Joe Rogan Explains Dave Chappelle's Creative Process

Y'all deviate, but what I don't want to do, I don't want to work out brand new material in front of 3,000 people. Fuck that. One night, well I think I came to watch your show at the store. Yeah. And this was like a year ago. And you had to jet right after the set and go to Pasadena for another set. My buddy that I brought with me, we just were going to hang here. See who comes out, and like Jeff Ross, somebody comes out, and he's doing his bit, and right in the fucking middle of it, the back curtain opens and Chappelle walks out and just kind of like taps Ross on the shoulder like fuck off, I got this. And just jacks the mic and pretty much everybody else's set who was supposed to perform that night and stands there for like three hours, man. Whoa. We were just sitting there, I was like dude, this will probably never happen again in your lifetime, so I'm not fucking leaving. And we just sat there the whole time and he sat there rocking tequila bombs and getting drunk and just really talking. There were times where it was the funniest thing I've ever seen, literally, and there were times where it kind of got dark and you're like where's the fuck's happening, where's this going? And he was working things out, and then later on those Netflix specials land and I realized I've already heard like 90% of these jokes and because the guy was just like I'm going to go hijack the main room, work my shit out because I got it like that. I'm Dave Chappelle, you know. It was fucking amazing. Yeah, he does that a lot where he'll just drop into place and just do a set, and that's how he kind of works his material out. You know, he just kind of drops in and keeps tweaking it and it's if he has a structure, right? Like if he has a few ideas that he's talking about, he can just riff and especially if he's drinking, just go on stage and then he's always got dudes behind him that are taking down notes, letting him know like, oh, you talked about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure they record it too, and they'll go over it and eventually boil it down to like what that Netflix special was, the two Netflix specials. That shows you how prolific that dude is. To put out a Netflix special and then a year later put out two Netflix specials. Right. And then Netflix is like, we'll take it. What do you got? He's like, hey, I wrote this one this month and I'd like to put it down for all eternity. Are you cool with that? Most people, like you write something and it's a good solid year before you even consider putting in a special. You know, some guys were doing like a special year, but too much of it was like half cooked. It's like, if you just waited six more months, this thing would be like an all time great special. But instead you're banging them out one a year, you never get the essence of the thing. Well, his thing too, part of his thing I think is making it look like it's so easy. Effortless. Because the night at the Comedy Store and it just like it did feel like he was just sort of making the shit up on the spot. And then you see the Netflix specials and it sort of feels the same way. Like he's just being Dave and like he would, and these little subtle things I noticed like probably 10 times throughout the night. At really awkward moments, he would call the waitress to get him another drink, but he would he would only say bar whore. And every time he say it, it get a little a little more awkward, like a little less appropriate each and every fucking time. And we're probably eventually everybody in the room is like, that's not really cool. And then at the end of the night, he's like, the last thing he says, like, I'm really sorry. I called you bar whore. I just don't have any fucking jokes. And he walked off the stage. And I was like, yeah, that's how Dave writes. That's one of the ways he writes. But he's he's got it down. You know, he's got it down to a science. He does is he just travels to towns, just decides to travel to a town, then go on stage, show up, show up. Three nights at the Fillmore with. Yeah. But I mean, he doesn't even he'll do that. But that's booked. He books that you have to have to fill that shit nine months. Right. But if he works somewhere else, he just shows up like he'll work at a comedy club and just show up. Gotcha. You know, it's like I was in Denver once and he just showed up. I came in the green room after the show. It was after the late show Friday night. I went backstage and Dave's in the green room. I go, what are you doing, man? And and he goes, hey, Joe, I'm just in town fucking around. You want to go on stage? He's like, should I go fuck? Yeah, I grab him, bring the people back in. People already getting up and leaving. I said, ladies and gentlemen, get back. Dave Chappelle's here. And of course he wants to go on stage. Why else is he there? That's why he's there. That's what he does. That's what he does. That's his thing. But it's just weird to say, like, oh, like this guy is so free. He could just fly into a town where he knows his friends are going to be. He doesn't even have to call you in advance. You know, he just flew in and I see him like, oh, yeah, get up there. Like he's he's as free as a bird. He does like whatever he wants. And then he does these Netflix specials. They pay him an ass load of money. And then he just does shows whenever he wants to. But his creative process is like almost like engineered around being loose, like doing whatever he wants, going where he wants to go, doing whatever he wants and then writing, you know, and then figuring out on stage and then riffing and then just fucking around. It's fascinating, fascinating to watch. It's like jazz almost. Oh, it's very much like. Yeah, I mean, he's he's also got being Dave Chappelle down to a science. Like you were saying that you were in the Sturgill Simpson business. He's in the Dave Chappelle business. Yeah. Yeah. Does what Dave Chappelle wants to do. That's the key, I think. I think that's the key. If we could all be in the business of whoever the fuck you are, whatever you do. Well, it's I like to write songs and make records and pretty much say no to everything. Everything.