Comedian Dave Chappelle is a Huge Fan of Magic Mushrooms
Phillip Schneider, Staff Writer
Waking Times
Fans of Dave Chappelle may know that he is no stranger to psychedelics. In a stand-up act from 1998, he joked about taking mushrooms he got at a party and then tripping in a barber shop.
But Dave’s escapades on mushrooms aren’t just for his comedy, he really does enjoy taking them. So much so in fact, that his friend Aziz Ansari felt the need to recount an anecdote to a crowd at Kennedy Center Concert Hall, as Chappelle was about to be given the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last year.
The night before they announced him as the year’s winner, Dave asked his friend, “what kind of night are you trying to have tonight, Aziz?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDlAtwbuYDI&feature=emb_title
“I’m probably going to take it easy; we went hard yesterday, and I’ve got shows tomorrow.”
“Well, Aziz,” Dave retorted, “no one knows this, but tomorrow they’re going to announce that I am the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.”
“And he said, ‘what are you going to tell your kids 20 years from now, Aziz? Are you going to tell them, I was there the day Dave Chappelle found out he won the Mark Twain award and we ate mushrooms together and had the night of our lives? Or are you going to tell them you got some sleep?’”
“Dave, you’ve got a point, let’s eat those mushrooms. To Twain!”
The one and only Joe Rogan, a famous podcaster and friend of Chappelle, also recounted an experience they had together involving mushrooms.
“I’m pretty sure he ate mushrooms from a fan the other day,” he said.
“We have a private screening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at one o’clock in morning. Dave is eating mushrooms that some fucking guy gave him in the crowd.”
Maybe eating random mushrooms from strangers isn’t the best idea, but these open conversations and generally positive response from the public shows that psychedelics are becoming more mainstream and accepted as people realize that they don’t cause insanity as portrayed in 1960’s drug hysteria, and they also aren’t physically dangerous.
Ironically, the most dangerous part about taking mushrooms is the fact that you can only get them in the black market. If you’re caught with this natural fungus, you could get years of jail time that would completely derail your life in ways far beyond the capabilities of the psychedelic compound. The overdose threshold for mushrooms is also far beyond the average person’s capacity for consumption, but unless you’re a mushroom expert, you won’t necessarily have the same quality assurance as you would if they were sold legally.
However, only 0.2% of nearly 10,000 people needed emergency medical treatment after consuming psilocybin mushrooms according to the 2017 Global Drug Survey.
Just recently, the largest ever study conducted on researching the safety and therapeutic viability of psilocybin mushrooms found them to be entirely safe when taken by healthy individuals in the right setting and much promise is being shown regarding their ability to treat patients with “treatment resistant depression.” That is, people who are not seeing recovery in conventional pharmaceutical medicines or standard therapy.
“The results of the study are clinically reassuring and support further development of psilocybin as a treatment for patients with mental health problems that haven’t improved with conventional therapy, such as treatment-resistant depression.” – KCL’s Dr. James Rucker, the study’s lead investigator
It is also noteworthy that former NAACP President and 2018 gubernatorial candidate for Maryland Ben Jealous credits Dave Chappelle for giving him the idea of legalizing cannabis.
“When I was 20 I was known as ‘Dave Chappelle’s bodyguard’. Now that I’m 45, I’m proud to be: ‘Dave Chappelle’s Candidate.’ And, if you’re wondering, yes he was the first person to tell me Cannabis should be legal for adults. I was skeptical then. I agree with him now.” – Ben Jealous
Dave Chappelle isn’t just a great stand-up comic who likes to eat mushrooms, he’s a the most popular comedian on the planet today with a thoughtful message that changes thousands of people’s minds. Dave’s listeners aren’t just laughing, they’re thinking too.
Read more articles from Phillip Schneider.
About the Author
Phillip Schneider is a student as well as a staff writer and assistant editor for Waking Times. If you would like to see more of his work, you can visit his website, or follow him on the free speech social network Minds.
This article (Comedian Dave Chappelle is a Huge Fan of Magic Mushrooms) as originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Phillip Schneider and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.