Dave Chappelle has responded to the storm of controversy surrounding his Netflix special The Closer in a 5-minute clip of a live set posted Monday to his Instagram. In it, the comedian, who’s currently in the middle of a national tour, directly addressed the transgender community, saying he would be “more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands.” Over the audience’s cheers, he listed off “conditions” for such a meeting to take place, chuckling. “First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched my special from beginning to end. You must come to a place of my choosing, at a time of my choosing, and thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny.”
Chappelle also took the opportunity to complain “about corporate interests, and what I can say and what I cannot say” into a microphone, to uproarious applause. He said that, since the backlash, “not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch” an upcoming documentary about his summer 2020 comedy tour. “Thank god for Ted Sarandos and Netflix,” the comedian added. He announced that he would instead be self-releasing the untitled film in 10 cities. “You can see what they’re trying to obstruct you from seeing,” Chappelle said. “And you can judge for yourself. But you cannot have this conversation, and exclude my voice from it. That is only fair.”
