gonna, you know, our guest is not supposed to be here. And he's not supposed to be talking, but I think he'll be. He failed the first test. He's not supposed to be here. But it's good to see you. I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks. I know. It feels like months I haven't seen you. It has been months. It has been months. I get to see my lovely sister at least once a month, but I've been really busy the last couple of months and she's been vacationing in Hawaii. I haven't been vacationing and that's where I live. You know, see, this is how, I mean, dude, you know, I work almost every day, almost. Do you? No, not really. That's what I thought. But we have a special guest. We do. And we should do a proper introduction. Okay, take it away. And I know this will sound familiar, but we've got Dave Chappelle, who is, I am such a huge fan of Dave Chappelle and I'm gonna read him his bio, but I wanna tell you two things about meeting him for the first time. One is Dave Chappelle is one of those people who makes me laugh just by thinking about him. I can think somebody, or someone says Dave Chappelle and I'll start giggling. And I'm gonna tell, I mentioned this to Dave in the car or when we were riding around. Everybody knows Dave smokes. No. I hadn't smelled smoke since our mom passed away. And it was such, this sounds weird. But our mom smoked and being around Dave gave me this warm feeling. That nicotine love. Of being around my mom. Yeah, he told me that this morning and I was like, really? You really wanna tell that story? I am, I am because I think people relate to something like that. Okay, all right. Well, let's introduce Dave. Come on, Dave. Dave Chappelle is one of the greatest comedians this country has ever produced. Full stop. Multiple Grammy Awards, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the highest honor in comedy. A voice that has shaped culture, challenged power and made the whole world laugh and think at the same time. This man is a legend. So it is a genuine joy, a personal honor for the both of us to introduce a man who is not only the most important artist of our generation, but a true neighbor to this community. OH? Oh! Yeah, y'all thought I didn't know about that, didn't you? Welcome, Dave Chappelle. Dave? Oh, Dave Chappelle. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for inviting us here to Yellow Springs, your home. The tour, as Craig was saying, we got in our cars. There were about eight of them. And we drove around, and we saw all the wonderful sites, had the opportunity to stop by your mom's house. Dr. Sion, thank you. Just a beautiful, beautiful. Why was it important for you to have us here? Well, being yourself, being Michelle Obama, I'm sure it's not lost on you that this community feels seen by the world if it's seen by you. And unbeknownst to you, maybe you know this community. You have an enormous amount of support. Ohio elected your husband twice in here locally. The message of hope and change resonated profoundly. And I was telling you earlier, and I think you guys would agree, when Obama was running for president, it felt as if he lived in Ohio, because the presence of his ground team was so strong. And this radio station is our community's lifeblood to us. It's our connective tissue. And we got close to losing them to Dayton, Ohio. And we were able to work things out and get this building built. And this is the first time, I think, this room has ever been used in any actual recording capacity. And man, I can't think of a better way to inaugurate any room, but with you and your brother here amongst us and our friends and family. And it means the world to us. It means the world to me. But all of us, I can say without a doubt, are elated that you're here. There was driving around. I told you I got this familiar sense. I mean, one of the greatest privileges of my life was not just serving as First Lady of this country, but getting the campaign throughout this country. And what I saw on the campaign trail was is very reminiscent of what I felt here, driving around your community. And it is just a decency and an openness and a willingness to connect with people. And as Luke said, to accept people for who they are. And I always want to translate that to people across the country, because in a time when we don't feel like we see each other. Yeah, I just want to remind people that communities like this one is really the truth of what I saw in America. It was the America I was representing. And I felt that. I mean, it was oozing in every stop that we made. And I think it's important for our listeners to understand that that America has not disappeared. It is here alive and well and thriving throughout this country. So it's just been a thrill for me to be back on soil like this. But you were raised here. This was your community. Oh, absolutely. Or you had your connection to Yellow Springs. Can you talk to us about why this community is so important to you? I think my presence, my family's presence in this community is an extension of my father's life work. He lived here all my life. And a lot of the ethics of community, I learned from him. My mother and he are both from Washington, DC. So I would mostly live with my mother. But Christmas time and summertime, I would come out to Yellow Springs. And it was so much different in DC. And also kind of prepare me for what my life would be like, because I was a kid with two lives. I had friends from out here, and I had friends in DC. And DC is black. Very. Right. But this town is white. And I would come out here and play DC records for them. And they'd be like, what is this music? And then I'd go home and play rock and roll stuff in DC. And they're like, what is this music? But I felt like before there was an internet, I got a good sampling of culture that way. And that upbringing really did kind of help me become the type of comedian I am. It made me less afraid of people. And this is going to sound weird here, but it made me not afraid of white people. So so in comedy, in, like, say, the 80s, really the 90s, comedy circuits were segregated. And people don't know that the black comedians played one set of rooms and white comedians played one set of rooms. And Washington, which was a majority black city, didn't have any black clubs until a few years into my career. Not to say that it was always like that. But for just like full time comedy rooms, you know, I was I started out in what they would call white rooms. I can remember one of the owners saying when I started out that he didn't like more than one black comic on the show because he said it would offend his audience. It's like, dude, it's it's Washington. Right. But I always played anywhere that anyone would listen. And I didn't realize I was a little older when I would see some comedians hit like an invisible wall. Like they would never play Sunset Boulevard or they'd never go play Greenwich Village or certain like, you know, comedy staples that they just considered white rooms. They felt safer on Crenshaw or on this place or that place. They thought they wouldn't be understood. And I thought that the challenge of art was no matter where you go, you should try to be understood. And in that, I don't know, something about that upbringing, the duality between Ohio and Washington, I think made me game to become what I became. What are some of your fondest memories? You know, when you think of the time with your your father, your friendships here, how old were you when? What was your age range when you were spending time here? It was summers, it was holidays. My parents split up when I was two. I don't think they actually had divorced until I was five, but they split up when I was two. So what did your mom refer to your dad as? The gentleman, the gentleman that I married to. My mother, my mom's house today. And she said, yes, my ex-husband used to live around here. I'm like, damn. She's like, she's like, she didn't even say, no, she said the gentleman that I was married to. The gentleman I was married to, that's it. I was once married to. It's like, oh, OK. It sounds like your dad. Yeah. Let's see where he gets those chops from, huh? But you know, it's funny. OK, I don't have any memories of them married. We have a couple of memories of them being married, but I have a lot of memories when they were together. And it was always very polite. They never spoke ill of each other. They always found something good to say, you know. And knowing both of you, I hope you don't mind I say this, Mom, I can see exactly why they fell in love. And I can see why it wouldn't work. Exactly like time. