Chappelle’s Woes No Different From Those of Other Artists

At first, I was confused about the rumors of Dave Chappelle admitting himself into a psychiatric hospital. Then he finally talks to the press and says that he has went on a spiritual retreat, which makes a lot of sense because that is exactly what most of us should do when we are stressed out about our careers.

In this day and age it is crazy to most to leave everything behind when you are on top of your game, yet think of all of the individuals who have done so when faced with the pressures of continuing to move forward when you simply do not have the motivation to do so.

Jay-Z & Michael Jordan are a couple of figures that come to mind, even Jerry Seinfeld; you go so far in life, farther than you ever believed that life could take you in that field and then it becomes difficult to wrap your mind around it all and your psyche begins to implode.

Chappelle says that he has to be able to listen to his own voice that everyone says that you are a genius when you are on top. I could actually use the genius part right about now, but on a more serious note, I was trying to be a writer and have an interesting social life at the same time, and the writing suffered tremendously.

You go from being able to write anything rather quickly and efficiently to long periods of nothing where you rewrite and rethink your prose ten or fifteen times and it takes you an hour or more to put out a short piece. If I had a $50,000,000 contract, I think I would crack under pressure as well; I’d rather receive ten dollars here and there, if it kept me grounded, than I would to receive unusual amounts of money for my work just to psyche myself out because it was never good enough.

So now, Chappelle finds himself in a position where he is not even sure if his show will still be around upon his arrival in the States. Yet if he has reconnected with God, and he has kept himself sane it will have all been worth the sacrifice.

You have to appreciate a person that knows when it is best to stop and take inventory of what he is doing rather than to continue with material that does not show his growth as a person. If we change as individuals, we want our audience to move with us, our support to continue to be there for us, but even when none of that comes about, we still have to change and move on, in spite of it all.

So everyone who will say “Dave has changed” and “he’s lost his edge, he isn’t the same or as funny as he was before” so really take a deep look at why they liked him so much in the first place.

We want our entertainers to stay on top forever, but doing so takes a serious mental and psychological toll on the performers, and it is not as though they have lost their talent simply because the routines have changed.

If anything, this is a message to the fans that they should take a deep look at their own lives as well, and perhaps change what they are doing or find ways to become a better individual, for their own good.