Dave Chappelle Canceled From Upcoming Show Due To Controversy
Dave Chappelle had a venue cancel his upcoming appearance and move it to another venue because of the comedian's controversies
This article is more than 2 years old
Dave Chappelle has come under fire over the last year, leading to some friction around performance dates, changing schedules, and even some venues outright canceling upcoming shows for the comedian. The latter just happened recently with a Minneapolis, Minnesota venue dropping a planned Chappelle show from their lineup and ultimately apologizing to fans for even scheduling it in the first place. It continues a short-term run for Dave Chappelle which has seen some of his fanbase take umbrage with jokes he’s made in recent comedy specials. Though the backlash hasn’t taken the form of a full-blown canceling of the comedian (nor should it), there have definitely been bits and pieces of friction where Chappelle is concerned.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dave Chappelle was set to appear at the Minneapolis venue First Avenue on Wednesday evening. But it was announced prior to the show that the performance would no longer happen there and that the show had been moved to another location. First Avenue posted from their official Instagram account that the show would be moving to the Varsity Theater which is a couple of miles away, but still in the city. In the Instagram post, First Avenue apologized to fans and others saying “we hear you and we are sorry”. While they don’t go into specifics around why the Dave Chappelle performance was removed from the venue, the implication is that they were responding to backlash over the comedian’s material. You can see the announcement about the Dave Chappelle show below.
While Dave Chappelle and his camp didn’t publicly comment on the show being moved, it’s hard to imagine they were all that pleased with the last-minute announcement. What kind of public pressure First Avenue was facing for booking Chappelle in the first place isn’t known though it likely stems from recent Chappelle material, specifically from Netflix’s The Closer. This dealt with the transgender community and the comedian’s recent run-ins with that group related to some of his material. At the time of the special’s release on the streamer, there was internal strife at Netflix over whether it should stay up as part of the platform’s content with some employees publicly protesting the relationship with Chappelle. Ultimately, Netflix sided with the comedian.
And in the wake of the Netflix “controversy”, Dave Chappelle had an appearance rescheduled that was supposed to take place at his former high school. The original intent was to have a theater on campus named after him, but those plans were scrapped (at the request of Chappelle) and the ceremony was moved to just a few weeks ago. A speech at the ceremony was turned into another Netflix special titled What’s in a Name and in it, Chappelle implores the students to understand artistic freedom and comedy.
Whether Dave Chappelle continues to see friction in his touring and appearance schedule remains to be seen. To his credit, it doesn’t appear Chappelle has any intention of changing his act in the short or long term even with some venues and fans taking umbrage with the content.