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I think one of the funnest, well, most interesting parts about becoming an adult is learning what the adults in your life were actually like, you know what I mean? And getting past the role of them being a singer, just people that came before you that were trying to figure things out. So I always joke with my wife Elaine. And I'm like, you know, I don't feel like I'm getting older, but the kids are catching up. You know what I mean? It's like, when you get so old, yeah. Yeah, it's just like. But I have incredibly far memories of living here. Now, when I was younger, I should tell you, this place was was different because Antioch College was a much stronger force in the town. And if you was going to know Antioch College, if you think of the most radical leftist politics, go left of that. And that's what this with this town was about. There was a policy that Antioch made years ago that everyone used to make fun of called Ask Every Step It Away. And this was 30 years before the Me Too movement. That was like if you were getting ready, you know, you know. Yeah, we know, we know. Well, you know, and then you would be like, well, may I kiss you? Or may I do this or that? The other you would you would ask. And man, the whole country was laughing at that policy. And even I was like, because I'm watching, I was living in New York at the time, watching the news, like, oh, making funny old springs. And so I came home for Thanksgiving. And I found out that my father's widow wrote the policy. He was alive at the time. And I asked him, you know, John, what was that? And she explained to me the reasons for the policy. And I laugh about it now because it's so much like what Hollywood just went through. All this weird ambiguity. And it's like, how do you teach young adults how murky sexual contracts are? Because if you make them correctly, no one should see you make them. And, you know, as odd as it sounds, it worked. The problem was that people on the campus were, there was like an astronomical amount of sexual assault accusations. And she says, like, is an administrator, by the numbers you have to recognize that can't all of these be true, but you can't dismiss any of them. So we have to teach them what it is. And it worked. The same numbers plummeted. So y'all Springs, I say that to say, has been on the cutting edge of solving certain types of problems that Americans face all the time. This is a thinking person's town. I love doing all kinds of stuff. But man, and this is going to sound crazy. I have the most joy thinking. I told my wife years ago, I know you remember, I said, babe, if you ever see me staring off in the space, don't bother me. Because I'm working. It's like darn. If you see me writing something down, I've already done the hard part. I'm going to try that with a rock. Don't bother me. Marking. It is like that, though. I'll just be like, you can blame Dave for that. My life pretty hectic right now. And what was making it all so much harder was how spread out all of my tracking was. I had reminders in my calendar, in my email, in a notes app. Then I found Yahoo Mail now with Planner. Planner brings your task and events together in one place. So everything stays organized and you don't miss what matters. So if I've got a dinner reservation buried in my inbox or reminder I flag for myself, it's all there in one view. Planner also pulls key details from your emails, like appointments, school events, and bill reminders, and turns them into actionable plans, saving you time and effort. Planner is extremely helpful when life gets busy and you start getting that feeling like, you've missed something. And it's honestly saved me from forgetting events more than once. 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I went to get coffee this morning, and I must have seen four or five folks. They all said hello as if they had seen me before. Thank you for that. And but what I think our listeners and viewers want to know, what's a typical day for Dave Chappelle in Yellow Springs when you're not thinking? Well, I was going to say, I get up at 4 a.m. and they're all in the space. They're in all the space. Well, okay, this question is actually at the core of why I like it here, because the days are predictable and they're they're simple. You know, not you mean look the rest of a public person's life. It's it's like circus fodder. Not nearly what I've experienced with you today, because I can't even imagine having that many people have to be involved in every move you make. But public life is is not an easy life. But for me here, like everyone's as famous as I am here. We all kind of know each other. We all see each other every day. So, you know, I know a lot of names. I know a lot of faces. I have people here that I love. I have people here that I love not liking. If something bad would have happened to them, I'd miss. Not like that. I would love to find a person or cold, cold shoulder this person. But but it's that kind of culture. And you know, like I'm not that old, 50 years old, but but there's a whole generation of kids that I watch go from like nothing to adults to like strong really wise adults. This just it's just it's irreplaceable. It really does remind you of the value of people. And I think most people don't, you know, I'm lucky because I get to be celebrated for what I do. But I think most people forget how much they influence the people around them. And there's people here that I'll see and I'll know from the rumor mail that they're going through something terrible and I'll see them smile through it and hey, Dave, good, good morning. And I admire that. And it reminds me to be the same. And then when I go out in the world, I can be more courageous because I know I have a place where if I completely wiped and came back here, they just be like, they'd all smile. Good morning, Dave. Even though they knew I wiped and I'm like, hey. And that's just that's just why I love it here. I mean, it's so important to kind of emphasize that point of simplicity. In a time where especially young people are, you know, they're suffocating themselves with so much stuff. And I just want listeners and folks to hear this from one of the most famous men, you know, because I know I feel that way. I know Barak feels that way is that, you know, we we're striving for fame, for notoriety, for all the wrong things. And the truth of the matter is that life is about that small stuff. You know, it's the the small connections that you make with people. It's about relationships with your neighbors and your family members. And you can't get that by holding a phone. And it is so important when we look at rates of depression and anxiety that our young people are feeling, it's because they've moved away from the simple, you know, just the why you told us about how, you know, every morning you walk out of your house and you go over the red bridge and you walk down the bike path. And, you know, you know, your neighbors and you see those rolling hills and the trees and you take in the air. It's like hearing you, Dave Chappelle, say that that is the key to your joy and your sanity is is powerful. I mean, it means everything, you know, especially with comedians, right? So so fame is one of the worst things that can happen to a comedian as an artist because you're sequestered, you know, life is is, you know, not this is not my case, but it's not authentic your life. You know, yes, people or whatever the cliches are. But this place, man, this place does not do that. Like, man, at times I really wish that they would. They don't, though. And I wouldn't I wouldn't trade it. And the other thing is that I do get to just talk to people, which a lot of people, you know, the ambitious people, especially they, you know, you're going to forget how much you need to just talk to people. I used to shadow my dad around town. He had this thing he would do. Not with everybody was serving people. Hey, how are you doing? I'm good, man. And he would look at me and be like, no, how are you doing? And then they, well, you know, then they then they'd say what the real thing was. But then it taught me again. Everyone's like a book that I haven't read. Yes. And man, sometimes I can get past the cover and man, I learned so much from from so many unlikely people. So and then of course, I take those lessons around the world and make millions and millions of dogs. I'm scared. I'm scared. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, you know, Dave, you're not just one of the funniest people out here, but you were one of the smartest men that that is on the public stage. So it's no surprise that your parents are bad asses, especially your mom. Can you talk a bit about her, your relationship with her? As you said earlier, what did you say she you she was, she championed you, you had a way to I said she put that battery in my back. That's that battery in your back. My mom is I called her a greatness whisperer. That's it. A greatness whisperer. Yeah, she would say things that I still meditate on that that made me not want to be great as much as this is going to sound arrogant, but it's not as arrogant as it sounds almost, but not quite. You you made me not afraid to be great. I think so many people who have greatness inside of them are timid or don't shy this much or don't want to out exceed anybody don't want to be noticed because there's a target on you that comes with that. And my mom kind of put the soul in my back or if someone said or else my mom would teach me to say or else what? You know, I mean just ask or just move or just take the step if you feel but but it was very moral. She also gave me lessons in what humility actually is and and she gave me antidotes for self loathing or like I feel like people just just swim in a broth of like just shame and self loathing a lot and and how does she do that? How did she make me not? How did she how did what was that antidote? Well, I mean there's one I mentioned and when I got the twang prize and I and I said is this really moved people but some she used to say to me all the time she said sometimes you have to be a lion so you can be the lamb that you really are because she saw me being timid and she was like it's okay. She used to tell me not to be afraid to fight let your hands go can't win fight not let your hands go. Okay mom. Okay. Yeah, she but for real she taught me this is gonna sound it's not gonna sound I can't explain this but she she taught me how to not be afraid of getting in trouble because she was my authority figure. So you're his problem. But she was a loving authority figure and to both my parents credit they didn't just bombard me with rules they helped me understand the rules had reasons and and and we didn't agree. Young people don't we snap for this? Yeah, the rules had reasons. Yeah, I know you know about that. I was the I was I see an activist in the front rows. But that sounds so much like our our parents. I