Dave Chappelle forced to pause show after huge brawl breaks out among audience
PERTH, AUSTRALIA: Comedian Dave Chappelle left Perth in a private plane hours after a chaotic brawl in the audience forced him to pause his performance halfway. The Emmy-winning stand-up comedian was giving a packed RAC Arena audience a performance on Thursday, February 2, when a disturbance including yelling and profanity broke out at the back of the venue.
Chappelle has enforced a strict no-phones rule during his shows for at least six years, and no video of the chaotic incident has surfaced. Following the dramatic opening of his Australian tour, Chappelle was seen leaving a private jet hangar at Perth Airport and entering the airport early on Friday morning, February 3, as per Daily Mail.
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What really happened?
It's believed that Chappelle was speaking about being famously tackled by an audience member on stage almost a year ago in LA's Hollywood Bowl when chaos broke out. Many in the confused audience weren't sure if the altercation was real or just part of Chappelle's set.
"About halfway through the set, there was a lot of yelling, swearing, and commotion coming from one of the top-tiers up the back," an attendee told The West Australian. "When he realized a fight had broken out, he cracked a joke about their crappy behavior, before quickly moving on. It was an awesome show and luckily wasn’t ruined by the brawl. Dave Chappelle and the arena staff handled it really well." Security personnel reportedly had to break up the fight for 10 minutes.
Dave Chappelle's Australian tour
Chappelle will give two performances at Sydney Olympic Park this weekend. A few days ago, he was spotted interacting with fans and taking photographs in front of a Jamaican restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney. He has two more sets scheduled in Melbourne for next weekend, after which he will travel to Brisbane and Auckland. Tickets to his Sydney shows at Qudos Bank Arena start from $188.
Chappelle has previously given an explanation for his strict no-phones rule. "So I knew that anything I said in the room I was saying to everybody whether they were in the room or not, which is not an empowering feeling as a comedian. It's like Fight Club rules apply. What I'm saying to you is I'd rather just keep it in the room. The other thing is, comedians need the element of surprise so if someone sees the joke that I'm doing before I get to that city then I got to do all new jokes and I couldn't write fast enough. I say a lot of crazy s***, It's not malicious but there you go."