Chappelle tells Time that he's not crazy

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 16th, 2005

MIA MTV-owned star Dave Chappelle tells giant media conglomerate Time that, “I’m not crazy. I’m not smoking crack. I’m definitely stressed out.” MTV pres Doug Herzog and the wigged comic are communicating via the media. (We suspect this is all in preparation for a spectacular lawsuit that will be all the buzz for the next two years or so.)

To Time, Chappelle cops to meeting with a psychiatrist for one 40-minute session after arriving in South Africa, but he says he’s staying with a family friend. “I’m not in a mental facility,” he says in a Q&A that took place Friday and lasted 90 minutes.

A converted Muslim, he says he flew to the country last month for a “spiritual retreat.”[…]

[…]”There were things that overwhelmed me,quot; he says. “But not in the way that people are saying. I haven’t spent any of the money. All that stuff about partying and taking crack is not true.

“I haven’t smoked marijuana in months. My drugs these days are nicotine and coffee.”

What he does admit to is struggling with expectations–his fans’, the network’s, but mostly his own–for the third season of Chappelle’s Show.

“My personal feeling is I didn’t like the direction of the show. I was trying to explain it to people, and no one was feeling me. There’s a lot of resistance to my opinions, so I decided, Let me remove myself from this situation.”

The fortunes of MTV and Chappelle are intertwined. Herzog was quoted late last week as saying that Chappelle’s absence will mean the postponement of their planned summer schedule launch. And a huge loss of revenue. Let the lawsuits begin!

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