mean we were talking in the car about how blessed we were to have two parents who loved us you know mother and the father that poured into us. But a big thing was I talk about this all the time our mom loved our voices you know. I mean she just loved our dirty draws and loved everything that came out of our mouths and she was interested and curious but they our parents both were and it's that pouring into us but the humility that comes with you know you don't just tell a kid no you tell a kid why and how. And and we got that every step of the way and it's amazing how that little simple thing of seeing a child valuing their voice giving them some boundaries giving them some humility like that's better than stuff that's better than iPhones and new cars and the best sneakers and contacts and connections. We didn't have any of that right but we had parents who put that battery in our back and even if we this what I remember is it didn't matter how ridiculous the things we said. Right. She didn't what she did was she would ask questions to encourage us to get to the point we were trying to make and that patience is what I remember and what what I think gave me the confidence to be intellectual and successful that way. And you were outside of Chicago Intellectual. Were you ostracized for no disrespect but you were now nerds both of you. No you had to learn how to you had to learn how to fake the funk. You had to talk talk to languages. You had to talk the language of I got an A but let's not talk about it because I got to get home too. Right. And you had to you know own your intelligence. Now my brother had basketball to help help him. Everybody loves you because he can play. You just played every sport and throughout the n-word every now and then. Yeah it works. You know that that always works. Show that he's hard. Show that I'm a little hard but but don't tell my mom I said that. You didn't have to fight because you were a baller. Everyone loves baller. Everybody loved ballers but I didn't become a baller until I was about 12 so I had my share of fights before I was 12 years old. Right. And unlike your mom my mom would be like be careful fighting because you're bigger than everybody. Oh man my mom was like he better bite. If your mom was at my house there would have been a couple of ass whiffs going on. But you know what else it was about you mom that I love is okay. My mom's laugh is like music. And she you know and and and her mom's laugh is like music and my grandfather her dad's laugh is like music man and and I think that's another thing that made me want to be funny just hearing that music come out of them it made me feel joyful. At what age did you realize that because one of the questions I was thinking about when we were talking about talking to you is you were smart enough and talented enough to pick a whole lot of different avenues but you picked comedy. So okay yeah or I don't know if I picked it okay so I can't remember a time when I didn't feel like I was a funny guy or some kind of equivalent of like yeah I'm just like that was my thing but I didn't know that was a thing. When I was eight years old my grandmother had a friend come visit who was a jazz singer Johnny Hartman the famous jazz singer one of the only vocalists that John Coltrane has ever recorded with beautiful voice smoked cigarettes his voice sounded like like velvet so smooth and I had I remember I had just done a book report on Dr. Charles Drew. How old were you? I was eight and I was thinking you know I was gonna be a doctor and and I showed the guy the book report and he goes man he goes that's good I'm gonna be a doctor he goes nah he said because I was cutting up all day I was eight he said you're gonna be a comedian. Wow. And I go what's that he's like you know like uh Red Fox or Richard Pryor you know who that is I'm like yeah yeah I was you know from Sanford and I don't know him like he knows him he said he said it's a person that's funny for money he goes you're gonna be one of those and I thought about that I think about it every once in a while I'll think about because you know he's long past the way God rest his soul but whatever he saw me that day he saw it so clear that it scares me to think back at it though I'm like so like did I choose this or did I but uh when I finally did do stand up well you know to me it's feel like a lifetime way it was only six years from eight to 14 when I started 14 yeah which didn't seem crazy at the time yesterday I got a text message from a comedian I started out with this kind of famous guy Pat Nozzwald yeah yeah he he sent me a video that one of his fans has sent him and I couldn't understand they weren't some like dilapidated room and then he pans over and I look and it's the stage that we both started on it was in was it in DC on 14th Northwest is ironically drum roll please it's a gate club now yeah but it gave me chills just to see it because it's it's it all happened so fast I can't believe how far I came you know something I love about this show is getting to hear so many different people's stories it's so inspiring to research each guest and discover their backstory all the hard work and big swings that went into their success because and I know this has been true for me you need to take some big swings if you're going to build something yourself fortunately there's tools out there like Shopify a platform designed to make running your business one million times easier whether you're just getting started with a side hustle or growing something bigger Shopify gives you the tools to actually build your business the right way even better Shopify is how your stuff gets discovered everywhere from google to youtube to the shop app I'll just 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wallet app on your iPhone today subject to credit approval variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.49% to 27.74% based on credit worthiness rates as of January 1st 2026 existing customers can view their variable APR in the wallet app or at card.apple.com Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch terms and more at applecard.com there are a lot of creative kids in communities across the land being a creative being going to show business I mean for most black parents they'd be like you better get you a good job what are you talking about yeah exactly you know but your mom did the exact opposite I mean she she got you on stage she thought about the education that you would need wasn't she the one that suggested that you go to one of my favorite high schools on the planet Duke Ellington in Washington DC yes she was I think but you know not just that she would sit with me you know after school she'd meet me we'd go to the comedy club we'd sit there all night we'd fry and food go to the comedy club after she had been working or doing whatever it was she did that day and uh and I didn't realize it at the time but you know she's a mom she was auditing the scene now I don't think she necessarily thought I was going to be a famous comedian but at that time the crack epidemic and everything all the bad things I could be doing and I expressed such as earnest interest in being a comedian and so she shepherded me she figured out who's trustworthy and not trustworthy and okay you could you come get my baby right home if I leave early and that kind of thing and then by the time I was 16 I was a professional like I would I would get gigs and make money and and I didn't need her to go as much and then that was kind of sad because her baby was growing up but the big one was not going to college because I'm the first person since slavery in our family to make that choice like everyone's day way to break this break the cycle of education someone needs to break this cycle of learning but but I ended up moving to New York and honestly uh maybe with the best education that a person could ever get but the guard rails of that education was was ambitious ambition not just like uh really artistic ambition that was enamored I always looked at the camera like what else can it do and I still experiment with it which is more dangerous now but but no less rewarding this job never gets easier it's never it's never not fulfilling and it's never not challenging so at 16 you're a professional on the road on your own who are your influences who are your did you have any mentors did you do it solely by yourself no no okay so the local scene in DC was popping like I said Patton who would want to be famous he was there guy named Tony Woods was one of the big guys on the scene B.T had just started and it was local in DC so so Chris Thomas was doing all these things on B.T uh Tommy Davidson was on and living color but he was from our local scene Martin Lawrence was just getting big but he but these these were all local guys um so I wasn't on the road yet I would get a road gig here or there but and and the and the principal of Ellington used to give me excused absences if I left on Friday to go on the road because it was an artistic pursuit and I cashed the train up the eastern seaboard and get a gig here or there but it was mostly happening in in town in Washington and the the the scene was very experimental and very competitive but there was a lot of camaraderie on that scene New York was different but but man DC was I think the perfect place to start because I had enough for him to get good it is there a point in a comedian's development where they determine what kind of comic they want to be um I mean you are a gifted storyteller in weaving in life and observation and you know taking us full circle did you did you have to become that did you know that as a kid that that you know that's how I want to make people laugh that's a very good question thank you no no that's a very good question there