Dave Chappelle turned in a surprise appearance at a small comedy club in Liverpool last night, and one lucky punter even managed to share a drink with the comedy legend.
For 24-year-old comedy fan Danny Davies, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and ‘one to tell the grandkids about’.
Chappelle had just arrived in town ahead of a show tonight at the M&S Bank Arena, but evidently wanted to soak up a little of the local scene and test out some of his schtick on a smaller audience beforehand.
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Danny, who is a podcast host and comedian himself, as well as being a regular at the Hot Water Comedy Club, got the heads up that a special guest might be coming down, so he decided to head on down.
He told us: “I’ve been a big fan of comedy for years, and my mate Gary who records the podcast with me, phoned when their show had finished and said ‘there’s a special guest coming down to the comedy club – you’ll never guess who it is’.”
Upon hearing that Dave Chappelle and fellow comedian Jeff Ross were coming to the club, he dropped what he was doing and set off.
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In the end, he wasn’t disappointed.
“They turned up at 10:00pm and were on stage for about two hours,” Danny explained.
“It was getting towards 11:30/12:00pm so people were having to leave but I didn’t want to miss any of it, so I stayed.
“My mate Elliot told me to climb over to the front row, and he [Chappelle] spotted me so I gave him a little fist bump.
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“Then [later] Dave Chappelle gave his manager his credit card and asked him to get me a pint.
“So, his manager came down and passed me a pint, and I was drinking a pint watching Dave Chappelle.
“It was unbelievable.
“It’s one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.”
The material that was on show at Hot Water last night will probably be a lot different to what the crowd get tonight at the big show.
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Danny said Chappelle was just ‘telling stories and speaking to the audience’.
“It was one of those things that you had to be there for to see what he was doing,” he added.
“You can pay money to go and see him but you wouldn’t get that.”
Chappelle’s recent Netflix special saw him come in for quite a bit of criticism due to a joke about transgender people, and he was quick to address that and admit that he was going to keep out of it.
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Danny continued: “He said straight away that he got in a bit of trouble over the last 12 months for things that he’s said, and he made it clear straight away he was going to steer clear of that stuff.
“It wasn’t necessarily toned down, it was just a lot more laid back and reminiscing with a mate [Ross] who was there.”
From Danny’s perspective, this was also a learning experience.
As an aspiring comedian himself, there’s a lot to be taken away from seeing someone regarded as a master of the craft at close quarters.
“Everyone who knows anything about comedy says he’s the greatest comedian of all time", Danny gushed.
“To be able to see that for yourself in person, you really understand that he is."
“A lot of the stuff he was doing depended on the stuff that was in front of him, but he was still doing callbacks half an hour later.
“It was brilliant that he could do what he was doing off the top of his head, f***ing unbelievable.
"It’s given me endless amounts of material.
“I can’t wait to sit down when I finish work and get out my notepad and see what I can come up with.
“It’s a story to tell your grandkids.”
Danny Davies is one of the hosts of the What's Happenin' podcast, where you'll no doubt be able to hear more about his encounter with Dave Chappelle.
Featured Image Credit: Danny Davies/Hot Water Comedy Club twitter/@adamrowecomedyTopics: TV and Film, Celebrity, UK News