Dave Chappelle doesn't do a lot of interviews. He vanished for nearly a decade and returned to TV in November to host a particularly memorable Saturday Night Live. But, this big comeback was derailed when Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Think of all the stressful factors here: Hosting SNL is a monumental task for anyone, but Chappelle had the pressure of pulling together a monologue about one of the most painful elections in U.S. history the same night he was making his comeback. So, he was rightfully stressed the hell out about it. As he told The New York Times in a rare interview:
At a certain point [on election night], we were all in the writers' room, and as the night went on, and Trump was picking up these Electoral [College] votes, everyone stopped writing. And then everyone was just staring at the TV. I saw people tear up sketches they were writing. They'd assumed Hillary was going to win. Now there was essentially no show on Saturday. It was like the wind got knocked out of the writers' room. I was really worried.
Thankfully, he got some advice from another beloved stand-up who had hosted SNL three times, Louis C.K. Here's what C.K. told Chappelle to calm his nerves:
The best advice I got was from Louis C.K. I went to a comedy club Friday night [before the show] and saw him. And Louis told me: "[Forget] the rest of the show. The monologue is all that matters." I was stressed out all that day. But right before I went onstage, this calm just washed over me. Everything just felt right.
Of course, Chappelle went on stage and delivered one of the most important monologues in the show's history. He also opens up to the Times about comedy in the Trump Era, Bill Cosby, and mourning Prince. It's definitely worth a read.
