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Dave Chappelle says he may return to TV show

Posted on: Friday, 3 February 2006, 14:16 CST

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Comedian Dave Chappelle said on Friday he walked away from his hit TV show because he felt stressed out and manipulated but would return if more of the show's revenue can be given to deserving causes.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey billed as his first since he stunned the entertainment industry last April by abandoning "Chappelle's Show" after signing a $50 million contract, Chappelle denied he was crazy, had been on drugs or spent time in an African psychiatric hospital.

Winfrey asked him if he had "lost his mind" when he left the show, which was the top-rated attraction on the Comedy Central cable network.

"No, not exactly," he said. "When you're a person who makes money, they have a vested interest in controlling you."

And while Chappelle enjoyed being famous, he said, "It's the way people around you position themselves around you to get in your pockets and your mind ... it infuriates me."

Asked if he would return to his show, Chappelle said:

"I want to restructure the deal ... Half of the DVD revenue, if we can make a deal where I have the control of that, that I like, and half the DVD revenue goes back to the people that we see fit, I think I'd be more than willing to finish with where we started ... I'm not mad at anybody."

DVDs from the show's first two seasons have been top sellers.

"I just want to do my show, I want to have fun again," Chappelle said.

"I want to give money to someone who's not exploiting me," he added, so that if he does something "socially irresponsible" in his comedy, at least the money will go to a socially responsible cause.

He specifically mentioned victims of Hurricane Katrina as deserving of his charity.

'SOCIALLY IRRESPONSIBLE' SKETCHES

Chappelle told Winfrey in the interview, which was taped last week and aired on Friday on her syndicated program, that the producers of his show were "wrong 100 percent of the time about what people would like." He said the show was a "tremendous amount of work" and he became "stressed out ... I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible."

He cited a sketch in which racist pictures appeared in characters' minds when certain words were used -- including a man in black face, which he used as "the visual personification of the 'N word."' Chappelle said someone on the set laughed in a way that made him know he was being laughed at and not laughed with.

"It was the first time I've gotten a laugh I was uncomfortable with," he said. "I don't want black people to be disappointed in me for putting that out."

Chappelle said that incident was a turning point but also he came to feel "overwhelmed and it was almost like ... as if this was happening deliberately.

"Long before I walked I had considered walking," he said.

When he left for Africa, Chappelle said he told no one except his brother, who he asked to notify others, including his wife and children. He chose Africa as a destination, he said, because he "needed a break" and it was "a place where I could really reflect."

Asked by Winfrey if it was a case where sudden fame left him confused and unable to find his center, he said "absolutely."

Asked if he was paranoid Chappelle said, "What's a black man without his paranoia attack? I had $50 million. That's like making me a marked man."

"Chappelle's Show" was drawing about 3.1 million weekly viewers to Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom Inc., when the comedian bolted. The $50 million contract the network gave him called for Chappelle to do a third and fourth season of the show and he was filming the third when he dropped out.

Source: REUTERS

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