Saying YES to seeing Dave Chappelle

Saturday night I was at home and happen to see that Dave Chappelle was performing that night in a small venue. No surprise it was sold out.

While I was perfectly happy to wind the night down, I decided I’d go out and try. I told myself even if I don’t get a ticket I’ll go out dancing by myself (thank you Billy Idol inspiration coming in handy 35 years later…).

Should I go? “Yes”

I drove down to a neighborhood that’s VERY difficult to park in, I told myself if parking’s not easy, I’m not going. A parking spot literally 40 feet from the venue opened just as I drove up.

I got out and there was a line of 300 people waiting to get in with tickets and another 30 waiting without them. I calmly walked down the line of people waiting asking if anyone had one ticket, nobody had one.

As I walked back to the no ticket crowd (which looked like the mutants from Table 9 in the Wedding Singer so I fit right in) I asked a security guard, is there any way to get a ticket.

He smiled and said “No sorry you’re out of luck”.

Should I stay? "Yes"

I stood among the mutants for a bit as I strategized how I might get a ticket. I saw they were handing out red wrist bands and for a moment considered how I might procure some construction paper and make one.

I also considered going to the ticket window and flashing some cash to get in. Unfortunately, I was only rolling with like $60 (the tix were $125 apiece) and while I’m a modern guy, something about Venmo’ng someone to bribe them to get in to a concert just doesn’t make sense.

I stood there, took a deep breath and asked myself: Should I wait?

“Yes”

Sure enough out of nowhere comes a bespectacled well framed man asking me if I was looking for a ticket.

“Yes! Omg how much do you want for one?”

“Nothing”

And after determining that this would not become another “I’m one helluva stud” scene from Midnight Cowboy, all seemed safe and I said “yes!”.

I walked with the man named Peter and met his wonderful partner Ashley. I told them I was buying them drinks when I got in.

Ashley said “Awesome!”

Peter said “I’ll take a coke.”

And for those of you reading this far, we know that as the “code words” for something MANY of us have in common.

Turns out that me and my man Peter have a certain something in common such that neither of us drink or use on a daily basis.

In said program there’s a concept that we jokingly and accurately refer to as a “God shot”.

And that was a God shot of the highest degree, as a bonus the venue is called The Chapel.

I ended a relationship with someone I care deeply about a month or so ago. I’ve faced a variety of things over the last month that have been in service to helping other people with a lot of emotional weight to it (death, letting go, saving lives, old wounds etc.).

It’s life stuff and what I wanted more than I knew was to completely let myself go into laughter and depth.

I got it. Chapelle went for 3 ½ hours. He got drunk and high in front of us and yet was pitching fire all night.

He had the incredible ability to deliver a series of blistering, hilarious comedic takes on things and pivot into honestly talking about things that are real and deep.

A huge part of it was just responding to the crowd’s questions/comments.

In a shock to nobody (except for the people near me I guess), I shouted out about 2 hours into it “What do you think of God?”.

And he thought for a beat and delivered a tight, deep message that aligned with some of the core things I believe in. Most notably that the idea of a perfect force guiding us makes sense and yet we get all wrapped up in what it’s called.

I’ll separately write up about his performance which was spectacular and the series of “yes” and trust decisions I made that night was the reward inside the reward.

I learned that night that just because life says sold out it doesn’t mean it’s closed.