Dave Chappelle is enforcing strict COVID precautions at his upcoming comedy shows.
Chappelle is slated to perform at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort and Casino in June and all ticketholders must undergo an on-site rapid COVID-19 test to attend the shows. Guests must also wear masks and socially distance inside the venue.
“Masks will be required at all times while in the venue,” the event page reads. “Additionally, each ticket holder will receive a mandatory rapid COVID-19 antigen test, prior to entering the venue. If COVID-19 is detected by the rapid test, that individual and all members of the same household will not be allowed to enter and will be given a refund.”
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Individuals who have received the COVID-19 vaccine are not exempt from the rapid test.
Chappelle will perform two nights of stand-up at Foxwoods on June 25 and 26. Tickets for the performance start at $99, and the venue notes that they, “sell out…within minutes.”
Chappelle himself revealed that he tested positive for COVID in January. As theGRIO reported, he was scheduled to perform in Austin, Texas as part of a residency at Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater. The “Chappelle’s Show” star subsequently canceled the remaining shows following his diagnosis.
“Chappelle has safely conducted socially distanced shows in Ohio since June 2020, and he moved those shows to Austin during the winter,” his representative said in a statement at the time. He “implemented COVID-19 protocols which included rapid testing for the audience and daily testing for himself and his team. His diligent testing enabled him to immediately respond by quarantining, thus mitigating the spread of the virus.”
A month after going into quarantine, Chappelle emerged and announced his hit sketch comedy series Chappelle’s Show was returning to Netflix. The series ran from 2003-2006 on Comedy Central before the comic abruptly walked away from the show. Late last year he asked fans not to support the series on any streaming platform because he “never got paid” by Comedy Central’s owner, ViacomCBS. Per Chappelle’s request, Netflix removed the show from their platform, and HBO Max soon followed.
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After Chappelle and ViacomCBS settled their beef, the comic dropped a video titled Redemption Song, in which he explains why the series is now available to an audience, theGRIO reported.
“I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God almighty for you, you did,” he said. “You made that show worthless because without your eyes it’s nothing…and when you stopped watching it, they called me. And I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”
As for why Chapelle’s Show was taken down in the first place, he explained last fall, “I like working for Netflix because when all those bad things happened to me, that company didn’t even exist. And when I found out they were streaming ‘Chappelle’s Show,’ I was furious. How could they not– how could they not know? So you know what I did? I called them and I told them that this makes me feel bad. And you want to know what they did? They agreed that they would take it off their platform just so I could feel better.”
The clip ends with a full-circle moment for Chappelle, with him saying, “after all these years, I can finally say to Comedy Central, ‘it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.’”
theGRIO’s Biba Adams and Jared Alexander contributed to this report.
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