"and then we have one after another"
Dave Chappelle's Netflix Special "8:46" debuted for free on it's YouTube comedy channel last night (Thursday 6/11/20). In anticipation, I was so incredibly stoked to see it. With the nation in the throes of monumental change, pain and evolution I needed to see what Chappelle (the man himself) had to say. I can absolutely say that the world's funniest man today was not all that funny, but within seven minutes in I was trying to hold back tears, choking not to openly weep.
"8:46" (in reference to the amount of time that Officer Derek Chauvin held his knee forcefully on George Floyd's neck killing him) is terribly moving. I will not quote Chappelle because quoting comics is the worst "dumb f*ckery" there is (although so many blogs and publications do it - shame on you Variety) because it takes carefully crafted words and takes them out of context. What I will say is that Chappelle, holding a black book which I assume are his thoughts, his notes, felt more like a preacher on the pulpit sharing his potent thoughts, shaping real events into incredibly engaging stories, into parables about love, hate, racism, activism, retribution and our (humanity's) own reckoning. The way Chappelle interweaves his personal history in a comic's circular way is transformative.
In the end, Chappelle's "8:46" is painfully funny, subversive, incredible moving and makes the earth shift beneath your feet.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
The disclaimer “From Dave: Normally I wouldn’t show you something so unrefined, I hope you understand,” with a link to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending mass incarceration and racial inequality. Its founder, Bryan Stevenson, was the central character in the 2019 film “Just Mercy,” starring Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson.
No comments:
Post a Comment