“Come back, Dave!” someone hollered last night to comedian Dave Chappelle, who’s spent much of the last seven years not telling jokes in public. “I kind of am back,” he said to the near-capacity audience at Robinson Center Music Hall, the night after playing to a sold out show at the Orpheum theater in Memphis, his first ticketed theater gigs in years. “Tonight I’m back.”
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Back because he wanted to road test some material before launching a new tour? Back because he was going stir crazy on his ranch in Ohio? Back to gear up for a new version of “Chappelle’s Show,” the massively popular skit show he quit abruptly in 2005? Your guess is as good as mine. But don’t look for material from his Little Rock show on an HBO special anytime soon.