Comedian Dave Chappelle was as blunt as possible in speaking out about why production on his show was suddenly stopped: “I’m not crazy, I’m not smoking crack,” he tells Time magazine in an interview more than a week after his hit Comedy Central show was suspended.
“I’m definitely stressed out,” said Chappelle, who took off last month to South Africa for a “spiritual retreat,” leaving even his closest friends to wonder where he went.
“You hear so many voices jockeying for position in your mind that you want to make sure that you hear your own voice,” he said. “So I figured, let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as the brakes.”
Soon after Comedy Central announced that the May 31 debut of the third season of “Chappelle’s Show” had been postponed, the magazine Entertainment Weekly said Chappelle had checked himself into a mental health facility in South Africa.
“I’m not in a mental facility,” said Chappelle, who also said he did not have a drug problem but had consulted a psychiatrist.
The 31-year-old comedian said he fled to stay with friends in Durban because he didn’t like the direction of the show.
“There’s a lot of resistance to my opinions, so I decided, ‘Let me remove myself from this situation,'” Chappelle said.
Comedy Central president Doug Herzog told Time that the star has “complete creative freedom.” He has told staff he believes there won’t be a “Chappelle’s Show” in 2005, but leaves the option open for the comedian’s return.
Chappelle said he hopes to start up the show again, but did not say when he would return.
Comedy Central had signed a reported $50 million deal to keep “Chappelle’s Show” for two more seasons, and the comedian spoke to Time about the struggles associated with his newfound fame.
“If you don’t have the right people around you, and you’re moving at a million miles an hour, you can lose yourself,” he said. “Everyone around me says, ‘You’re a genius, you’re great, that’s your voice,’ but I’m not sure that they’re right.”
Credit: Yahoo/AP
