My earliest memory of Dave Chappelle is from his annoying portrayal of Tom
Hanks’ best friend in You’ve Got Mail. I found him kinda really
super annoying. But, like several of my hairy infected back moles, he started
to grow on me. I’ve seen his show only a handful of times, and while it
is funny for the most part, I still feel it suffers from what all other variety
shows of its kind suffer from (like Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and
Antiques Roadshow), it’s inconsistently funny. You either laugh ‘til
it hurts or keep flipping over to see that hot chick on the Weather Channel.
So that’s why, be it George Carlin or Chappelle, stick to their stand-up
routines. And judging from the trailer to Block Party, he should deliver in
spades.
Inspired by Wattstax, the 1973 documentary about African-American funk and
soul singers such as Isaac Hayes (Shaft), Mavis Staples (Staple Singers) and
hosted by Richard Pryor, Chappelle’s Block Party will feature a healthy
does of sketch comedy mixed in with all your favorite hip-hop and R&B artists
by the likes of Cody Chesnutt, Erykah Badu and Mos Def, along countless others
whose names I don’t care to remember right now. The ginchy part about
all this is that this film is directed by none other than the incomparable Michel
Gondry himself (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) who began his career
as a drummer for his band Oui Oui, for which he also directed music videos.
I attended a conference the esteemed writer/director appeared at during the
last RESFEST in Montreal (Read our fearless leaders’ shotty coverage here
and here),
and I can’t imagine what it must be like to work with him, he’s
so coy and shy, I had to suppress the urge to run up onstage and pinch his little
Parisian cheeks. Maybe it’s the accent.
View the trailer, available in both Windows and Quicktime, here.
