Dave Chappelle finds success down a different path

In a time when the wrong political views could cost entertainers their jobs, when people are being encouraged to watch what they say and question whom they say it to, there is one tiny beacon of hope: The very opinionated Dave Chappelle has a TV show coming to Comedy Central.

Yes, the Dave Chappelle who publicly turned his back on a pilot deal with Fox when creative control got out of his hands and who rejected a spot with the lucrative "Kings of Comedy" tour, a move some assume he regrets.

"I'm cool with it," he said in a phone interview recently. "Granted, it made all those guys really rich, but I just don't think that was my thing. I do (things) a little differently, man."

How differently? Well, instead of basing himself in New York City or Los Angeles, Chappelle chooses to live with his pregnant wife and son in an Ohio farmhouse.

In his 2000 HBO special "Killin' Them Softly," he did a bit about an infant selling weed on a corner in the projects. That's fairly distinct.

At 29, he's plugged away at this career for close to 15 years — yes, he started doing stand-up at 14 — but many people are just beginning to hear about him.

That segment of his growing fan base was likely introduced to him through other stars.

He's Howard Stern's favorite comic and a correspondent on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

And the price for staying on the outskirts of the Hollywood scene is that he hasn't been in a lot of movies, save for smaller parts, such as in "You've Got Mail," "The Nutty Professor," "200 Cigarettes" and "Con Air."

More likely, though, the average person's how-do-you-do came courtesy of "Half-Baked," a tokefest of a comedy he wrote and starred in with Jim Breuer. It's a cult classic. That said, Chappelle also regrets — only a little — that the movie became bigger than him.

"Ben & Jerry's named an ice cream after the movie, all that, but where's my flavor?" he joked. "At the time, the movie seemed like a good idea. I kind of did it on purpose ... I am of this culture, and it's something I can talk about. It's something I have in common with a lot of people.

"More specifically," he added, "I had seen 'Trainspotting.' And I said, 'That's pretty tragic with heroin. But with reefer, it would be kind of funny.' "

Plenty of hilarity has passed since then, most recently including a co-starring role in "Undercover Brother" and a turn as a puppet on the popular Comedy Central series "Crank Yankers." Recognizable by his voice as well as his jokes, Chappelle is officially famous.

"The thing I like about fame is that so few doors are closed to me," he said. "But at the same time, there are elements of fame I find kind of frightening. ... Like people trying to use you. Before I was famous, I could never wrap my head around kind deeds with bad intentions around them. Now I just accept that as the norm."

That doesn't mean he won't call folks on it, though. Being opinionated and outspoken is just something he's compelled to do. It shows in his comedy and the way Hollywood has treated him earlier in his career, when his experience with network television went so badly he vowed never to do it again.

"When you're young, you don't understand that this is a corporate endeavor, and it's that strange place where art and corporate endeavors meet. So there's a certain amount of politics that you just have to apply to a situation like that. And being a young dude, I just didn't have the interest."

Now things have changed. Consider the outlook: He's coming to play Benaroya tonight and has creative freedom on a sitcom that bears his name. Through it all, he's remained that nice guy his boosters have long adored.

"I got it good, man," he sums it up. "I mean, a lot of guys got it way worse."

Melanie McFarland: mmcfarland@seattletimes.com.