are certain you know people ask me who are your favorite comedians and it's not like that in my mind it's a dunk reel of just different comedians doing different things that amazed me some more consistently than others but man any night it could be just some guy who just says the thing of that night um but man when I was in high school and I can't remember who I saw do it first the first time I saw a guy do what we call call back a joke make reference to something they referenced before I'm like wait a minute you do the same joke twice and and and from then on man I'm telling you I'm like those guys who can draw a perfect circle freehand if I went on stage with no material I would just know the dude but I've been doing this so long and comedy it's almost like a language that I know how to speak I can say anything in this language but but there are real parameters and and it's like music you also want to break out of those parameters like a bebop guy like I don't want to play the same stuff everybody plays but that being said man in my life man I've I've seen some of the greatest comedy ever done and I feel so lucky to have seen all of it but what made me want to be what I'm like is a long story can I tell it please this is this is your interview Dave Chappelle please take your time tell us some of the questions it feels dumb talking about myself around y'all but I'll try uh okay the single most impactful thing that I've ever seen I was maybe 19 years old I opened for Richard Pryor at Newark Symphony Hall and I got there early and I and I met I met Mr. Pryor before the show and I could see like I said I'm on him that he's not he wasn't feeling well now by this time everyone knew he had MS and all that I just don't know what MS does to people but I knew that whatever it does it was doing it and so I say to myself you know what I want to do good but let me just take it easy because it's like a legend I just so I just did the the housekeeping job I got the crowd good and warm and they didn't want to see me anyway they wanted to see him and and then I go and I get off the stage he had the intro where his man goes ladies and gentlemen the most two beautiful words in comedy Richard Pryor man man crowd goes nuts and he goes out there and you could tell early on that this was not this was not his night and maybe 30 minutes into his setting he stops and sometimes wouldn't even know you could do he looks at the crowd and he goes look he goes I want to do this for you guys but he goes I'm not feeling well he said I'm sorry he goes I don't got it in me tonight I'm sorry just like that and man you could hear like like a pin drop and then this guy in the back of the room jumps to his feet like that he jumps up he goes we love you Richard and the place exploded longest loudest ovation like man it went on and on and he stood there and then okay I'm young right but then I realized what I'm looking at that this is his last show for them they probably will never see him live again and people were crying and wiping tears out their eyes and he looked a little emotional and and and to me it was the first time I had seen like actual love like bouncing off the walls like man they love this person and and if I had never seen that I wouldn't even know that's something to want because no I've no one has it like Richard like that and and when I saw that more than any type of style I'm like man I want I want it to be like like that and and that notion made me work I think more patiently than I would have but that was the moment I knew that fame was one of the things I wanted but whatever the hell that thing Richard had that that moment it so then what does it feel like when it doesn't work now now it doesn't now man okay it's a good question you mean like if I do a show when it doesn't go well you know that and when the when the love doesn't come and the opposite comes oh okay well okay okay it'd be both and yeah maybe it's more like in my experience it was both because I was doing jokes that some people thought were controversial and some people didn't but that that experience from my perspective is much different than what it must have been like watching it because you know listen people would think it's me versus gay community I never looked at it like that I always thought it was corporate interest in culture negotiating itself so so you know most of those people who were critical of what I was doing didn't seem like they were of it they had it's like they had their faces pressed against the glass commenting on what we were doing in there but they weren't in there doing it and I think I spoke to you about this earlier every opinion you can think of is represented in a comedy club every type of person you can imagine does stand-up comedy transgender stand-up comics uh black white age every kind of perspective and we all champion whatever opinion we champion we would never think to silence one another we might duke it out on a stage in the sense of like if someone says something racist and I get mad I bet yo put me up next because I'm gonna say something about what he said but but but but silently saying that person wouldn't be anything and then after the show we all be upstairs drinking and we might still talk about it or argue about it but that's that's our life and we're artists and that's what we do and we have this outlet so for a media outlet to speculate on a comedy show that they worn hat or misinterpret a joke or like you know nothing makes a comedian madder than reading his joke wrong in the paper you know and and reading a joke is nothing like hearing one or being one and the intention of a comedy show is a very unique intention we are playing with the whatever the culture is made of and we break it down and we get it right or we get it wrong but in all art if it's going to be good or even hopefully great you got to have a margin of error and and what they were doing was acting like thought or speech was binary like there's only the everything's either this or that but all art is in between it it's all nuance so when they take nuance out of words and just like did you hear what he said he said it's like yeah but but that's not what I was saying so we talked about you know the the the first time I realized oh my gosh I'm in politics was you know my husband's rented for president I was campaigning heavily for him but my experiences campaigning were in communities like this it started small and then it grew from there and all my conversations would be like this extemporaneous talking to a group introducing myself telling a joke trying to humanize myself and my husband introducing us as real people but not on script and there's a difference in how you would see the crowd respond right here you know we're all in the room together you know maybe the words wouldn't be exact but we would we would all be able to feel it you know and that feeling wouldn't just be a small group it could it could expand into a stadium you know an arena the people there could feel the intent but then I realized oh it's not about the people here it's about the people with their faces pressed against the wall interpreting what I said without being there or even more cities trying to bend what you say to make it more interesting or salacious or or because they have a different I don't know I don't know why they do all the stuff they do but I do know in recent years it's you know you'll hear a lot of comedians complain about that and what they'll say is we we can't say anything that's not true you can say anything that you can get away with and that's the skill you know the negotiation with the audience of what's acceptable is what makes the the genre so interesting and it could change from room to room night to night like every room's a little different we are big dog lovers here at IMO everyone knows how important dogs are 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whatever delivery through Instacart can show up in as fast as 30 minutes which is huge when your day is as packed as mine Instacart brings convenience quality and ease right to your door so you can focus on what matters most download the Instacart app now and get groceries just how you like I try to always have a protein bar on me whenever I'm on the go something quick and easy that will still keep me satisfied but with protein bars it can often feel like you're choosing between taste and nutrition if it tastes good you flip the package over and suddenly there's a full paragraph of ingredients you can't pronounce artificial sweeteners low quality protein fillers I might as well just eat a proper dessert I didn't want to have to choose between tasty and nutritious so I kept searching until I found aloha protein bars aloha bars are USDA organic and made with ingredients that are actually grown somewhere that's part of their whole taste that grows philosophy they use plant-based ingredients grown in the ground thoughtfully sourced and built to keep you satisfied for example their peanut butter cup bar has 14 grams of protein 10 grams of fiber and only five grams of sugar which is while considering how delicious it is it's made with absolutely zero artificial ingredients or fillers and it has become my go-to snack when Kelly isn't stealing them from my bag that is so if you're in the mood for something truly craveable and nutritious try any of aloha's protein bars grab one at your local grocery store or head to aloha.com well you said younger comedians are a little bit different because they're they're not their audience isn't in their room no they're internet they're internet people and you know it goes back to you know the whole point of community you know it's like sharing a space with people is really important to connection and understanding and it's no wonder why we feel so