Dave Chappelle Isn’t Going Away
Ditto Joe Rogan and J.K. Rowling. Cancelation attempts are making them wealthier and more popular for one simple reason.
When comedian Dave Chappelle first shot to super-stardom with his hit comedy series, “Chappelle’s Show,” his rise to fame and fortune seemed meteoric, overnight.
Like most overnight success stories, Dave Chappelle had already been hard at work honing his craft for many years prior to his sudden success. Doing stand-up in smoke-filled clubs; appearing in comedy specials with other comedians for a pittance; taking small acting and writing parts in small-budget pictures: Dave Chappelle, highest-paid, most popular comedian in America got his start as Dave Chappelle, starving artist.
Actor Judge Reinhold once gave a theater full of aspiring young drama and music students the following advice about show business: “If you can do anything else, if there is ANY other thing you can do, do that thing instead.”
He wasn’t being mean; Reinhold was explaining a basic universal truth in the simplest way possible: Being an artist is brutally hard, it is perhaps the hardest job there is. There are no guarantees whatsoever, no certain successes and failure is the general default.
Those who do choose art must do so because there is absolutely nothing else they can, will, or want to do…