Review: Dave Chappelle, “The Art of Spin” on Netflix

Now this is what you’ve all been waiting for.

The Art of Spin, an hour-plus of hot firepower comedy from one of the all-time greats in Dave Chappelle, came out today on Netflix along with his previously unreleased 2015 special, Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Chappelle recorded The Art of Spin in the days just following the deaths in late March of Garry Shandling and Phife Dawg, and he pays tribute to both of those icons at the very end of this special, recorded at the Hollywood Palladium.

It’s far and away a tighter, funnier, more effective burst of stand-up from Chappelle than his 2015 effort, although since nobody has gotten the opportunity to watch a new special from Dave in more than a decade, you’ll be very pleased by what you see here.

In stark contrast to the artists Chappelle honors at the end of The Art of Spin, he has come to terms with how two bigger icons of black Americans who had become heroes to all of us turned out to be false idols. And so he weaves his way through personal encounters of his with O.J. Simpson as well as the emotional repercussions of worshiping Bill Cosby.

Chappelle wonders what place he has in the comedy world where Kevin Hart has zoomed past him and everyone else to become the industry’s biggest rock star.

And yet The Art of Spin proves that when Chappelle is on his game and brings it, there’s nobody like him.

And I, for one, cannot wait for the third special of Chappelle’s $60 million Netflix deal to come later in 2017!

Read my official, full review of Dave Chappelle: The Art of Spin, over on Decider.com.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

View all posts by Sean L. McCarthy →

One thought on “Review: Dave Chappelle, “The Art of Spin” on Netflix

Comments are closed.