Source: Don Arnold / Getty
Dave Chappelle appeared at a surprise show in San Francisco, which set the scene for his dismay at what’s happened to the city in recent years.
The comedian appeared at the Masonic Auditorium Thursday (May 11) in a show quickly arranged and announced two days before. Chappelle didn’t mince words when talking about the current homelessness crisis in the city. “What the f*ck happened to this place?” he asked the crowd.
During his set, as reported by the local paper SFGate, the comic spoke at length about how much love he has for San Francisco and referred to it as a second home. Chappelle even joked about “using the city like a goddamn ATM” when recalling the number of shows he used to do here. But that love seemed tempered by his dismay at what was going on in the streets, punctuated by his recounting of going to eat at an Indian restaurant in the Tenderloin district but seeing someone defecate in front as he walked in.
Chappelle followed that anecdote up by claiming that the City By The Bay is now “half Glee, half zombie movie,” claiming that the entire city is displaying the same behavior as what he saw at the restaurant. “Y’all [N-words] need a Batman!” he yelled.
The rest of the set would see Chappelle banter with audience members, with one asking him pointedly to repeat the “I’m rich, b*tch” line from his eponymous Comedy Central TV show, which he refused to do because he said he didn’t consider himself rich. When asked why he felt that way by another audience member who noted that the comic owns a significant amount of property in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he resides, Chappelle replied that given the way Black people are treated in the U.S., no amount of money could make him feel that way.
The rest of the set saw Chappelle crack jokes about being attacked while on stage at the Hollywood Bowl and other personal incidents. He did stay away from overtly making jokes against the transgender community according to the review, saying to the crowd that he promised to do so in his last Netflix special The Closer. But then he followed that up by joking that that promise only applied to television.