Saturday Interview

Neal Brennan

First order of business with comedian Neal Brennan: addressing the obvious.

"I have no prepared questions about Dave," I told the man best known for co-writing, directing, and producing Chappelle's Show.

"Is that true?" he asks. "God bless ya!"

Not that things went completely as planned. Brennan, a few ticks later: "I'm not one of these guys that was a child actor and is all: 'My name is Robert now. Don't call me Bobby anymore.' I understand that it is the most interesting thing I've ever done, so I'm not going to be a jerk about it. It's silly to not talk about it.

"Like, I met Sylvester Stallone, and he talked about Rocky."

Yes, but we live in the now. What's it like doing stand-up again?

"It's way more fun to tell jokes for an hour than it is to sit in a room and bash your head against the wall trying to think of sketches," he says. "The jokes are gonna work."