No joke: Chappelle performs for record 6 hours

Stand-up comic breaks L.A. club's mark of nearly 4 hours, set by Dane Cook

Mike Blake / Reuters file	Dave Chappelle, who walked away from $50 million and a third season of his TV show in 2005, entertained the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles on Sunday.

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LOS ANGELES - Now that he’s back on the stand-up circuit, Dave Chappelle has a lot to say.

The comic, who walked out on a $50 million deal to continue his TV show and briefly took a respite in South Africa, shattered the Laugh Factory’s endurance record by taking to the comedy club’s stage for six hours and seven minutes Sunday.

“He was absolutely amazing, for six hours making people laugh,” the club’s owner, Jamie Masada, said Tuesday.

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Masada said the previous record of three hours and 50 minutes was accomplished earlier this month by Dane Cook. But until then the mark had stood at two hours and 41 minutes since Richard Pryor set it in 1980.

Chappelle walked out on the third season of his hit Comedy Central show in May 2005, leaving fans and industry observers to question his motives and even his sanity.

He has said since that he didn’t feel like he could be himself on the show.

“The bottom line was, white people own everything, and where can a black person go and be himself or say something that’s familiar to him and not have to explain or apologize?” he told Esquire magazine.

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He has since returned to the stand-up circuit and released the documentary “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.”