Dave Chappelle’s latest cancellation should trouble us all

Comedian Dave Chappelle was due to perform a sell-out stand-up show last night. But just hours before he took to the stage, the show was called off. We don’t know why Chappelle’s show was axed at the last minute. But we can read between the lines of the statement put out by First Avenue, the venue in Minneapolis in the United States, where Chappelle was due to perform.

‘We hear you and we are sorry. We know we must hold ourselves to the highest standards, and we know we let you down. We are not just a black box with people in it, and we understand that First Ave is not just a room, but meaningful beyond our walls,’ the venue said in its statement. ‘We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honouring that, we lost sight of the impact this would have.’

Chappelle, of course, upset the mob last year when his Netflix special, The Closer, was judged to be transphobic.