Dave

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David Chappelle was enraptured by stand-up comedy since his days as an elementary school student at Woodlin Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a middle school student in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his father William was a professor of voice and music at Antioch College. At 14, Chappelle gathered the courage to perform on stage at the famed Apollo theater in harlem, New York. After his parents' divorce, Chappelle moved to Washington, D.C., with his mother, Yvonne Seon (a Unitarian Universalist minister). He spent summers with his father in Yellow Springs and attended and graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts (a renowned performing arts high school in Washington, DC), where he majored in literary and theatre arts.In 1992 Dave Chappelle made his first TV appearance on Def Comedy Jam. Then the next year Dave made his first appearance as an actor in Robin Hood: Men in Tights as Ahchoo, and then in Undercover Blues as Ozzie. The period from 1994 to 1997 for Dave was a repetitive cycle of TV appearances, fairly minor stand-up shows, and rather low-budget films. One of the most notable things Dave did during this time was that he was given his first shot at his own show, The Dave Chappelle Project, but the show was short-lived. In 1998, however, Dave became a hit cult movie star in Half Baked, a film Dave co-wrote (with Neal Brennan) and produced (uncredited), which follows the lives of four stoners. After Half Baked, Dave did more TV appearances, stand-up shows, and films. In 2000, Dave made a rather large hit appearance on his HBO one-night stand-up show, Dave Chappelle: Killin' 'Em Softly.In 2003, Chappelle debuted his own weekly television show on Comedy Central, Chappelle's Show. His sketch comedy heavily skewers racial stereotypes and slurs, including Chappelle's African-American heritage. This, combined with pointed social and political commentary, quickly gained the show great popularity. By the end of the second season, it was one of the highest-rated shows on basic cable, and second only to South Park on Comedy Central. Additionally, the DVD set of the first season became the best-selling DVD of a television show to date. Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central's parent company Viacom reportedly offered Chappelle a $50 million contract (giving Chappelle a share of DVD sales) to continue production of Chappelle's Show for two more years while allowing him to do side projects."I'm Rick James, Bitch!"One of Chappelle's most widely-known bits has Chappelle portraying late funk musician Rick James during his drug-abusing years in the Rick James sketch. "I'm Rick James, Bitch!"—which James himself acknowledged was a direct quote—has become a part of popular culture, as have many other Chappelle characters and sketches. However, Chappelle eventually grew weary of the phrase's popularity and told audience members who yelled it to "shut up." At an appearance at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Chappelle stopped the show to deal with an audience member who would not stop repeating the phrase.