“If it ever gets more expensive than the price you name — get outta there.”
Dave Chapelle, Inside the Actor’s Studio
Context
Dave Chapelle gives his first interview after leaving The Chapelle Show, going to Africa, and then his return to America.
Lipton:
How old were you when you made your first television development deal?Chapelle:
19…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.
So I was really breaking from tradition.…
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 make it.”And I said to my dad, “Well, that depends on what making it is, dad.”
I was a smart ass kid, he said, “What’d you mean?”
“I said, well you’re a teacher. If I can make a teacher’s 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 outta there.”Thus, Africa.
