Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation

Intimate setting and a more down to earth conversation about difficult topics. Worth checking out!

This piece is one of his best. Well-written, well-spoken, well-acted. A lot of knowledge in one bit, and the critics once again trying to put something good down. Watch it, you won't be disappointed.

Not the funniest of the Chappelle Netflix specials, this one has a very slow and serious pace to it; often Chappelle seems to be more animated in his reaction to his jokes than his audience is. Indeed at times his audience seems uncertain how to react to his train of thought. As the headlines had sort of told me beforehand, this special seems Chappelle mull over the #MeToo movement and accusations against famous people - ranging from those raped at the hands of powerful men, through to those who had to listen to someone masturbating on the other end of the phone. I mention this contrast because it is particularly the one that he makes in this show.

In doing so he makes an engaging show which is difficult and a little uncomfortable at times, but has a base in comedy and produces some good laughs. I say some because the show is mostly not that funny, but yet it is engaging. Chappelle himself leans into the material, perhaps more than he can carry off convincingly, but mostly his thoughts ring true as a genuine pondering. Overall it is not that great a show in terms of laughter, but I was engaged by it on the subject matter as well as the comedy.

Thankfully this special is a lot better than the other one he released along side with this. In fact, this looks like a return to form for Dave. But yeah, I love how Dave uses these specials to drop moments of education on us. He is doing an outstanding job of helping to socially reform society. And he does not hold back. When he talks about the neo-women rights movement, he is just being honest. He does not want it to burn out or be some kind of trend. This is beside the point but look at what is happening right now; Hollywood's business as usual is the reason why so many women were treated as third class citizens but now they are trying to get it twisted and hijack the movement and play it off like they are part of the solution. I just hope women don't fall for it. There is an underlining problem people are not allowed to talk about but the day is rapidly approaching when the term "freedom of speech" is no longer restricted.

The life of an iconoclastic comedian is not easy. You surf dangerous waves -- Mavericks-sized -- to the point break. Maybe you can be funny with airplane and 'men are from mars' jokes, but what you really want to talk about is the stuff that grates at you, that makes your audience just a little squeamish, that makes you just a little unpopular. In his most intimate special to date, Chappelle handles hot coals with bare hands, dishing the jokes lesser comedians wished they had the talent to write and the balls to actually say. Even edgy comedians perform a practiced progressivism that doesn't dare go beyond the buoys, even if it appears on the surface as raunchy or blue. Ours is a time when what you say is used against you in the court of public opinion, an exceedingly clamorous, outraged, offended, and craven entity. I can only say that I am glad that Chappelle has not acceded to the standard to which most now resign themselves. Still, as a comedian, one dictate looms large above the rest: Be funny. And man does he deliver.