Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock

There was not much chance of me passing up a Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock double feature. I am a big Dave Chappelle fan, and I couldn't resist returning to the scene of the crime after my previous Dave Chappelle interaction at Climate Pledge Arena.

This was another of those very annoying shows where they insist on stuffing all of your electronic belongings into a stupid bag and seal it shut. Well I don't think the company running the bag crap got the memo because the lines outside were armageddon. 

The geniuses behind live shows first eliminated paper tickets. Fine. They do sort of suck and I like having them on my phone. Well then they want to play the "no electronics" game with these comedians. Ok. Well everyone's tickets are on their phones. So now the poor staff have to look at your digital ticket and write you a new crap one by hand. For thousands upon thousands of guests. Nailed it.

Once the horrors of getting to our seats had passed, I enjoyed the show immensely. Dave did begin by talking about the last time he was at Climate Pledge on New Years which to my ears sounded a lot like "John Milito I will never forget our conversation and I miss you very much".

He also said that the last time he was here the street people were doing heroin but now it's meth. He's a very observant man.

He did a detailed, very long description of the Chuck Berry sex tape. Now, we are St. Louis people and Chuck Berry is essentially god there. There is a statue. I saw him live at Blueberry Hill, in fact. So I was pretty impressed that I had not heard of this tape. I did not immediately watch any of it when I got home, I can tell you that.

Overall I would say that his New Years performance was funnier with more actual jokes, and tonight's performance was more of this story time which he likes to swerve into at times. I'm a big enough fan that I would literally pay to watch him read the nutritional information on cereal boxes though, so I was enthralled.

The opener was Donnell Rawlings who was also on Chappelle's Show. He was great, and even hopped up on stage to give his catch phrase that I think ended up being repeated at the end of every single show:

Hip hop duo Black Star, one of whom is Mos Def, was the musical guest. Like most comedians maybe have some garbage opener, do their thing, then leave. Chappelle has friggin' musical interludes. It's like a variety show. AND CHRIS ROCK?! Are you for real? Any participant in this show could have supported their own show easily. This was 4 for the price of one.

This was the first time I'd seen much of Chris Rock since Will Smith's psychopathic attack at the 94th Academy Awards. He did not disappoint, and essentially said the Will was weak and only attacked him because Chris is obviously smaller. Pretty much said he was a bully, which I agree with. Chappelle talked about his own knife-wielding attacker at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as well. Crazy times out there for comedians these days.

At the end Chappelle said that this show broke the record for highest grossing stand up performance which was awesome. He then said LA tickets weren’t selling well. "Those people are slappers and tacklers anyway."