divided is because all of our interaction is happening without this heart-to-heart feeling this even seeing somebody's face nod and oh you get it or maybe you don't we're we're losing that and you said young comedians nowadays have a different ethos because a lot of them are negative too yeah because it gets more engagement if they talk bad about somebody they'll get they'll get more clicks of more engagement so everything's a diss record now and it used to be it's not like that can we talk about the chappelle show oh yeah oh yeah yeah sure yeah really i i just when i think about you doing that show i think about how much fun it must have been just sitting around with your friends and your boys thinking up ideas to be on the chappelle show man that's the truth i had i had one guy that i primarily wrote the show with neil brennan and we're still friends but but one of the things we would do is we would take submissions we'd always rewrite the submissions but but god gives an idea that's funny we'll write it up and if we use it we pay them but it was all so that was the thing i would have been submitting some stuff man it was fun because it was but it but it was my first time being corporately funny and and it got me ready for the next time because there's always a negotiation with the network but i liked in hindsight because we had pitched that show to HBO and boy they boy they turned it down in spectacular fashion uh uh because at that time they had the chris rock show and they felt like they were invincible man but but but we went on comedy central and shot lights out and i think the show was better on comedy central because there was an era of you shouldn't be able to say these things HBO look like you just do anything anyway but on comedy central that dance around standards and practices was joyful and shout out to south park because i remember one time i did a time on bigum's a character playing a show who had a addiction problem he he he he uh he he's he well there's no nice way to say it craig he takes a shit in the alley yeah and and and and the renaissance standards and practices lady calls me upstairs and she's like look you can't have time to take a shit in the alley it's this it's this and it was gross too because we took like a baby roof bar and like melted it and then we just dropped it in the frame uh uh it was really gross and it was really funny really funny she goes you can't do that you can't do that go i don't know how about this rena what if i put a christmas hat on it and make it sing a christmas carol and then she goes okay okay so we got away with a lot of stuff because south park pushed boundaries and and people got away with stuff because we pushed boundaries but it was all about just kind of you know making room for everything and and to their credit uh especially at that time at that television was governing the opposite of the internet it was called least objectionable programming how do we make sure everybody likes everything everyone says and that's that's obviously impossible but uh but they were brave in the sense that they would they would let us challenge a lot of convention chappelle show was was fun uh uh charlie murphy oh my gosh yeah you know maybe rest in peace yeah you know i used to see charlie murphy in in hollywood at parties i shouldn't say this but one night i man sorry mom i was high on mushrooms and and i went to uh some place he's okay now though and i'm fine i'm fine but i say that to say if you were high on mushrooms and ran into a personality as intense as charlie murphy it's like don't he's got a he talks to his teeth and he what's going on and he's real gangsta and he got that growl but man this one night i ran into him and the whole night just became about watching this guy charlie murphy now i didn't know in the near future we would work together in such an intimate capacity but that night i could see something great about him and he would always talk about eddie but he always go my brother my brother this much and if anyone said anything bad about eddie at any point in his life he'd smack the shit out of him he he loved his brother so much and uh but what i learned that night that i because he was always a villain in movies he was hilarious he was like a artful storyteller his other stories had all this texture and then one day on the set we were doing some sketch and uh charlie is telling us all these stories about coming with eddie and in the in the middle of the lunch he goes someone said something about rick james and he said man i fought rick james on five different occasions so we were like what and man he started telling us all the times he beat in every story he beat up rick james and all this and man we were dying laughing and we pulled him silently man can we do that on the show hey wait wait wait you want me to beat up rick james on the show not really like and and we just had him tell the stories and and we dramatized him now and now you think you know and as we're shooting it like yo this is like because we were on set dying laughing and then here's the kicker and we're on the set and charlie goes i bet you i can get rick to come for this and he did he did he ended up doing one sketch for rick james and then another sketch about prince yes and and i asked prince to do the sketch and he was like no but then when he saw it he said he wished he had and by all accounts like like by his own account he loved that sketch uh so that was just it's just one of those things where it's like uh and the other thing about that rick james sketch last thing about it is charlie made us show it to eddie first so i'd never been to eddie murphy's house but when we go there was with his brother and eddie has his big screen and room in it downstairs and he's sitting in like a big armchair with his back to us and no one's seen the sketch so there's no lap track on it she felt she had a real lap track and man he didn't laugh once and the sketch was like 10 minutes long and man i'm i'm sitting behind with pit my stomach and then the sketch goes off and he doesn't even turn around but from behind him i see him raise his arms like this oh yeah and then he turns around and goes it was a red couch and rick had on capizios and he gave us the green light and he let us do it and to me it's one of the greatest sketches ever on eddie's house i mean i think i watched that once a month at least once a month um well being from chicago the players ball oh now is is lights out and so accurate you know what's funny when people ask me what to me that was my favorite day of shooting really i laughed more on that not necessarily my favorite sketch but those characters are the ones i revisit the most and and it's not as fun to do without charlie but it's still fun to do and and and man that was like patrice onneal yeah who was a great great comedian he and i used to like like hate each other uh because he's an asshole man and i wouldn't say it because he's dead but he he you know and kevin harden everyone getting mad when i say that because they love patrice so much i love them i love i got there but but at that time i was i was the guy to beat and patrice was new in town so we would always he was like before an internet he was a perfect troll and there's a few people i've met in my life that just knew how to push my buttons and man patrice could play me like a keyboard he just knew how to make me mad and then one day i snapped and when i finally yelled at him about it he was like date date he was date date think about it man think about it i talked to everybody this way and i'm like i asked true and then i thought i had to get over yourself yeah he was that guy and then and then that same week i'm like you know we wrote the sketch and i'm like yo that's called patrice and he was great and one of the things that made me love him for doing the sketch is that when he showed up he was nervous which was very was a huge honor that that he cared as much as i cared and that and man we were good up until they died we were good and and are you guys and when i say guys men and women comedians are you how do you train yourselves to be such good actors well i don't know that everyone can do it i'm not gonna say any names but well i think for me it was definitely ellington okay you know there's a vulnerability than an actor has to have that i don't know the comedians are necessarily vulnerable the same way and with the mercy of a script like you know unless you're working on something flexible you got to service the the writers words uh but but acting is an amazing skill now this has nothing to do with me but the fact that it's one of my favorite performances i've ever seen and i think i told you about this i saw you once in marzburg densel washington and training day oh yeah it's like watching the most technical perfect technically perfect uh it's like everything i learned in school he executes perfectly if you know what you're looking at it's amazing and in the academy museum in la they have his script with the marked up margins and i saw it and it just reminded me of how much work this guy puts into acting and how serious he is and i don't think a lot of comedians would be that serious but but richard prior was a great actor because he was vulnerable uh cat williams is a guy every time i see him act i'm like man he should do that more because he's like he's great at it it's surprisingly great at it and he never studied a day in his life i don't know how he knows how to do that i went to school i was read books and i can do it like you know but but some people can it's like music some people can just play i don't know how do you feel like uh you you tap into that vulnerability well i i do i think i'm more vulnerable on on stage than most comedians you know i'll say anything when people