The Hopkins Center and The Programming Board will help kick off Homecoming festivities this evening with a sold out performance by comedian David Chappelle in Spaulding Auditorium.
Chappelle first gained notoriety as a teenager, while performing his act in and around Washington D.C. The son of a Unitarian minister declares, Chappelle noted in his biography, "When I was seventeen, I had an act that was as good as anyone else in D.C. My mom drove me to all my club dates. She said that of all the dangerous things I could become involved in, club life was the least harmful."
Chappelle attended the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts and eventually accumulated enough material to bring himself into the national spotlight on HBO's Def Comedy Jam.
Aside from accumulating a vast fanbase, Chappelle has earned the praise of a number of his peers. Over the years he's shared a stage with such celebrity comedians as Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall and Garry Shandling.
Chappelle has also appeared in a variety of popular films. He made his first successful foray into acting in 1993 with the Mel Brooks farce "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."
Chappelle would later appear alongside Eddie Murphy in the widely successful "The Nutty Professor" and "Blue Streak," a police comedy starring Martin Lawrence.
One of his more memorable on-screen roles was in the marijuana-centered comedy "Half-Baked," in which the main characters decide to deal drugs in order to get their friend out of jail. "Half-Baked," which also stars "Saturday Night Live" alum Jim Breuer, has grown to become a cult-comic classic amongst college students -- the film recently aired on Dartmouth Television.
On stage, Chappelle is notorious for interacting with his audience. He singles out and harasses people in attendance for previously being drunk or stoned, then admits that he is currently under the influence himself.
This type of comedy, of course, should be taken lightheartedly. Not everyone approves of certain "indulgent" lifestyles, but the way in which Chappelle brings these issues into the open to ridicule them should prove popular with Dartmouth students.
So if you're in the mood for a laid back evening of laughs, and you got around to getting a ticket early, enjoy the performance. Chappelle is a clever, well-known comedian with an impressive resum. He has achieved the commendable task of making his living by mocking society -- including himself -- something we should all do a little more of.
