Though he’d previously addressed his shock departure from his hit Comedy Central sketch series with Oprah in 2006, comedian Dave Chappelle has otherwise kept mum on his decision to leave “Chappelle’s Show” until now.
Whilst promoting an upcoming set of appearances at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall on the “Late Show with David Letterman” Chappelle joked that he never technically quit “Chappelle’s Show”, but is instead “seven years late for work.”
Chappelle confessed to Letterman that he left after feeling slighted by a contractual offer laid down by Comedy Central, saying, “I look at it like this: I’m at a restaurant with my wife, it’s a nice restaurant and we’re eating dinner. I look across the room and say, ‘You see this guy across the room. He has $100 million dollars’, and we’re eating the same entree.”
“Okay, fine, I don’t have $50 million dollars or whatever it was. Let’s say I have $10 million in the bank. The difference in lifestyle is miniscule. The only difference between having $10 million dollars and $50 million dollars is an astounding $40 million dollars,” Chappelle continued.
Asked how he feels about the decision in retrospect, the comedian said that he’s “felt a variety of ways in the last ten years.” He stated that “you do what you feel like you need to do,” and while he becomes upset when he sees things he could have afforded had he stayed on the show, he appreciates “the free time to do the things that I get to do.”