feel like they can't say anything but which is a vulnerable position to put myself in but some joe it's like i just got it i just want to see if it works i don't want to not try and and i think that i've over the years cultivated an audience that's more forgiving than most people's than a casual comedy observer would be these people i think almost come to experience the danger because the audience is is also vulnerable yeah if you if you're taking it out of bounds yeah yeah i don't know so there's much talk about you walking away from the show it's been discussed but i find it i was reading something where you said you you know you just went out the country for a week or so it has just got two weeks it's just like you know what do what do you think it was about that that time that made people lose their minds over you making a decision that was preserving yourself i think at that time it was the idea that the the money you know what you know comedians want getting 50 million dollar checks that i had heard of i think i think it was the money and that at that time the show was wildly popular and it was all the cinema was just gone and and you know i gotta tell you the truth when i quit i thought you know maybe i'll go back and but it it took some time for me to realize like oh i'm not i'm never going back maybe like a year and then i thought my career was over i believe that for a few more years so i went through the whole process of mourning the narrative that i had in my head of being a big star and i and at that time i was just back in yellow springs you know yellow springs is welcome back superstar i was like oh man it's like no how are you really doing yeah no perfect call man took me i don't know we think like maybe four years to get over it but but man imagine how liberating that is to believe that it's over uh and i got over it and then i just went back to work i still needed money and i could still fill rooms up because people like the show uh and and like i started back in comedy clubs uh and then i did this big tour uh and the tour was tough for me because the show was like it's a festival thing it was like a five hour show that i'd have to close it was tough but it got me back out there and then when i left that big festival thing and just did my own thing i was just in the pocket again and then like a few years after that the someone would call me and be like congratulations what what you just got tour of the year i'm like i did i would never even pay attention and one time somebody called me and said congratulations i say for what they're like he just made forbs this and i was like what and i looked and and because i don't yeah just count the money that comes in and i looked and said like they should help me i don't know what it was that year i've never i've made eight million bucks i'm like oh now look i said well who i was tenth in the top ten and then i looked at the other nine names and i'm like uh i should come back it's like i think i can do this yeah thing like yeah i wish elaine was mic'd up now because i want to be like what was he like during that period were you staring off into space and telling them don't talk to me now what were you like then because elaine does not have a mic she was the person that really helped me get over myself let's give a round of applause to the land and and and and i gotta tell you especially if you want nice move by the way yeah you know what it is kray you know what it is but but you know i think at that time maybe i did you know you almost have to fight the urge to feel sorry for yourself if you're morning of career and she's not that kind of person she just always keeps it moving almost i mean it's like too much sometimes like were you slow down she just but she just you know and our kids were young and so she was just like come on man and get over that now i gotta tell you a friend of mine that was famous passed away recently and one of the things that he said as he was dying and and man he knew he was dying he said i'll never forget this he said man he said he said i took myself too seriously man i they have really resonated with me because that's that's such an easy trap to fall for it and nobody says that trap for you better than yourself so it's good to have somebody that you know i mean not to say she didn't let me mourn my career but she also helped remind me that my life is about more than myself uh and for someone that's like you know your your wife ideally the best of times she's at your shoulder and for someone at your shoulder to remind you of that and it's like you know and i had to think about it like well i guess technically she lost the money too i bet she knew what number you were on the ford's list yeah she's like eight million okay check no and and and you know what we also always had what we needed i you know and never really worried about money now what happens is when the guy gets famous they upgrade everything that's when they get a new wife and a new house and a new this and a new that man we we everything the same uh uh which allowed us to do stuff like this when we did get money it's like you know why upgrade our house when we can upgrade the town we're living in you said something really lovely uh about elaine um because elaine you grew up in new you were new yorker you not from yellow springs this is this is this was new but i asked you how she felt about moving here um and why you chose here can you talk a bit about you remember you remember that conversation dav yeah i said something to the effect and that's true the the at that time my idea was we should build a lifestyle that that i can feel more secure and maintaining so that i can you know be courageous and you know she's from brooklyn she didn't have any friends out here like that or any of that stuff and we moved down here and i'm you know at first it was just me and her and and our kids uh and that's i'm sure that's tough giving up your social life and and you know and new york city in and of itself if you live in new york it's hard to live i mean i'm from here and it was hard to come back here after living in new york but man but she did it man she learned a way around she found everything that she wanted and eventually as as the years went on she made her life here we have you know she has friends and i friends but you know she she was she was a pioneer and even now like i'm i'm more inside and you know a lot of people in the community don't reach out to me directly they they go through her because a lot of head shaking here everybody like yeah dav you can't count on day for nothing but no you can't but but but she's outside and and you know she's a very kind person but she's also she can she can hold a line because everybody asks us for everything and and you know it's part of being in a community everyone's like that but but she's been amazing at helping me do all of the things we've been doing in the community and and you know having a relationship with the community when i go travel she's the one that tells me what's going on at town yeah yeah well you're you're a father of three oh yeah what's what's dav the father like hmm can we get the mic too you know if my kids were vegetables they'd be organically grown i don't i don't i don't i don't that's a got a big definition in the organic community okay well meaning number well number one is with the soil which would be yellow springs is the place where they can independently learn to be courageous and like i learned before them though fence again to not be afraid of white people uh my kids are uh uh unlike me they're they're mixed race right their their mom is asian their dad is black uh but their generation i don't think thinks of anything like that uh in a town like yellow springs a young person can use their time more the way they want to because it's not so many immediate dangers uh and it is a community if my kids are messing up somebody in town tells me i saw your kid doing this or that correct but you know my parents weren't like heavy on rules in fact looking back and i hope this doesn't upset you mom i look at my parents as reference books you get the most out of them if you if you're interested my mother has amazing stories about her life my father you tell me amazing stories about about his life but they also gave me a weird context about my life they they they they didn't police me as much as they guided me or horse whistled me i would think it was my idea but it was them and i i think i parent in a similar style i'm the invisible hand dad you know i'm there and you know i think my oldest son has figured it out everything he figured everything out first but he's i think uses the resource of me as like a wiser person than him the most he's the one that calls me just to teach you on something i'm trying to figure something out what do you think of this what do you think of that um i don't know but we're all happy we we laugh together uh all you know what have you learned about yourself being a parent yeah that's a great question another one yeah man it's like i think i'm i'm keeping count that was three yeah no that isn't i don't mean that in the meat of the press thank you for your questions uh what have i learned about myself probably that i i'm more courageous than i believe myself to be and and and and also being a parent uh you gotta again like only you gotta forgive yourself or get over yourself and i think that being a parent for anybody is is very humbling but if you have all the money in the world it doesn't make you a good parent you know like in the beginning i think i got to provide for my family and all that stuff but but i've realized my time was it was way more valuable than i have understood when i had three people that needed it you know i mean so maybe that and i learned that uh