Why did NPR’s Michel Martin want to talk with Dave Chappelle?
It’s true that Chappelle’s Show, his sketch comedy show that ran on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006, was one of those shows that you had to watch if you wanted to know what the culture was up to. And it’s also true that his standup specials are the kind of shows that almost feel like samizdat —-underground literature passed hand to hand in defiance of the state — even though his shows are advertised at bus stops, held in arenas and thousands of people attend.
But that’s not why.
She wanted to ask him why he spent $15 million of his own money to give the tiny WYSO public radio station a new home. And she wanted to know whether he saw it as a contradiction when, as a person known for his uncompromising, take-no-prisoners style, he’s chosen to perform in places that are decidedly unfree when it comes to speech about certain subjects.
And she really wanted to know why a person who travels everywhere and could afford to live anywhere decided to move his family to tiny Yellow Springs, Ohio.
So she asked him all of those questions in the latest interview for NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast – which NPR recorded at WYSO's brand new station in Yellow Springs. You can listen to the interview to hear what he has to say yourself.
Martin says this, though.
If you expect to hear Dave Chappelle “performing” Dave Chappelle, she thinks you’re going to be disappointed.
But if you are open to hearing a seriously funny man seriously engage with issues like free speech, the purpose of comedy, the weaponization of jokes and the search for oneself — then she thinks you will be as intrigued as she was. Also, when it comes to Yellow Springs, he might be on to something. It’s … great. But Martin doesn’t think he wants us all to know that — just yet.
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Newsmakers takes you face to face with the person of the moment. This interview series brings the biggest names in politics, business, sports, arts, and culture out of the headlines and into the interview chair to discuss the mark they’re making on the world.