Categories: Lifestyle

Dave Chappelle comes to Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena next month amid controversy

Photo via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock

It looks like Dave Chappelle may not get the warmest of welcomes from some Torontonians when he comes to Scotiabank Arena next month. The comedian will be showing his new Untitled documentary at the venue on November 15th, the one and only Canadian stop on the screening tour.

This comes as Chappelle continues to face backlash over many of the jokes he made in his latest Netflix special, The Closer. Chappelle has been accused of attacking the trans community in his special, sparking protests among Netflix employees and widespread calls for the show to be taken off the platform.

The comedian took to Instagram this week to defend himself. “It’s been said in the press that I was invited to speak to the transgender employees of Netflix and I refused. That is not true — if they had invited me I would have accepted it, although I am confused about what we would be speaking about,” he said. “I said what I said, and boy, I heard what you said. My God, how could I not?”

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“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames it that it’s me versus that community, that’s not what it is. Do not blame the LGBTQ community for any of this,” he continued.

“For the record, and I need you to know this, everyone I know from that community has been loving and supportive, so I don’t know what this nonsense is about.”

Chappelle added that his new documentary was invited to “every film festival in the United States,” but since the controversy of his Netflix special, he’s been getting disinvited. “Thank God for Ted Sarandos and Netflix, he’s the only one that didn’t cancel me yet,” he added.

Scotiabank Arena seems to be well aware of the controversy, turning off comments on their tweet and Instagram post about the announcement. Tickets have now gone on sale to the general public.