well i learned that i'm a happier person than i thought and really covid was when i really learned that because because we were all like trapped in our choices yes and i remember one point is being in the house like this is not that bad like i like these people everyone's comfortable it was safe and and i could walk around town and we all be going through covid together and i recognized everybody and and then all those choices that made like moving to Ohio and stuff that people laughed at me about now i felt vindicated about each and every one of them because because the world shut down and and just for a minute i'm i'm absolutely right and it felt great do your kids find your humor and gay do they think you're funny oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah every night around the house but like like uh i remember when they were kids we talked about time room big ones earlier and that was the first time they were in the backseat like cracking them laughing watching something on the ipad they were laughing and it was that time room big them sketch and i and i was thinking my mind i told you that poop was funny it was spandering renae renae told you that shit joke would work yeah i don't know it it it is something having kids and you know i see time on them you know as they grow and become and it is just like it's so precious isn't it fun watching them become people yeah it is for your very eyes and scary yeah oh my god the most terrifying thing so i tell people it makes sense not to have kids absolute complete emotional sense don't do it yeah that's right and you know it's funny i think now with ai and all these things i don't know what you would tell a kid about how to prepare for the next 10 years like what kind of jobs there will be or how those jobs will be done what does the lawyer do in in the ai age or any of us and i think i don't know it's interesting but i'm amazed at how sophisticated the kids minds are that they can sift through an avalanche of information and they can say i'll send them videos and be like dad that's not real it's a i don't know sorry i think you know i'm getting that a lot i am so foolish i believe all this stuff is a shame i'm the worst but it's also a reminder of why we have to um train them up and move out of the way i mean it's the organic parenting piece of it we've got a trust that they have to find the courage now to figure it out it's not our courage anymore you know we we can't supplant our courage for theirs and these times are going to be it's that's going to play itself out i mean we're moving into something that we don't understand um that we you know we don't know ai we're not we can't figure it out and it may seem scary now but we have to have faith that they will figure this out and be able to tap into the values that we've instilled them in communities like this that they'll remember humility and boundaries and love and trust and all of that that compassion has to go into whatever the solution is that's right you know yeah well the you know in the last you know a big part of their lifetime my kids made my my daughter's entire lifetime i was trying to explain to somebody like you know my daughter's 16 so so donald trump is like the first white president she's ever seen i know right i know right and my baby's like oh no they're not good at it daddy uh it's a hard job it's a hard job try to tell the people it's a hard it's a hard job it looks hard from the outside but hey to that end just so i make sure i say this you you and family was so incredibly graceful this is the long way to go but you know it reminds me of seeing you guys as a it's that black dude on that artemist ship uh you you remind me of that you you you experience something you're like a in a in a social space program and and and it's so sequestered and you see all these amazing things and come back and you share all that information but whatever you had to go through to get in that spacecraft you know pilot through all of that you know as as i go on in public life and see more have a greater appreciation of what i saw during the presidency and you use the word i always think of you in particular uh i believe did more to humanize what a presidency is than maybe anybody ever that that you're the first person that i feel like i i couldn't know that's been in that space and and you know survived it and came out as gracefully as you went in so i really really really appreciate you and your family and well i well i wanted to ask go ahead you you ask him then i'll go what's what do you think how do you feel about where we are now in society you know just some Dave Chappelle thoughts about and while you're thinking please know that your voice means a lot to a lot of people our age and younger because you know i've got four kids and they range from 34 now down to 14 oh wow he's the head of the odc the old dad's i'm i'm the head of the actually i am i am i am the vice chair so there's one guy who is above me but your voice carries a lot of weight i personally could hear it every night oh man thank you bro like you know it's funny i think you know last was last week i was in LA and i i performed at a nightclub on ventura boulevard i'd never been to this for me is a big treat if i get the test drive like a new venue and i love the club uh things called what's it called babe katie's i think it's called uh so shout out to katie's this great great room but but i bring it up because it's a night like that i'll try out mostly new jokes just to see you know where i'm at and where people are and uh you're right people it's not that my voice is important but now it's like somewhere the crowd is coming almost like church they're not coming to hear me say anything important but they're coming to lay down a burden so to speak and so a show like that was was incredibly fun to do but what it tells me about with people i remember this is this is in north hollywood so everyone's doing pretty good out there is that these times are uncertain that there's an emotional content or or pain or some people come to counteract a numbness they just want to laugh so they can feel something um but it's never really been quite like this before where everyone feels like we're on the precipice of some amazing change and and every day the new cycling is more pawing than the the last day and doesn't seem like it's ever going to end and and and every week i learned some new word like straight of harmoos or bubble bud and and it's it's such an avalanche that it it is fun even for me now to watch comedians contextualize this stuff uh someone asked me about my transgender i said you know you got a lot of trouble for those transgender jokes and i go ah the good old days there's so much so much has happened so quickly and but okay i'm hopeful it's a matter of practice this building opening up and being completed that makes me hopeful having my own comedy club finally after all these years that makes me hopeful you guys being here with us it's like a dream come true it makes me hopeful my community coming together and in tough times or you know our family we have a tremendous losses recently people in our family passed away and the community you know picked us up that made me hopeful uh the little things mean so much more now and i would want to remind anybody that's listening to this show man that man that smile that you must have when it hurts to smile this is priceless right now anything you can do to let each other know you're safe with it that you're okay uh it it means everything right now because otherwise this this is intolerable this is insufferable what's happening right now thank you thank you but i you know i'm i'm hopeful too um and this this day with you um with this community here in this space gives me a whole lot of hope um you know i mean as my husband says we have overcome worse um and but we overcome it by pulling together and not feeding on each other that's just the thing that we have to remember we have to remind our young people you know because this internet kind of conversation we're playing in that space a little bit too much you know i don't want young folks to get comfortable with that uh that dissing mentality would you say just everything's a disrespect everything's a diss um algorithm yeah you just play in that space and you mistake those for real feelings and truth and this is what's real you know what you feel in the room when you're with people you know you were showing us the videos of the juke joint gatherings and the you know the the cornfield the cornfield um you know people of all races and ages and uh with different cultural um proclivities all dancing to the same beat and smiling and moving together it's like that's the power of gathering you know the power of gathering is that we we're reminded of our similarities and we forget the minor little stupid differences that is tearing this country and this world apart um and i want more young people to fight for the gathering you know fight for coming off of your phone finding community being reminded of who we are as people and do not let the algorithm separate us from one another um that's the that's the danger of ai you know that's that's that's you know but that's in our control you know that's something we built i could text message argue with an ai bot all day like if i if i thought it was a person i would fuss with thing all day uh it feels it does feel good to be outside you know my son told me it's a trend with him and his friends like they ditched their phones just so they can be outside uh my daughter got a cd player for her birthday and went through the roof because she couldn't believe that she could hold the music in her hands uh uh the the kids are nostalgic for something that they haven't really lived through a scene and and