Dave Chappelle has found his next gig. The controversial comedian will be part of Netflix’s just-announced mega stand-up comedy festival.
“Netflix Is A Joke” will be an 11-day fest held in Los Angeles in 2022 where over 130 comedians, including the 48-year-old, will perform their routines.
Stars will perform across 25 Hollywood landmarks such as the Greek Theater, the Hollywood Bowl, Dodger Stadium and the Crypto.com Arena.
Iconic comics who will take the stage include Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, Amy Schumer, Ali Wong, Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Chelsea Handler, Chris Rock, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Pete Davidson, Ray Romano, Seth Rogen and many more.
The event was supposed to be held last year, however, the coronavirus pandemic forced the streamer to cancel.
“It’s absolutely thrilling for Netflix to be hosting a comedy festival of this magnitude in Los Angeles,” Netflix’s director of stand-up and comedy formats, Robbie Praw, said in a statement. “We were so disappointed to postpone the event last spring and our lineup of comedians can’t wait to bring much needed laughs to audiences in LA and around the world on Netflix.
Praw continued, ” ‘Netflix Is A Joke’ Festival is going to give comedy fans the opportunity to see the greats and discover new faces in one of the greatest cities in the world.”
Chappelle garnered much ire from viewers with his recent Netflix special “The Closer.” The show was released in October and was deemed as transphobic. The funnyman made a few controversial remarks about the LGBTQ community and it led to two transgender Netflix employees filing labor complaints against the streaming service. One of the workers has since resigned and dropped the complaint.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the special, writing in a memo to employees, “Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long-standing deal with him.”
“As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom — even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful,” he continued. “Several of you have also asked where we draw the line on hate. We don’t allow titles [on] Netflix that are designed to incite hate or violence, and we don’t believe ‘The Closer’ crosses that line.”
The executive added, “Particularly in stand-up comedy, artistic freedom is obviously a very different standard of speech than we allow internally as the goals are different: entertaining people versus maintaining a respectful, productive workplace.”
The festival is set to run from April 28 to May 8. Pre-sales will be available Dec. 7 and tickets will go on sale Dec. 10.