Dave Chappelle returns with Radio City show
Dave Chappelle’s hesitant, slow-motion comeback reached a big-tent crescendo when the comic performed a nearly two-hour set at Radio City Music Hall that seemed to officially announce his long-awaited return.
Chappelle, who famously abandoned his acclaimed and lucrative Comedy Central show in 2005, has largely shunned the public eye since last year resuming his stand-up career. In his wide-ranging act Wednesday, Chappelle made up for lost time, catching up to a decade of racial and societal change, skipping from Herman Cain to Donald Sterling, his since-born children to his return from self-imposed exile.
“I’m just back out here earning enough money to disappear again,” he said mid-set as the sold-out crowd howled, collectively hoping he was joking.
The show was the first of nine scheduled for Chappelle at Radio City, easily his biggest platform in years. A noticeably more buff Chappelle first appeared with his silhouette projected large on a screen. He looked increasingly comfortable as his set went on, chain-smoking cigarettes and bumming one from an audience member.
Of his abrupt exit from “Chappelle’s Show” he said: “I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore. It was dramatic, but I feel better.”
Nyong’o reflects, looks ahead in Vogue
Looking back, Lupita Nyong’o says the moments after she won her Academy Award this year were a blur and time stood still.
But she says in the July issue of Vogue there’s one thing she does remember: worrying she would trip on her way to the podium.
“It’s not cute if you follow Jennifer Lawrence – it’s not cute if you’re the second one!” she laughed, referring to Lawrence’s famous stumble while collecting her best-actress Oscar the year before.
The 31-year-old actress has a steady path ahead of her.
She will voice a character in Jon Favreau’s take on Disney’s “The Jungle Book” and landed a role in “Star Wars: Episode VII.” Plus she’s going to co-produce and star in an adaption of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book “Americanah,” saying the story blew her away.
The birthday bunch
Actor Martin Landau is 86. Actress Olympia Dukakis is 83. Actor Danny Aiello is 81. Blues musician Lazy Lester is 81. Singer-songwriter Brian Wilson is 72. Singer Anne Murray is 69. TV personality Bob Vila is 68. Musician Andre Watts is 68. Actress Candy Clark is 67. Producer Tina Sinatra is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer Lionel Richie is 65. Actor John Goodman is 62. Rock musician Michael Anthony is 60. Pop musician John Taylor is 54. Rock musician Murphy Karges (Sugar Ray) is 47. Actress Nicole Kidman is 47. Movie director Robert Rodriguez is 46. Actor Peter Paige is 45. Rock singer Chino Moreno (Deftones) is 41. Country-folk singer-songwriter Amos Lee is 37. Country singer Chuck Wicks is 35. Rock singer Grace Potter (Grace Potter & the Nocturnals) is 31. Actor Mark Saul is 29. Actress Dreama Walker is 28.