On Tour

There are very few places on earth that are as frantic as New York in peacetime. I'm over here to change the pace a little bit. It's kind of a working vacation. I've only been to Edinburgh before. I love it. I feel like I'm in the Forties. Everything looks so old. . . plus there's the accent. Makes you feel like you're in a play the whole time.

The audience is very different here. Back in the States there's screaming and howling. Here they laugh very politely. They are very conscious that they're going to be entertained. And the comics are also different in their language and stage manner. Back home they're real insensitive. You say what you think and it comes over conversational, whereas here it's more of a presentation. I like not being able to tell what I'm going to do from show to show and include stuff along the way. In London I saw five police officers chasing a man because he stole a cigarette lighter, my goodness five police officers for just one cigarette lighter. In the States that's unheard of. The police here have such funny hats too, sort of aerodynamic.

In Edinburgh I like hanging out at The Mambo Club (031-229 0469). I tried to go to The Wag club in London but they wouldn't let me in - they said it was a private party. The British seem to know more about American society than I do. I've been trying to get some British culture by watching TV. It's very funny - there's all this educational stuff. Where there might be lots of sex and violence in America, here they got a special on algebra. Somehow I keep ending up in Pizza Hut and McDonalds: no matter where you go in the world the food tastes the same.

Stand-up comic Dave Chapelle is at the Music Box, Edinburgh tonight and The Ferry, Glasgow tomorrow. Tour runs to 29 November

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