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Dave Chappelle show at the Paramount a disaster

| June 20, 2012
dave chappelle Dave Chappelle show at the Paramount a disaster

Dave Chappelle. Photo: Chris Rush

There was a lot of excitement and anticipation Tuesday after the Paramount Theater announced a surprise show featuring comic Dave Chappelle.

Tickets were snatched up in hours. The reclusive comic doesn’t tour that often and he is still one of the biggest names in comedy.

But according to many who attended the Chappelle show Tuesday night, it was a total disaster. A bomb. Depending on who you listen to, it was either Chappelle’s fault for putting on a bad show or the audience’s fault for misbehaving.

One thing is for sure, some in the audience weren’t very nice to Dave. Things got so bad they heckled him.

Others are saying that Chappelle was unprepared for the show and the audience let him know it.

Whatever happened, the audience and the performer were not on the same page. The tweets on Twitter were not very nice either.

One camp thinks the audience didn’t represent Austin very well since they were so loud and obnoxious towards Chappelle. SXSW “film honcho” (yes, she calls herself honcho) Janet Pierson blamed the audience and tweeted:

But was Chappelle perhaps to blame for the bad blood?

I’m not sure the people at the Chappelle show represent Austin as some tweeters suggest. But I do know that it is fairly common at comedy shows for the audience to get involved once the show starts to bomb.

I don’t know who got the idea that Austin audiences are quiet and demure, especially when the talent can’t hold an audience. Being quiet and polite? That must be a transplant thing. This is Texas and if the show is bad someone is going to raise some hell.

At least they didn’t throw any tomatoes.

About Jack Hambrick

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Texan
Jack is Editor-in-Chief at The Digital Texan and writes about news, gossip and lifestyles in Austin. He's a former television reporter with KPRC TV Houston, WFTV TV Orlando, WFOR TV Miami, and WSFL TV /Sun-Sentinel Fort Lauderdale.
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  • Mr_Gallagher

    The show was a disaster because of the crowd and the staff at Paramount.  And it was not the first time as the Bill Burr show earlier this year was eerily similar.  Dave killed the first 12 minutes until he saw something in the front row illegally recording the show.  Then he (rightfully) went off about the kid being a jerk.  But in a funny way that had everyone laughing.  After that, the crowd thought he was fair game for anything; from Half Baked quotes to Dave’s old stand up material to completely random questions.  The Paramount staff did nothing to get a hold of the situation.  Hecklers in my row weren’t even warned of being kicked out, let alone action actually being taken.  Dave repeatedly said if the crowd continued to interrupt he wouldn’t be doing any new material.  Austin and the Paramount should be embarrassed.  Hopefully, Austin and the Paramount can turn this around or else word will spread through the comedy world that Austin is not a place to stop while on tour.

  • http://twitter.com/reclaimist Sean McCormack

    Anytime he was starting to get on a roll, someone in the audience would yell something out and totally distract and detract. I laughed a lot but the audience stepped all over the experience. The hecklers ruined the show and The Paramount didn’t do anything about it.

  • Andrea Ehringer

    he sucked. it was horrible.

  • Michael Shaneyfelt

    If ya’ll knew anything about this “tour”, Dave is doing some new material, but also participating with the audience ALOT.  Yes, the crowd did get out of hand by yelling over one another, but to say Dave sucked and it was horrible is way off base.  Aside from a few minutes of audience interruptions, I thought it was a great show.  I even got a comment in that prompted Dave to respond, “gangstas don’t text!”