OVERCOMING FAILURE: Why DAVE CHAPPELLE Walked Away from $50M – The TRUTH Revealed!

What happens if you go out there and you tell your jokes and no one laughs? Mm-hmm. Nothing happens. You get paid the same. You're not gonna die. If you ever wanna do something great in your life, you're gonna have to realize your failures. You're gonna have to embrace 'em and figure out how to overcome 'em.

Dave Chappelle is the baddest person to touch a microphone, uh, that's alive right now.

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe in your potential, and I wanna see that thing that you've got inside you explode. Flow it out into the world to have a big impact for you, your family, and the world. So to help you on your journey today, we're going to learn from Comedy Central's number one stand-up comedian of all time, Dave Chappelle, and my take on his top 10 rules of success. Rule number 4 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really, really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired, and when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick for yourself as well. Enjoy.

Do you remember how Dave first discovered comedy?

Yes, I do. Um, yes, I do.

Dr. Yvonne Sian is Dave Chappelle's mother. She's a minister and a college professor.

I think the moment he decided to be a comedian was the day that he had to decide whether or not to sign up for the second week of basketball camp. And he called home and he said, "Mom," he said, "there are guys here who are bigger than I am, run faster, jump higher." Now everybody was better than me, but I had them all cracking up.

So I figured, let me tweak my ambition. I spoke at my old high school just to encourage the kids, and I told I told them straight up, I said, if y'all want to make it out of this ghetto, you're gonna have to stop blaming white people for your problems, and you're gonna have to focus, and you are gonna have to learn how to rap or play basketball or something. You're trapped, nigga. You are trapped. Either do that or sell crack rocks. That's the only way I've seen it work. When I was maybe 19, I opened for Aretha Franklin at Radio City.

Wow.

19? Yeah. Yeah. Looking back on it, I'm sure she didn't choose me herself. But it was great. It was great. I always want to go back as a headliner. Oh my God. But 19 and like when I was 19, I had a paper route. But did you— were looking back on it, were you prepared at 19 for that kind of a gig? Yeah, it was 15 minutes. I had about 30 minutes then. You know, I was prepared enough. Yeah. I mean, was I as good as Aretha Franklin? No.

Well, no.

But my job is just to get people used to looking at the stage. I'm the opening act.

Yeah.

It mattered to me if I did good, but nobody really cared.

Is this—

now, in a big gig like this, they have a rehearsal? Do they have a walkthrough? Do they have, like, sound checks and that kind of thing? I don't know. I imagine there'll be a sound check. You know, you can either go or send a guy. Right. But when you were 19, did you go for a sound check? Well, I skipped it, which was a terrible mistake. That was a mistake. It was a terrible mistake. I skipped the sound check, and nobody could hear me for the first 3 minutes. Mm-hmm. But you know what it is, Dave? You've been a stand-up for many years. And you know, you probably get that question where people say, oh my god, you're a comedian. Well, what happens if you go out there, and you tell your jokes and no one laughs— Mm-hmm? Nothing happens! You get paid the same; you're not gonna die; nothing bad happened. So I keep it all in perspective. Where Key Peele became the comedians to watch. I think there's speculation that Dave doesn't like Key Peele or Dave thinks okay... No, I'm a fan of this show. You know when I did Chappelle Show There were certain conventions of the show that the network resisted, and I fought the network very hard so that those conventions could come to fruition. We're looking for Clayton Bigsby. Look no further, fella, you found me. The first episode I do that black white supremacist sketch, and it's like, well, it's 10 minutes long, it should be 5 minutes long. Why should it be 5 minutes long? Like these types of conventions, I fought very hard. So when I watch Key Peele and I see they're doing the format that I created, and at the end of the show it says, "Created by Key Peele," that hurts my feelings. Whenever I [MUSIC] hear, like, "He fled to South Africa," I'm like, "Man, I walked out. I walked like John Wayne." I wasn't walking away from money. I was walking away from the perfect storm of bullshit. They told you I was in an insane asylum. They told you maybe he smokes crack. They told you everything but the truth. Maybe corporate America fucks with human beings like they're products and investments. Maybe a motherfucker brings you into a room and says, "This $50 million, this pile of money, it's all for you." And when you try to grab it, he just throws his dick right on top of the pile. I don't want to be co-opted or subverted. I don't want to be my own worst enemy or be used against myself.

Dave Chappelle is the baddest person to touch a microphone, uh, that's alive right now. I mean, I, I, I, I will say it and I, I will, I will stand by it. Me and Chris Rock, we were at a show.

