Dave Chappelle has found a socially distant way to perform sets, as showcased in his new Netflix special “8:46.”
The 27-minute special, which gets its name from the amount of time a former Minneapolis cop knelt on George Floyd’s neck before his death, finds Chappelle offer insight into Floyd’s death and the greater movements regarding race and police brutality it sparked. It was filmed June 6 at an outdoor venue near Chappelle’s home in Yellow Springs, Ohio with various safety measures implemented.
Guests in attendance are shown getting their temperatures checked upon entering and seats were organized in pairs with plenty of distance between other attendees. Roughly 100 patrons were onsite for the show.
“This is weird and less than ideal circumstances to do a show,” Chappelle began the special, which was released on Netflix’s YouTube channel. “The only way to figure out if this shit will work is to do the goddamn show. So thank you all for coming.”
The comic noted that even under the circumstances of the pandemic, he preferred to hold a show for a limited, in-person crowd rather than a drive-in setting that other live events are turning to for the time being.
“Like it or not, it’s history. It’s going to be in the books. At least we tried,” he told the crowd. “It’s not the first show, but the other shows were in drive-ins and if people liked the … jokes, they’d honk the horns. That doesn’t sound like any fun at all.”
Chappelle delved into Floyd’s death and the national protests that have occurred since, as well as systemic racism that played into the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Eric Garner and Michael Brown. He presents the special with a note in the YouTube video description saying, “Normally I wouldn’t show you something so unrefined, I hope you understand.”
Watch Dave Chappelle’s “8:46” special below.
