Dave Chappelle
Purpose: To inform the audience about the comedian Dave Chappelle.
Thesis: In order to understand Dave Chappelle’s successful career, it is important to learn his childhood, early career, and present career.
Organizational Pattern: Topical I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Dave Chappelle once said “The mark of greatness is when everything before you is obsolete, and everything after you bears yours mark.” B. Relevance: Dave Chappelle is a timeless comedian who has proven himself year after year. His easy going and laid back personality draws crowds in. He has made himself relevant by using controversial topics such as politics, stereotypes, and current events. His fearless attitude brings him to greater heights in the comedy world. C. Credibility: As a kid watching Dave Chappelle with my cousins back in his prime years, we thought he was the funniest man on the planet. Even though his material was not the most appropriate, we still believed his style was pure genius. Through the years we continued to watch his stand-up and it seemed to never get old. Though my cousins and I do not see each other as often, it is always fun to reminisce through his classic jokes. D. Thesis: In order to understand Dave Chappelle’s successful career, it is important to learn his childhood, early career, and present career. E. Preview: Therefore, we will start off with his childhood and some family information, next, we will live through a time of his early career, and finally, we will learn of his present career and current whereabouts.
Transition: To begin, let us take a look at his childhood. II. Body A. First, Dave Chappelle’s early life will be discussed. [Start PowerPoint] 1. Dave Khari Webber Chappelle was born in Washington, D.C. on August 24th 1973. His parents were both professors, his mother, Yvonne taught at Howard University then University of Maryland and served as a Unitarian minister. His father, William taught at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Sadly, Dave’s parents separated when he was only six years old, despite the divorce, he still had a relatively normal childhood. a. He lived most of his childhood in Maryland in a town called Silver Spring, but visited his father often in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In fact he loved Yellow Springs so much, he later purchased a 65 acre farm after becoming successful. Dave went to Woodlin Elementary school as a child, later attended to Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
Transition: Now that we got the jest of his childhood, let us live through the time of his early career. B. Dave was highly inspired by Bill Cosby and the Cosby Show. 2. While being in high school at 14 years old he began experimenting with stand-up. Since he was so young his mother had to go along with him to clubs as a legal guardian. She was the type of mom that let her kids choose their path in life, hence why she was so supportive of Dave. b. When he was 16 years old, he got the chance to perform at New York’s Apollo theatre’s amateur night. Sadly the audience did not like his material and booed him offstage. From the show Inside the Actors Studio Dave was quoted saying, “I still remember that boo. I had never been booed off stage before. I just remember looking out and seeing everybody booing. Everybody! Even old people. Who boos a child pursuing his dreams? This is the meanest crowd in the world! Then that siren went off and the dude came out tap dancing. Sandman! I wanted to choke him! And that was the best thing that ever happened to me, because before that time, I had never bombed...after that, I was fearless." 3. He did not attend college and decided to pursue his comedy career even further in the 90s. c. He made his first debut in Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993. Later became the youngest comedian that has been featured in the HBO special Comic Relief. At 18 he tried to be in TV series, of the several he was in, only one aired called Buddies which got cancelled after 13 episodes. He still continued to grow in popularity and starred in films such as Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy, Woo, You’ve Got Mail and Half Baked, a movie which he wrote. In 1998 his father died from a stroke which forced Dave to reevaluate his life. In the year 2000 he filmed a comedy special called “Killing them Softly”, which was a huge hit. Finally in 2003 he created his very own show called Chappelle Show which received two Emmy Award nominations for wildly popular and controversial show.
Transition: Now that we lived through his early career, let us learn of his present career and his whereabouts. C. Rebecca Leung commented in her article “Chappelle: An Act of Freedom”, “Consider this a warning: Dave Chappelle will probably offend you. But if you've got a thick skin and can take it, you just might find him funny - brilliantly funny”. 4. Chappelle Show was such a huge success after two seasons that Dave was offered $50 million for another two year contract in 2005. Unhappy with where the show was going, he abruptly left. 5. This was very controversial because nobody knew where he went nor why he ditched the large sum of money. Later found out that Dave went to South Africa was two weeks in order to get out of the spotlight and relax. Many people assumed he was on drugs and went crazy. 6. In the article “Dave Speaks” from TIME Magazine by Christopher Farley, he was quoted saying, “"I'm not crazy, I’m not smoking crack. I'm definitely stressed out."” After his Africa disappearance he started living a more secluded life at his 65 acre farm in Ohio and made a handful of public appearances. In 2006 he released his documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and finally came back in 2013 with a few stand ups here and there but nothing too major.
Transition: Now that we have learned about his present career, we can see he does not come to the spotlight as often and tries to remain hidden, but still is relevant and an important figure in comedy. III. Conclusion A. Thesis/Summary: In conclusion, in order to truly know the comedy genius Dave Chappelle is, it important to explore his childhood, early career and present career. Without his mother, his downfalls, and his fans, he would not have the success he has today. B. Memorable Close: Dave Chappelle once said, “I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point, I'll walk away from show business. But I don't want to walk away empty-handed”.

References
Farley, C. (2005, May 14). Dave speaks. TIME. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time /magazine/article/0,9171,1061512,00.html
Dave Chappelle. (2015). The Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people /dave-chappelle-538184#related-video-gallery
Leung, R. (2004, October 19). Chappelle: an act of freedom. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chappelle-an-act-of-freedom-19-10-2004/
Lipton, J. (2008, November 10). Dave Chappelle: inside the actors studio [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.guavaleaf.com/video/21681/Dave-Chappelle--Inside-The-Actors-Studio#sthash.d4YAemy3.dpbs