Inside Dave Chappelle’s no-phones-allowed Melbourne show: Comedian vows to make fun of ‘r****ds’ instead of trans people after uproar – as he reveals the worst thing about Australia
Dave Chappelle is in Australia for a national stand-up comedy tour, and on Saturday he performed to a sold-crowd of 15,000 at Melbourne‘s Rod Laver Arena.
The comedian, 49, opened his show ‘The Lunatics Manifesto’ with his trademark cutting wit as he addressed the uproar over his jokes about the trans community.
‘I have received complaints about making fun of LGBTQ+ people so I won’t do that tonight… Instead I will be making fun of r****ds,’ he said.
Dave Chappelle (pictured) is currently in Australia for a national stand-up comedy tour, and on Saturday performed to a sold-crowd of 15,000 at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena
Chappelle lived up to his reputation of shocking the audience with an hour of politically-incorrect humour in which no issue was off-limits.
His show – which had a strict no-phones policy to prevent recording and live-tweeting – covered controversial topics, including Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, and Chappelle being assaulted on stage last year by a ‘dirty homeless man’.
The Washington native then joked he was having trouble adjusting to life Down Under due to its cultural differences with America.
The comedian, 49, opened his show with his trademark cutting wit as he addressed the uproar over his jokes about the trans community. ‘I have received complaints about making fun of LGBTQ + people so I won’t do that tonight… Instead I will be making fun of r*****s,’ he said
The Emmy winner said he hated buying Australian cigarettes because ‘they have photos of diseases on the packets’.
‘I’m like, “I will take the packet with the diseased lungs on it,”‘ he told the crowd.
Chappelle had the packed stadium in stitches as he joked about marriage, fame, drug use and life in Australia.
The crowd was begging for more by the end of his performance, and he joked they could fly to Brisbane to see him perform there on Wednesday.
The Emmy winner said he hated buying Australian cigarettes because ‘they have photos of diseases on the packets’
Chappelle won Best Comedy Album for his Netflix special The Closer at the Grammy Awards, which took place in Los Angeles in January.
His win sparked outrage for featuring jokes aimed at the transgender community.
The backlash included a staged walkout from employees at Netflix’s LA headquarters, after the streaming giant’s CEO Ted Sarandos defended Chappelle’s jokes as artistic expression and nothing more than an example of ‘creative freedom’.
Chappelle was unable to attend the ceremony because of his Australian tour commitments.
The crowd was begging for more by the end of his performance, and he joked they could fly to Brisbane to see him perform there on Wednesday
His Perth show saw a wild brawl break out in the audience.
He was performing to a sold-out crowd at RAC Arena when a commotion that involved yelling and swearing erupted in a top tier at the back of the venue.
No footage of the melee has emerged because Chappelle has enforced a strict no-phones policy at his gigs for the last six years.
It’s understood he was discussing how he was tackled on stage at LA’s Hollywood Bowl by an audience member almost a year ago when all hell broke loose.
Chappelle won Best Comedy Album for his Netflix special The Closer at the Grammy Awards, which took place in Los Angeles in January. His win sparked outrage for featuring jokes aimed at the transgender community
