Hours before Dave Chappelle was about to hit the stage for a stand-up performance in Minneapolis on July 20, the show was canceled.
First Avenue, the venue that is famous for Prince’s “Purple Rain” performance, announced that the show wouldn’t be taking place there, but instead moving to the Varsity Theater.
On their Instagram, the venue addressed the backlash they received after booking Chappelle, who was criticized for his transphobic jokes this year in the Netflix special “The Closer.”
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“The First Avenue team and you have worked hard to make our venues the safest spaces in the country, and we will continue with that mission,” the statement read. “We believe in diverse voices and the freedom of artistic expression, but in honoring that, we lost sight of the impact this would have.”
TMZ reported that the tickets for Chappelle’s show actually sold out when First Avenue announced the show on Instagram, but there were also some comments protesting against the comedian.
Chappelle has acknowledged the criticism he’s received since the Netflix special, and earlier in the year opted to not have a theater named after him following a conversation with the school’s students in which they talked about his remarks in “The Closer.”
