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In Netflix special, Chappelle says San Francisco taught him 'the trick to life'

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In Netflix special, Chappelle says San Francisco taught him 'the trick to life'


FILE: Dave Chappelle performs during a midnight pop-up show at Radio City Music Hall on Oct. 16, 2022, in New York City.

Jason Mendez/Getty Images for ABA

Dave Chappelle just released a new comedy special streaming on Netflix called “The Dreamer,” and once again, San Francisco makes a major appearance. 

Chappelle has a long history in the city, becoming a regular at the Punch Line after he quit his Comedy Central show. Later in his career, he developed a friendship with the late trans comic Daphne Dorman, a San Francisco resident he has repeatedly invoked in his standup specials. He has drawn widespread condemnation from LGBTQ groups for transphobic comments.

The comic typically returns to San Francisco a few times a year (he once referred to the city as “an ATM machine” that he’d play whenever he needed money). When he comes to the city, controversy typically follows — at Chase Center in 2022 he brought out Elon Musk to boos, and at the Masonic he railed against the state of San Francisco. However, at his most recent appearance at the Punch Line in July 2023, he seemed to have moved past the type of culture war humor that tarnished his reputation among many fans.

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Despite a proclamation at the end of his previous special “The Closer” that he was done telling jokes about the trans community, he continues to speak about LGBTQ people and gender identity throughout “The Dreamer.” The tone is less antagonistic, but the punchlines serve as clear dog whistles calling back to the previous controversy. Some jokes come across as lazy; at other moments Chappelle flashes his old brilliance. Whatever your thoughts are about Chappelle at this point, “The Dreamer” isn’t likely to change them.

Halfway through the set, Chappelle leaves the stage for a cigarette and returns to tell an extended story about San Francisco. At 22 years old, Chappelle was offered an HBO comedy special that was filmed at San Francisco’s Broadway Studios, located in North Beach. The venue was located above a nightclub, and 20 minutes into Chappelle’s set the club started playing loud music, which Chappelle thought ruined his show (although in the final product, the disruptive music isn’t audible). 

After that SF show, Chappelle kicked in the door to the production trailers outside the venue and started yelling at the staff. The producers blamed one of the people associated with the nightclub, so Chappelle turned his anger toward a man associated with the venue whom he identified as a Russian mobster. Chappelle ended up in the dark kitchen of the club cursing at the mobster, who blamed the producers. When Chappelle realized he was wrong, he apologized.

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“It’s a funny thing if you believe you’re absolutely right. You can get drunk off the feeling of how right you are,” Chappelle says, before slipping in a punchline about gay people.

After apologizing to the mobster, Chappelle says, he had a realization in San Francisco that he explained in the final 10 minutes of his set. 

“In your life, at any given moment, the strongest dream in that moment wins that moment. I am a very powerful dreamer … 

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“That’s the trick to life. You have to be wise enough to know when you are living in your dream. And you have to be humble enough to accept when you are in someone else’s.”

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San Francisco, CA

Holiday travel at San Francisco airport being affected by winter weather

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Holiday travel at San Francisco airport being affected by winter weather


With rain and wind in the forecast, it may make some people’s holiday travel a little more difficult.

At San Francisco International Airport, more than 400 flights have been delayed. Maggie Nelson’s was delayed coming into the airport. 

“It seemed like everyone was in a panic or a hurry to get anywhere,” said Nelson. “The plane was crowded. There was a lot of turbulence.”

Nelson flew in from Redmond, Oregon, usually a quick flight to SFO, just under two hours, but she ended up being delayed nearly that long.

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“Originally, we were supposed to take off at 2 p.m. and then our flight got delayed to 2:50 p.m., and then it got delayed again,” Nelson explained. “I don’t think we took off until 3:30 p.m. because of high winds or something.”

California is in the middle of an intense storm period. Two systems bringing heavy rain and strong winds, and Nelson could feel all of it.  

“The turbulence was pretty bad,” said Nelson. “There was a point where I got nauseous. I was like ‘Are we there yet? Is this over?’”

While she’s grateful to be on solid ground, Shon Alkaslasi was about to take off or at least try to.

“United sent a text that wind might affect operations,” said Alkaslasi. 

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He arrived early, just in case of holiday traffic, now he’s anticipating he may be delayed. He’s travelling home to Los Angeles, another area in the middle of the storms.

