Sunday was a big night for comic Dave Chappelle.
The troubled, controversial comedian was on stage Sunday night at Madison Square Garden performing in “NYC Still Rising After 20 Years” when he won an Emmy award in Hollywood for Guest Actor hosting “Saturday Night Live.”
The Creative Arts Emmys also gave a guest actress award to Maya Rudolph for “SNL.”
But Chappelle’s time on stage at MSG, spies say, was pretty rough. As usual he made everyone who came into the arena place their phones in a locked Yondr bag so they couldn’t record his act. But when Chappelle discovered someone near the stage, in a floor seat, was taping him, he went ballistic.
“He called for security and had the guy thrown out,” says my source. “He was screaming for security to erase anything they found of him on the phone. He kept ranting to the audience that there was an unwritten law about taping and so on. And that he’d paid for the locked containers, or that he’d passed the expense on to us.” Chappelle’s Pilot Boy Productions was listed as a producer for the show.
Chappelle was also late for his set in the Jon Stewart-Pete Davidson produced fundraiser for 9-11 families om the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedies. When he didn’t take the stage on time, Chris Rock appeared on stage as a surprise, unbilled, but had no material prepared. Instead, he ranted, I’m told, about the cost of his divorce. He said some unmentionable things about the women he’d been with during the pandemic, as well.
Indeed, I’m told all the comedians said things that were not politically correct and could have gotten them in some hot water had they been recorded or disseminated. John Mulaney made reference to having a baby (with actress Olivia Munn) fresh out of rehab, and went on do a capsule version of his recent show about drug addiction. Sounds like fun.
Some of the other participants in the night were Jimmy Fallon, who sang a clever song; Wanda Sykes; Bill Burr; Michael Che, Colin Quinn, and Colin Jost; and “SNL” ex player Jay Pharaoh, who “killed.”
Sounds like a night full of belly laughs!
PS This locking away of phones is going to reach a tipping point and maybe be tested in court soon. Artists don’t want their material reproduced without permission, but fans don’t want to give up their phones. A dilemma.