We—

well, I'm about to leave now, man. Me and Chris Rock, we were, um, We're at the Comedy Cellar, and this is— this night is, is, it's one of the best nights of comedy. Like, just by accident, I go, I just want to work on some jokes. I just want to work on some jokes. Um, as I'm going on stage, Chris Rock walks in the door. I go, what up, Chris? What you doing? You going up? He's like, yeah, I was. I was gonna work out. I said, all right, I'm about to go up now. He's like, all right, I'm gonna come down, I'm gonna come down, I'll watch, see if it's some funny stuff. Like, that's, that's what comedians are supposed to do, which helps to watch. And hey, I got something funny for you, because our sense of humor is all different. I come off, Chris give me notes, we're laughing. I go, you going up? He say, yeah, I'm gonna go up now. I said, all right, I'll do the same. I sit in the back, Chris goes, he works on material, he gets all, hey, look, this is funny, this is funny as hell, what if you say this? And all good, good, we just shooting shit. Chappelle comes in. Yo, what up, guys? Hey, y'all go up already? Yeah, we just fucking went up. You going up? Yeah, all right, we gonna watch. Me and Chris sit in the back. Dave was up probably for 20 minutes. There was a moment where me and Chris looked at ourselves and the jokes that we just had, we were going over. At the same time, we bawled the shit out. Like, this went fucking awful.

Oh, he sucks, man. We sucked.

We sucked. And was like, yo, we fucking stink. Like, our level of thinking is horrible. Chappelle is just different, man.

30 years, how has the crowd changed? Like, now it seems like everyone's offended by everything. It's like, that's a very good point. People are sensitive now all of a sudden, or oversensitive. Maybe there's a, there's a Matt Groening quote. Matt Groening created The Simpsons. There's this famous quote where he says that the world is filled with people who are dying to be offended by something. What the world has now is the internet for those people to voice their offense, so they can make something out of nothing. They can spin your work and make make something that's beautiful look like it's ugly and vice versa. It's like I say in my special, this is the age of spin. So, so everyone is becoming a spin doctor of sorts. Now granted, comedians make mistakes. It's part of the job, you know, and some mistakes are easily forgivable, some are wildly more extreme. But the idea is that we want a society where we are allowed to make We're able to voice our opinions and change our opinions. So I just let it rip. I'm not afraid of the audience. You know, I think the vast majority of people that come out, they get it. They know what it is. And then there's always some people with insidious intent to try to derail you, bring you down, or just spin a ball. But that's, you know, as you get— as you go along in business, you got tougher up and just hope that your number don't come up. I'm sure my next special will have somebody mad. You tell jokes from everything from race to politics.

Do you worry about crossing the line, or is there a line that you won't cross?

Although I can see that in recent years that seat has been occupied by Mexicans, and I dare say Arabs, and we the black Americans would like to I thank you both for your sacrifice and your struggle. Comedy is weird. The line moves. It changes. But I think a lot of, especially in comedy, a lot of it has to do with intent. And your intent is? To make people laugh. To reconcile paradox. I'm like just openly, sometimes I'm just openly venting. I think that when you get to a certain altitude, There's more scrutiny over the things you say because the platform is so powerful. One of the things we found interesting because we came and saw you, uh, where were we, Danielle? Toronto. In Toronto. Yeah, we came and saw you in Toronto. Heather and I was at that show. Oh, that was, that was so, that was a dope-ass show. And the first thing they do is they take your phones, you know, that's the new shit.

At his shows?

Yeah, at his show you can't have a phone and they locked it up. That's the first time. Did you come up with that? I started working with this company Yonder and it maybe saved my career. 'Cause basically, you know, comedians, we need the element of surprise and you also need a sense of security that you can make a mistake. You know, a lot of comedians been hitting the wall. Bill Maher wrecked the other week and Kathy, you know, motherfuckers wreck. It's part of the genre though. Like you don't want comedians to not take chances in this new world of comedy. Of social precision where everyone's talking and living like fucking politicians. I'm not. I'm not running for anything, nigga. I'm going to say whatever the fuck I want to say. And sometimes I'll be wrong, and many times I'll be right. But you have to have the freedom to do it. So I lock people's phones up because it empowers me to do a better show and to be more honest and not just precise. Nobody wants to be a pioneer. Nobody wants to be the first guy to do something. Nobody. Nobody. It's uncomfortable. I mean, he was— I want to be the first Black president. Good luck. It's going to be a lot of tough love, you know. But to be a leader, we have to have a vision to see what needs to be changed or find a niche that nobody's exploiting or a way to gotta explore the vision that's unique to you, and you gotta, you gotta have the tenacity and the toughness to see that vision through. It's just not easy.

Then when you dismount from network television, your father is also dying then, right?

Yeah, he died not too long after that.

So, um, you know, in the hills and valleys of everyone's life, this sounds like your Pretty dark valley, huh?

This was the beginning of a terrible decline.

Yeah, it was around this time that Chappelle retreated to a sanctuary in Ohio. He left behind the network TV deals, the cliché movie roles, the heavy partying— left it behind to spend more time with his wife and family and to take a good hard look at himself.

