Saturday Night Live: Dave Chappelle took advice from Louis CK

Earlier this season on Saturday Night Live, Dave Chappelle had arguably one of the biggest challenges in the history of the show: Going on to host in the days that followed the Presidential Election. He basically had to go out there and find a way to be funny at a time when there were not all that many people sure as to how to laugh, especially within the show’s core demographic.

It was fair to say that he was nervous — anyone would be. In a new interview with the New York Times promoting his just-released standup specials, Chappelle admits that he was “worried” when the writers had to change up much of their material and were so shocked in the midst of Donald Trump’s win. However, it was the advice of a fellow legendary comic in Louis C.K. who helped to calm him down:

“The best advice I got was from Louis C.K. I went to a comedy club Friday night [before the show] and saw him. And Louis told me: ‘[Forget] the rest of the show. The monologue is all that matters.’ I was stressed out all that day. But right before I went onstage, this calm just washed over me. Everything just felt right.”

Chappelle also said recently in a separate interview featuring Gayle King of CBS News that he was convinced to do the show in the first place because of the presence of A Tribe Called Quest as the musical guest. He had a close relationship with the group, and had spent time with them before that remembering the life of Phife Dawg shortly after his death. They were going to do it and wanted him to host. This was after Lorne Michaels had offered him the chance to host the first show after the election, and he eventually agreed to do it.

We’re not sure that Chappelle will ever host again, mostly because it’s not really the sort of thing that he often likes to do. He wants to go off and do his thing in the way that many reclusive geniuses do. We get that. For us, we just have gratitude that he did it at all.

Want to see some more fun when it comes to Saturday Night Live? If you hdad over here, you can see a new video featuring Melissa McCarthy speaking further about her now-famous alter ego of Sean Spicer. (Photo: NBC.)