#1647 - Dave Chappelle

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Trained by days, The Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Dave Chappelle (0:15)

Hello, Joe, how are you?

Joe Rogan (0:17)

What's going on with your mask, man?

Dave Chappelle (0:18)

No, no, I just fucking with you, I just wanna see how you react. All this rona talk.

Joe Rogan (0:25)

All this rona talk.

Dave Chappelle (0:26)

Sick of it.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Yeah.

Dave Chappelle (0:28)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

Headphones or no headphones?

Dave Chappelle (0:30)

Oh, I'll do the phones.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

I just don't wanna be the only one.

Dave Chappelle (0:34)

No, no, it's all good. Here, I turn them up right here?

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Yeah.

Dave Chappelle (0:37)

Check, check, check, here we go. What's up, fingers?

He's over there typing, every few minutes he goes like this. Let's go, let's do this shit.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

So first of all, man, congratulations. You're the first guy to beat the system.

You're the first guy to get fucked over by the system, go public with it and then get your money. I've never heard it happen before. I don't think it's ever happened before.

Dave Chappelle (1:00)

Bro, bro, I still can't wrap my mind around it, but I do have to shout out Chris McCarthy over at CBS Viacom. That guy, you know, when we were working this out, his approach was someone who was actually trying to resolve something.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

Came through.

Dave Chappelle (1:16)

It was amazing, man.

Joe Rogan (1:18)

It's amazing, it's a happy ending. Because usually those artists gripes, they never get resolved, not to where the artist feels comfortable or happy with it.

They always feel bitter and angry, they got fucked over, and someone else is a producer, and they're making millions of dollars off of your work, and they continue to sell it and make money off of it.

Dave Chappelle (1:35)

Well, I could say, with a high degree of honesty, not to say I was never angry about it, but I don't think I was ever bitter. By this point in my life, I wasn't bitter.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

You would joke about it. You were angry about it, but not to the point where it fucked with your head, but you would joke about it.

Dave Chappelle (1:57)

Well, I mean, you know the bottom line is, no matter what happens to you, you gotta keep going.

Joe Rogan (2:02)

You gotta keep going.

Dave Chappelle (2:03)

And bitterness is quite cumbersome.

Joe Rogan (2:05)

Yeah, it's bad for you.

Dave Chappelle (2:06)

Right, so jokes is a way of shaking that off, or processing something with the alchemy of levity.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

Yeah, holding grudges, bitterness, sits very bad for you. It doesn't ever help.

Dave Chappelle (2:17)

No, and now we're getting on in age. You know what I mean? When we were younger, it's fine to hold a grudge.

You didn't realize that, you know.

Joe Rogan (2:23)

You didn't realize it was fucking with you. What is that expression that, oh, it's about jealousy. The jealousy is the only poison that affects the container that's holding it.

Dave Chappelle (2:32)

Right, that's exactly right. Bitterness, the same thing.

Joe Rogan (2:35)

Same thing.

Dave Chappelle (2:36)

Yeah, it's not good.

Joe Rogan (2:37)

Yeah, it's just not good for you. You gotta be able to let shit go.

Dave Chappelle (2:41)

Yeah, I mean.

Joe Rogan (2:43)

But, in your case, you made a ploy. Like, you said what happened, how you felt about it, and they were like, he's right.

Dave Chappelle (2:53)

I think, yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:54)

Let's give him the money.

Dave Chappelle (2:55)

It wasn't a court of law. I don't believe I would've got anything. It's kind of amazing. In a court of law. I think in a court of public opinion, it was a good time for me to say my piece. And through the years, it wasn't something that I would harp on. I mean, I did interviews and stuff. People would always ask me about it, but it was something I was actually reluctant to talk about. It was a lot.

Joe Rogan (3:15)

Yeah. Well, it's hard for other people to relate to this idea that you want more money.

You're talking about regular people and you're saying this thing, even though it is yours, money is hard for people.

Dave Chappelle (3:26)

Money is, if you look at life, anything in life through the framework of money, you'll miss most of the picture.

And in business, especially at this stage in our careers, you realize through the years people play incentives. You know what I mean? That if they incentivize a certain way, then that's the way they're gonna behave. So what they want is never really surprising. How they get there is where all the surprises are.