“I would say I’m not the biggest fan of turbulence so I am a little bit nervous about that,” Alkaslaski detailed. “But if they say it’s totally safe to travel, I’m not usually concerned but the feeling of bumps on a plane is just not the most comfortable and I’ll have to deal with it.”

Airport Duty Manager Crystal David said overall things haven’t been too bad, but West Coast flights, like Alkaslasi’s and Nelson’s, are the ones most likely to be impacted.

“SFO is on a ground delay program throughout the night, through midnight and so right now it’s about 127 minutes because of winds,” said David. “Mostly it’s the west coast flights are that are being affected right now with delays of up to 35 minutes for the west coast traffic.”

She said the delays could continue into the morning, when even stronger winds are expected. She recommends travelers check in with their airlines.

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But for Nelson, she’s just glad she made it home.

“I used to live a lot closer so it’s a lot harder to come home now so when I do get to come home, I try to take advantage of that and appreciate it,” said Nelson. 



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Executive chef of new buzzy San Francisco restaurant Bourbon Steak visits ABC7

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Executive chef of new buzzy San Francisco restaurant Bourbon Steak visits ABC7


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — ABC7 got in the holiday spirit Monday with the executive chef of San Francisco’s buzziest restaurants that just opened in October — to a lot of fanfare.

We’re talking about Bourbon Steak, inside the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

Legendary celebrity chef Michael Mina’s latest opening brings him back to San Francisco, and everyone came to celebrate: a cable car, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and Warriors superstar Stephen Curry — a partner in this venture who created the bourbon bar Eighth Rule inside the restaurant.

But they’re not just about style. They are first and foremost about steaks.

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Because they are on the menu for so many holiday gatherings, we are delighted that Bourbon Steak executive chef Kevin Schantz joined us on ABC7’s “Midday Live.”

Watch the full interview in the player above.


If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Copyright © 2025 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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Thousands in one San Francisco neighborhood heading into another day without power

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Thousands in one San Francisco neighborhood heading into another day without power


While many people in San Francisco have their power back, there are still thousands without it.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Mayor Daniel Lurie said 4,000 PG&E customers in the Civic Center area are still in the dark. One of them is Parvathy Menon. 

“We haven’t been able to take showers or use the bathroom,” said Menon. “Our electricity is out. I think all our food started rotting about a day in.”

She lives at 100 Van Ness. She said she’s grateful she’s going out of town tomorrow, but even that’s posing some problems.

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“I actually have to pack for a trip tonight, and we’re doing it in full darkness,” Menon explained. “We are using our phone lights, we are using our laptops to charge our phones.”

Her apartment is pitch black, except for the small amount of streetlight coming through the windows. She said the apartment complex has been doing all they can to help, like providing some food and water.

They have a small generator to power some lights in the lobby and one elevator for the nearly 30-story apartment building.

Menon said she is most upset about the lack of communication from PG&E.

“Initially, when this started, we were supposed to get power back within the day, then it went to the next day and now they just stopped calling us completely,” said Menon.

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San Francisco City Hall was closed for the day because of the outage, but Mayor Daniel Lurie held a press conference with Supervisors Matt Dorsey and Bilal Mahmood.

Lurie said what residents have gone through is unacceptable, and he’s lost trust in PG&E’s estimated times for repair.

“They gave us a timeline that they believe in, but it’s not one that I can have confidence in any longer,” Lurie said. “So, we don’t have full faith that 6 a.m. is the time tomorrow.”

“Shame on PG&E for having this happen,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “This is a company that has had a lot of reliability issues and the jury is out on what happened, but if this is negligence, I think it’s going to be really important for people to understand they have rights as customers.”

Leaders encourage everyone who lost anything to file a claim with PG&E; they could be eligible for reimbursements. Mahmood is calling for a hearing after the new year to get some answers for PG&E.

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“What went wrong, why weren’t they able to address it this weekend and what steps are they taking to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Mahmood about the question he has for the utility company. 

PG&E said the outage happened after a fire at its Mission Street substation left significant damage, but the cause is still under investigation.

Meanwhile, Menon has been refreshing social media looking for good news, but she’s starting to lose faith.

“They’re really doing nothing to help us here, so I’m losing hope,” said Menon. 

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