February 20, 2003 – Comedian Dave Chappelle lives in his own crazy world in his new Comedy Central show, “Chappelle’s Show.”

One of the best things that can happen to boost a young comedian’s career is getting their own television show. It is a chance to express himself in a different way, poke fun at people and society and feature music he really loves. Dave Chappelle has done just that.

For those random stoners who think “Chappelle’s Show” is going to be a half-hour version of Chappelle’s movie “Half-Baked,” they may need to put down the pipe and take a closer look.

“Chappelle’s Show” takes Chappelle’s own personal joke book and brings it to life. The show is not the everyday one-man show, but is made up of skits, man-on-the-street pieces, top musical guests and pop culture parodies.

“It’s not your traditional late night show,” Chappelle said. “There aren’t any interviews. For me it’s like doing stand-up (routines) with visual aids.”

Not only does Chappelle act in every skit on the show, he hosts and introduces each skit in a stand-up format in front of a studio audience-not the same kind of stand-up interruptions a viewer would encounter on an episode of “Seinfeld.” “Chappelle’s Show” has an audience presence similar to that of “Saturday Night Live,” though not as large.

Chappelle takes parody to another level with the extremity of some of his skits. For example, in one skit, the audience found Chappelle playing a blind black man who was portraying the leader of the “White Power” movement.

In another skit, Chappelle created his own version of “Candid Camera” called “You’ve Been Zapped” with a rather raunchy approach to playing jokes on the unknowing victims of the pranks.

“Chappelle’s Show” has created a buzz among audiences all over the country. There are already chat rooms and message boards on the Internet where people discuss the show. It has been generally well accepted, but there are people who do not agree with, or get offended by, the content of the show.

“People have the right to feel that way. I just hope they can look at the work deeper,” Chappelle said. “The material was never meant to be malicious; I mean, it’s a black dude and a white dude sitting at a typewriter offending everyone.”

Chappelle said he really enjoys doing “Chapelle’s Show” but quickly became aware of the demands and hard work that comes from doing his own program. Co-creators Chappelle and Neal Brennan write everything for the show. Chappelle is also executive producer. He makes most of the major decisions concerning the show, including post-production decisions.

Chappelle said having the bulk of the responsibilities on two people is exhausting, but like most who have owned their own show, he enjoys it because he can address the issues he wishes and feature the people he wants to feature, including supporting actors and musicians.

Chappelle said the artists he promotes are artists he respects. So far Chappelle has featured, among others, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Busta Rhymes.

“I consider them my friends, but I was a fan first,” Chappelle said. “See, rap has two sides. One side where you have guys talking about money, gangs and stuff like that. Then, you have the guys who talk about something substantial and they try to push their music as an art form. Those are people I like to get on my show.”

As far as guest comedians are concerned, Chappelle said nothing would make him happier than having Eddie Murphy on his show. He said Eddie Murphy had a big influence on his comedy, especially after meeting and working with him in “The Nutty Professor.”

As for his stand-up shows, Chappelle said he never wants to stop performing for live crowds.

“It’s second nature to me. But I want to continue to do the show as well — you know, if you have something good, stick with it,” Chappelle said.

Chappelle will bring his stand-up show to Columbus March 27 at the Funny Bone comedy club.

New episodes of “Chappelle’s Show” air Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. Encore presentations run Wednesdays at 12:30 a.m., Fridays at 12:30 a.m., Saturdays at 1:30 a.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m.