I was looking at myself for the first time, and I didn't like everything. Thing that I saw, you know. But you got to do that in your life, you know. If you ever want to do something great in your life, you're gonna have to realize your failures. You're gonna have to embrace them and figure out how to overcome them. I like your city, it's beautiful. Tolerant place. I didn't see much. I haven't seen my friend call me, it was like, Dave, having fun in Frisco? Hell yeah. Seen the sights? No. You wanna go see Alcatraz? What kind of nigga in his right mind wants to visit a prison for recreation? I got friends in jail I don't visit. I don't deal with jails. Don't deal with jails and I don't deal with police. My house got robbed in New York. I didn't even call the police. I wanted to, but I couldn't. My crib is too nice. It's not that it's too nice, but it's too nice for me. You know how the police are in New York. Soon as I open the door, they'll be like, "Ooh, he's still here." Open and shut case, Johnson. Apparently, this Black guy broke in and hung up pictures of his family everywhere. Never seen anything like it. Don't deal with them, man. I, I had to bail a friend of mine out of jail one time. You know, that was horrible. I was scared. I had to walk right into the belly of the beast. I tried to look as non-threatening as possible. Hi, I'm here to bail out my buddy. Oh, okay. Well, while you're here, you do fit a description. You walk this way, we can process you. That's how they always get us, it's fitting those damn descriptions. Now I could be bitter and blame all the police But now, I'll tell you who I blame. It's those fucking sketch artists. They keep drawing the same brother over and over again. Who is this generic man we all look like? I want to know what they say when it's us. You know what I mean? They be in that room like, Did you get a look? Did you see the guy that tried to rob you? Yes! Yes, I did! He's about 6 feet tall, I'd say. 6 feet tall?

Yes.

He had his hat on backwards too? Good. That's good stuff. Hat was on backwards. Yes. He was black? Okay. Big lips, big nose? Hanging out. Say no more, sir. I'll draw him from memory. You know, let me get my stencil. I think we can trace this guy and save some time. They get on the radio, calling all cars, calling all cars. Be on the lookout for a black male between 4'7" and 6'8", between 120 and 380 pounds. He's wearing Nikes. Get this man!

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Fu Hun asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to cover in a future top 10, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote. I'd also love to know what did you learn from this video? What lesson really hit home the hardest? What are you going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really curious to find out. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Devon Trish. Devon, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, posting it to your Instagram account. I really, really appreciate the support and I'm so glad that you enjoyed the book. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is.

Much love.

I'll see you soon.

Who was the first guy that blew you off the stage?

I don't think I ever got blown off the stage.

Oh wow. He's conceited. He's conceited.

No, I felt some heat in DC at that time. You'd already left, but Teddy Carpenter. Teddy Carpenter was one of those ass dudes. Killed it too. Yeah, Teddy Carpenter's one of those dudes that would like really bring it to you. I've took some Ls.

I'll tell you who got me. Remember Chris Thomas? Yeah. Yeah. Destroyed me. I'd only done standup like 4 times. And they were like, we're gonna put, you know, Chris Thomas by this time must have been doing standup like what? 42 years. Yeah. He's 100 now. No, I'm joking.

Yeah.

He been, yeah, he been doing it, man. And they, and they were like, Dave, we're gonna put Chris up next. And then the MC literally goes, you can go home if you'd like.

Oh my God.

And I was like, I'm staying. I bombed. It was the worst. I dry mouth bombed. You ever get bombed so bad that you get thirsty?

Part of that was from, but you were like, I think part of that was 'cause you were like a young comic. You didn't have the experience of knowing how to transfer that energy from one comic to the next.

Well, that's exactly, it was a lack of experience. So cut to like years later, this is when we were all doing like Def Jam tour, Def Comedy Jam tours. And we were at Madison Square Garden. The show was Chris Thomas, Chris Tucker, and they made me close. Man, I murked that shit.

Yeah.

But you was ready then. That was my Karate Kid tournament night where I was like.

While making movies, he was still creating and pitching TV sitcoms starring himself, which is when the Fox Network called.

I flew out there for the meeting. If you can imagine, I was the only Black person in the room, and they basically told me that, uh, we'll pick up the show, but we want more white characters on it for no other reason than they thought that it would give the show a more universal appeal. Appeal.

And so I quit then and there in California. You quit?

We quit. You walked out of the meeting?

And walked out of the room?

Yes.

Did you accuse them of racism?

Absolutely. It was racist. Look, I don't think these people sit around their house and call black people niggas and all this kind of thing, but the idea that unless I have white people around me on my show that it's unwatchable or doesn't have a universal appeal is racist. You know, they don't make them put Black people on Friends, or they don't make them put Black people on Seinfeld. But all of a sudden I get in the room and it's like, where's all the white people? My mother and my grandmother were freaked out. You know, I was the first person in my family not to go to college that had not been a slave. Right. So I was really breaking from tradition, and, uh, it was like a graduation lunch we were having, and they had my dad come and talk to me. And my dad takes me outside and he's like, listen— and this is some advice that applies to all you acting students— he says, to be an actor is a lonely life. Everybody wants to make it, and you might not I said to my dad, "Well, that depends on what making it is, Dad." I was a smart-ass kid. "Depends on what making it is, Dad." He says, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you're a teacher." I said, "If I can make a teacher salary doing comedy, I think that's better than being a teacher." And he started laughing. He said, "If you keep that attitude, I think you should go." He said, "But name your price." In the beginning, if it ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there. Thus, Africa. So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need to be happy. The most important word ever. If you had to think of one word that's most important to you, or that sums you up, or that would be kind of like a little beacon, Hey, Believe Nation!

If you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.