Chappelle to meet with Comedy reps

Dave Chappelle may be ready to return to Comedy Central after secretly stealing away last month to South Africa and forcing the channel to postpone the planned May 31 debut of the comedian’s popular program.

Before jumping into the driver’s seat of a black Lexus at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles on Friday morning, Chappelle said he would be discussing the prospects at a meeting next week with representatives of the channel.

“Chappelle’s Show” is the highest-rated program on Comedy Central after “South Park.” Since Chappelle’s disappearance, copies of the program’s DVD have flown off the shelf, prompting questions in some quarters about whether his departure was actually an orchestrated sales stunt. He has since characterized it as a “spiritual retreat.”

Sales of the DVD of “Chappelle’s Show: Season 2 Uncensored” have topped 1.2 million since being released May 24.

Chappelle, 31, arrived in Los Angeles earlier this week and stunned audiences at two popular comedy clubs Wednesday night when he took to the stage to deliver impromptu stand-up routines.

A Comedy Central spokesman called the notion of a stunt “nonsense” and said he was unaware of any meeting scheduled for next week. “We’ve been anticipating hearing from Dave and expect to shortly,” he said.

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Sallie Hofmeister