Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
What other comedian could inspire a flood of advance reviews for his stand-up, critics rushing to the Internet on a Friday when you couldn’t see it until Tuesday?
What other comedian has captivated critics and common fans alike despite not releasing any new stand-up material in more than a decade, with only a Saturday Night Live monologue this past November to enthrall us?
That Dave Chappelle inspires such fervent attention still proves just how revered his status remains in the world of comedy and our need for social commentators today. That Netflix could entice Chappelle to release two “old” specials he’d otherwise have preferred to keep locked away in his personal archives says as much, too; plus Netflix’s power of pocketbook persuasion in a $60 million deal helps wipe away the memories you may have of him walking away from Comedy Central’s $50 million offer for more Chappelle’s Show in 2004.
The specials are presented to us on Netflix in reverse chronological order as one collection.
Perhaps Netflix figures you’d be less interested in 2015 jokes than 2016 ones in 2017, putting Deep in the Heart of Texas as episode two for fans of his deeper cuts, so to speak. I was first to tell you about his 2015 taping in Austin, and made a point to see his show live later that summer in Montreal to find out what all the fuss was about.
Both Netflix specials open in black and white with voiceover narration from Morgan Freeman, followed by an animated burst of a montage (similar to yet different enough from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver intros) hinting at the topics to come at you over the next hour.
The crowd at Austin City Limits greets Chappelle with a prolonged standing ovation, after which he assesses the view and cracks: “It’s good to know that plaid is back in. Most of the dudes I meet around these parts are dressed like a dyke in New York.” He’s definitely Friday casual himself, in jeans and an open collared denim shirt, often sticking his left leg forward to put one of his white sneakers on the front speaker, leaning into the audience.
Having seen Chappelle live several other times over the past decade in his many unannounced and surprise appearances in New York City, this is his natural element. Which makes this hour feel more like we’re dropping in on him, a common situation made special by the addition of cameras and the rarity of making him available to millions of viewers at once.
While’s he most definitely comfortable in his environment, the mantra for this hour is how it’s a “tough time for the blacks.”
It can be tough for him, too, though. He immediately references a white audience member in Santa Fe who’d thrown a banana peel at him onstage, joking about how that became national news, then imagining how that heckler might reminisce about the event 20 years later to his kids. Chappelle also recalls having snowballs thrown at him by white kids in Ohio. “This has happened to me before,” he says. Which leads to his bigger point about racial tensions in America: Do you think any of this still surprises him?
And so Chappelle wanders his way through the headlines of the days back in 2015, from the emergence of Ebola in nearby Dallas to the possible reemergence of measles; from Paula Deen to Donald Sterling and Ray Rice; and from one pleasurably selfish scenario to another which Chappelle himself wouldn’t let spoil simply due to racism. On that, he can compartmentalize his emotions. As for police brutality and killings of young black men, he defers.
“I’m not going to say nothing about the police. I’ll leave that for Chris Rock.”
The Austin audience is well lit, with plenty of reaction shots. We don’t see but do hear one drunk heckler, who Chappelle shuts down efficiently. He sits down on his stool for the second half-hour, putting both feet up on the speaker and asking the audience for a cigarette to smoke. Here he can allow himself to explore sensitive subjects. Sure, he doesn’t have the luxury of time like those marathon stand-up efforts in Los Angeles and New York City comedy clubs you have may have heard or read about over the past decade. And with the Internet, he bemoans the lack of luxury in talking about offensive words without online criticism twisting his words against him. “I have no problem with gay people, but I fucking hate bloggers,” Chappelle says at one point.
So when he discusses his feelings on homosexuality, gender identity, or the sanctity of marriage, he may not always be right or current, but he’s almost usually open to continue the dialogue. Definitely quick with a joke to lighten the mood and bring levity to even his own personal dilemmas, whether it’s being confronted by a “gotcha” tape or problems his kids have at school. Thank goodness he has a dog to ease his stress.
Deep in the Heart of Texas is funny, if perhaps neither triumphant nor transcendent. It wasn’t meant to be. He didn’t even mean for you to see it until Netflix came calling.
All in all, it’s a loose hour, more representative of a typical night out onstage for Chappelle in 2015 than something special for him. Of course, for us, for you, it’s something very special now.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
