Dave Chappelle

So I wasn't on the road yet.

I would get a road gig here or there.

And the principal at Ellington used to give me excused absences if I left on Friday to go on the road because it was an artistic pursuit, not catch the train up the eastern seaboard and get a gig here or there.

But it was mostly happening in town, in Washington.

And the scene was very experimental and very competitive, but there was a lot of camaraderie on that scene.

New York was different, but man, D.C.

was, I think, the perfect place to start, because I had enough room to get good.

That's a very good question.

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 amaze me.

Some more consistently than others.

But, man, any night, it could be just some guy who just says the thing of that night.

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 callback a joke, make reference to something they referenced before, I'm like, wait a minute, you can do the same joke twice?

And from then on, man, I'm telling you, I'm like those guys that can draw a perfect circle freehand.

If I went on stage with no material, I would just know what to do.

But I've been doing this so long,

comedy it's almost like a language that I know how to speak I can say anything in this language but there are real parameters 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 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.