i think you know we the old g's gotta let them know the what our analog how good our analog life feels you know uh and i do think that that that pendulum will swing back at least in the culture somehow as an elective but but yeah i got the technology to mobile and i think the point that you the decisions that you made to uh live in a way that allowed you to be courageous you know another way of saying that is to you know start out living small you know um we're a culture where everybody is promoting you start our big you know even watching uh hg tv everybody wants a big tray ceilings they want the they want the man cave they want everything now it's like it's your starter home right you know why does everybody think they deserve a granite countertop you know we've just we've lost the script it's like you know we grew up you know you know one and a half bedroom apartment over our aunt's house my father got a new car occasionally you know we we got three gifts at christmas you know um it our our parents didn't believe in stuff and now everybody's promoting the bling the this to that and look there is nothing wrong with making a good living with you know living well but i try to tell my kids learn to live small uh because that's you know you're you're happier if you can you live within a thing you can control you know you're not reaching for something that's not even that important that is not the thing that's going to make you happy uh you asked what was it like living in the white house you know it was a house um because that's all a house is what made a home was what we brought to it you know our love the people we brought in it how we opened it up how we shared it with other people how we made sure that we got every black entertainer that would never get invited back in there how we brought in duke ellington school how we touched young people that's what made that house a home it wasn't the size of it the color of it and that's you know what i want young people to understand in this pursuit of fame and fortune it's a lie you know it is you know we've lived it that is not the thing that is going to bring you joy that's right yeah do that and i once got to go to one of your uh parties there yeah and it was your birthday yeah we were talking about it yeah one of the things that okay you know obviously i love smoking cigarettes that's why my but uh obviously i asked somebody i go where can i smoke a cigarette around here and one of the butlers took me down by the kitchen and i saw your dog bow oh you like getting walked and i go there's that dog i seen that dog on tv and i'm like can i get his autograph like he bites and the dog walked by and uh and in the kitchen was like a juke bonk's kitchen and i'm like man it's the kitchen of the wilds and and i said what's the one with that cooking in there and i look fried chicken i said man it does feel like oh there was some greens some fried chicken going i said man lots of bacon and one of this was Filipino i'm like man this is just like home we used to call those white house parties yeah they were so good though man and that particular night was one of the last actually the that weekend was the last time i'd ever seen Prince alive and and and he was playing and he was a surprise guest i didn't know he was there and he came out and as soon as he saw me standing out there he was like i should have done that sketch i'm just kidding it was so great though a lot of special nights yeah a lot of joy a lot of joy but one of the i forgot to tell you this one of the greatest highlights of like my life uh as i'm standing i'm like man i can't believe and i'm shy i was just standing in the corner and i feel this hand on my shoulder i look over and it was you and he go are you having a good time and i was like i'm working way to go close the loops way to go man oh man well date talk about joy man you and this community have brought us a lot of joy so thank you so much for inviting me i do have one more question this is what she does i know this is what she does to me one more question i know but we talked about this it's like you know we're because we're on the same you know you have invested so much in supporting this community you know um and we're in the process of opening up our presidential center in june on june by the way so i know i've been spending a lot of time thinking about what his legacy what does it mean i don't know how do you how do you think about legacy and your legacy in particular okay first of all that's not apples apples but i mean okay but the goal is the same i mean we're opening up this uh center on the south side of chicago for a reason because it is our community it is our place in the same way we're making that investment you know so i it is i think it's maybe it's red apples to green apples hey i think uh uh recently because i'm getting older and i lost friends like you know that the worst part of getting older is you start you get those phone calls more often and and uh i don't think he would mind me saying this but but last week when i was in LA uh i hit up eddie murphy out of the blue it's not something i do often but when i do it it's almost just because could i just call that he murphy and it turns out i could and and and i say you mind if i just stop by i want to just talk to you for a little while and he was like sure and i went by and i didn't realize it was his birthday or the day before it had been his birthday you know eddie's a beautiful house obviously he's a family guy so it you know we're sitting on his back patio and the music in the background is his grandkids like joyfully playing in his pool and he was wistful and and we're talking and i realized that it's the first time since his brother passed that he and i had just spoke about charlie or or things like that and uh and this is to the legacy part and i say hey can he use your restroom and walk into the restroom and you know i saw a picture of you know eddie holding his mark twain prize with your husband and it was probably featured in his home and and then i'm like man i would wear that as a t-shirt i'm thinking to myself and and then it's gonna sound weird but it dawned on me like i'm davisha pelt hanging out with eddie murphy on his birthday it's just two of us and that's important another time i chased bob dillon down for a meeting and when he got there he don't know me at all but they i guess someone told him like you should meet this guy and he was like yeah so he goes yeah man what are we talking about anyway he was like he was like real standoffish and i just kept asking him questions and it took him a while to realize like oh man he just didn't want to know about stuff and i'd be like what about the 60s man i don't want to talk about the 60s man he'd say but but by the end of it you know bob dillon was explaining to davisha pelt what many bruce was like and so when i think about legacy it's always in these moments where i meet a the the first black first lady of the united states and her brother and and i'm like you know as simple as these meetings are they're important they happen kareda scott king with the college here and then she went off and mary martin luther king and a few years after she graduated from anion her her husband came back with her and they did the commencement address at anion college and and that's just and you know at the time it was just another day in the old springs but now you know i've never met any of these people but i know anyok and it's it's our history so i think the buildings encapsulate the the message of what our lives have been that that you you know i've got to spend all day with uh uh mr robertson and mr obama and i feel like i've known you for years i feel like when you speak your mother i can just see her vividly and it makes me want to smoke but but but as simple as that all is what you've accomplished with your life and and how you've gone about it is is you know very well will live far beyond our bodies and and so for me uh more than money or anything i i hoard memories i today is like a memory like i'll close my eyes and i'll treasure the day for the rest of my life even if we became the best friends this time was such a special time to be together so you know i also look at it like when i meet people i i try now and i used to not be like this but i try to remember that by myself because i i've made fun of a comedian once uh who's younger than me it's just busting balls but he got really hurt he did all this press about how how bad i was and i was mad at first and then i called him up like why you sell those things about me he said well you forgot that you said this and the other and then dawned on me like oh it never occurred to me that this person might look up to me that's just another person i'd see at the comedy club so now i'm more mindful in that in that regard so uh i mean you know one day at a time one foot in front of the other uh i look back only at the places where the treasure's buried but i look back at all the the shadows and the scary faces and i just try to just you know i i'm just hoping that my legacy is something like that applause break richard prior got in the work well you you're well on your way for sure thank you thank you man what an honor thank you uh it's been a special visit for us really it really has you you all should be proud of the community you built all of you i'm man thank you thank you man thank you yeah i guess i have to officially close it out now so we really appreciate it man and it's been it's been a wonderful couple of days and uh thank you all for being so welcoming and to me and my sister and and our and our colleagues it's been absolutely wonderful man craig don't be freaked out because i know you don't know me that well but you'll see in time i love you craig i love you you