More than half of you were high.

That was comedian Dave Chappelle’s estimation of the crowd at the end of his sold-out show on Saturday evening in Goldstein Auditorium. But that is not all that abnormal for a man who later admitted that the amount of weed given to him by overzealous fans could absolve him from trips to the dealer altogether.

Chappelle effortlessly worked through his hour-plus set and looked nearly at home on stage dressed in denim jeans and jacket. At certain points during the show, he looked like he was going to fall over because he was laughing so hard at many of his own jokes — sometimes during the punch lines.

He also employed a majority of new material since his 2000 HBO special “Dave Chappelle: Killin’ Them Softly,” reusing only one joke. The themes, however, remained the same. Just like “Softly,” Chappelle hit on his seemingly favorite topics of race, drugs, politics and women.

Describing a trip to Aspen, Colo. (or as Chappelle deemed it, “the white Africa”), he discussed the reaction of some of the residents when he encountered the legendary Sasquatch.

“So Bigfoot is walking down the hill and he starts walking right next to me, when some people turn and see him,” Chappelle said. “They point and yell, ‘Look! It’s a nigger! Watch out Bigfoot, get your picture!’ ”

It was no surprise though that Chappelle’s best jokes were race-related as it has, for the majority of his career, been his bread and butter. Saturday was no exception as he lamented about white people keeping what they eat under lock and key, and despite several failed attempts to follow white shoppers through the grocery store, he has been unable to lift the iron curtain of secrecy.

But, he excitedly told the audience, his research was not without one important discovery.

“I did see what you drink — can’t play dumb with old Dave,” he said. “Grape juice! Surprise motherfuckers!”

No topic seemed to be off limits for Chappelle, who told no less than three explicit tales of ejaculate, including encouraging the male members of the audience to go back to their dorm rooms to peer into their own spunk for self-enlightenment. One of the night’s funniest moments came during his nearly 15-minute long rant about pimps, including why one cannot be high and pimp at the same time, to a comprehensive description and explanation of why pimps blow their load the way they do, from the assertive moan to the use of their cape to wipe their wiener and the bizarre requests that follow.

“He will be like, ‘Bitch, program my laptop. Don’t pressure me bitch, I want Microsoft Word and everything. I’m cyberpimping,’” he said.

Even through the depths of Dave’s nasty jokes, the audience was in the palm of his hand, with the laughter seemingly increasing as he dove deeper into his depravity.

Chappelle even let his wishes be known that he hopes a race of aliens would enslave everyone on earth and take earth’s citizenry back to their home world so we would all get along together. He described being transported to his new home and finding out that the only other slave his new master owned was a white stoner from Chicago. He acted out the moment of racial unity when the stoner’s warm “Duuuude” was met with a friendly “Motherfucker.”

Unwittingly, student opener Matt Duckett provided a fitting lead-in for the “Half Baked” star. Although his jokes about gay romance with his priest, necrophilia and Edith Bunker being raped by Elmo while Yoda taped it all would eventually seem tame compared to some of the headliner’s material, it still illicited some groans from the crowd, which is a good thing.

By the end of the evening, Chappelle showed the faithful, who sold out the venue, why he is one of the most gifted comedians working today and provided more than half of them with something to laugh at as they were coming down.

Justin Young is a sophomore newspaper major. E-mail him at jryoun02@syr.edu.

Published on November 17, 2002 at 12:00 pm