Dave Chappelle: 'Fight Club rules apply' for his stand-up comedy

When it comes to Dave Chappelle’s stand-up comedy, “Fight Club rules apply.” But for Jimmy Kimmel, he’ll make an exception.

The comedian sat down with the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night to discuss his Netflix comedy specials, basketball star LeBron James showing up to his L.A. show, jests about O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby, and the “no phones” policy for his audiences.

“It became a thing where I walk onstage and I see a sea of cellphones, so I knew that anything I said in the room I was saying to everybody whether they were in the room or not, which is not an empowering feeling as a comedian,” Chappelle said. “It’s like Fight Club rules apply, man, like what I’m saying to you, I’d rather just keep it in the room.” He further explained that “comedians need the element of surprise. So if someone sees a joke that I’m doing before I get to their city, I gotta do all new jokes and I couldn’t write fast enough.”

Where this rule came in handy was with James, who joined Chappelle onstage in L.A. “I don’t think [he] would’ve went onstage and had me say all the crazy stuff I was saying around him if peoples’ cellphones were on,” Chappelle said. While he wouldn’t reveal what “crazy stuff” he said, exactly — after all, “Fight Club rules apply” — he did tease, “I made some assists.”

Other material he likes to keep within the room are topics like Simpson and Cosby. “I think it’s more of a compulsion,” he said of tackling “big enough” subjects. “Sometimes something will happen and you’ll feel a certain way about it… When I’m walking down the street, they’ll be like, ‘Dave, that’s right. You tell it like it is.’ Not really. I don’t really know what it is, I just say what it feels like.”

Watch more of Chappelle on Kimmel in the clips above.