Chappelle’s Block Party
In honor of the Academy Awards, here’s a short snippet of a review I wrote for the fine folks at Cdigix on the movie I saw this weekend… it was really good. You should see it.
The film is sprinkled with these moments of Chappelle living his life and creating comedy out of the ethers mixed in with concert footage. Carrying around a bullhorn, it’s clear to see that the world is Chappelle’s stage and for the moment, we’re hanging on to every word. At one point, as Chappelle is picking out furniture at a Salvation Army thrift store to place on the roof of the Block Party film shoot, he spots a piano and decides to tickle the ivories. He tinkers around with “Round Midnight” as Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson (drummer for the Roots) watches on and giggles about Chappelle’s timing. Chappelle then waxes philosophical about comedians and musicians wishing they had each other’s jobs (eg: Jamie Foxx) and talks about Thelonious Monk always being “off time, yet perfectly on time.” It’s a very self-aware moment from Chappelle and very revealing of his complex character.
Here’s a picture of me hanging out with ?uestlove from the Roots during a concert I helped put on at Duke in 2002. I’m basically trying to be cool by the transitive property.
