For a one-night-only double invoice at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater, two of the most important comics on the planet, Jon Stewart and Dave Chappelle, joined forces to skewer President Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Israel and members of the viewers in an evening of comedy that felt electrical as a result of it got here at such a wierd second for the nation.
The evening of top-tier comedy began bumpy for the Apollo Theater. The famed corridor in the course of a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue has been a middle of creativity and Black tradition in Harlem and New York for almost a century. However on Saturday, administration and employees had the unenviable job of making certain that nobody had entry to their cell telephones throughout the present.
Stewart, who has a freshly raised profile now that he’s again internet hosting The Day by day Present (on Mondays solely), was in nice kind as he dropped his unfiltered and really humorous takes on Biden’s debate efficiency and candidacy and Trump’s, effectively…Trumpiness. And whereas operating quick on time, he additionally quipped about his son, who spent a while as a toddler bare in a cowboy hat with jelly strategically smeared on his physique.
Stewart’s set, the primary of the 2, was of the second, given Biden stepped down from the 2024 election the very subsequent day. Stewart’s expertise for self-depreciation whereas tearing down the powers that be is unmatched, and was on full show on the Apollo stage on Saturday evening.
There’s one thing about that second when Dave Chappelle grabs a mic, stands (or sits) onstage earlier than a dwell viewers and simply riffs. Among the finest gags of the evening got here early in his set, when he defined that fame is like operating up a hill with bullets continually whizzing previous your ear, a reference to Trump’s recounting of the assassination try final weekend, and likewise joked about Sean Combs — “Oh, shit! They acquired Puff Daddy — in a reference to the rapper’s authorized points which embody accusations of assault and intercourse trafficking.
Among the subjects Chappelle tackled embody Trump, Biden, fame, Ohio’s males and Gaza. On politics, he identified how all the course of is an ouroboros, or a snake consuming its personal tail. He additionally quipped that 2024 is the primary yr that white voters get to really feel as hopeless about no-good candidates as Blacks do yearly. His set grew unpredictable at occasions, with Chappelle shouting again at hecklers who had beef with the comedian.
The evening closed with Stewart becoming a member of Chappelle on stage for a efficiency that introduced a few of the finest gags they’d. The 2 comics are outdated buddies and it reveals. It was additionally revealed that Chappelle relentlessly pursued Stewart as a 2020 presidential contender. Given the tenor our nation’s politics, he should be nagging his good friend to leap in.