Virginia Heffernan reviews Chappelle’s appearance with James Lipton (Sunday on Bravo). She begins:
Dave Chappelle’s comeback tour has so far included two enigmatic television interviews. The first was that awkward and poetic interview Feb. 3 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in which he told Ms. Winfrey that the creepy laugh of a white person contributed to his decision to quit “Chappelle’s Show,” walk away from his $50 million television deal and flee to Africa in May 2005.
The second performance comes Sunday on Bravo. It’s a more calculated, more antic but ultimately more satisfying interview with James Lipton on “Inside the Actors Studio.” The special is two hours long, and you may wish it were four. These simple showdowns — minimalist two-person plays, really — have become high art on television lately, and watching Mr. Chappelle square off with the wonderful prig-buffoon Mr. Lipton, it’s possible to conclude (as Mr. Chappelle himself does, half in earnest) that the two men should take their show on the road.
Mr. Chappelle tells a student on the program tonight that an early influence on him was Bugs Bunny, and you can see what he means. At every second, he seems to have available to him a much wider range of physical choices even than most slapstick comedians. He lurches, leaps, glares, crumples, slumps, mopes, gloats, blurts, retreats, beams.
NewMexiKen isn’t getting cable for the time being. Someone please TiVo this for me.