Comedian hosts four-hour impromptu tribute to Prince in San Francisco.

Dave Chappelle’s impersonation of Prince, immortalised in a sketch from his Comedy Central Chappelle’s Show in 2004, proved popular not only with the audience but also with the artist himself who used an image from it for the cover of his ‘Breakfast Can Wait’ single.

Speaking to Jimmy Fallon about the cover in 2014, Chappelle called it “a Prince judo move. What am I gonna do? Sue him for using a picture of me dressed up as him? That’s checkmate.”

In San Francisco for a sold-out run of shows, Chappelle took to the stage on Thursday night and told the audience “this is black 9/11. I almost thought about not coming tonight, but my band was like, ‘Yo, Prince would definitely not condone that.'”

The comedian and his band then spent four hours paying tribute to Prince with covers of his songs and thoughts on his importance and genius. The venue’s marquee featured the opening lyric from Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get thru this thing called life. – Prince.”

“I kept wondering all day, ‘Why are they calling me?'” Chappelle told the audience. “I’ll tell you what: I didn’t know him well, but I knew him well.” [Via CoS]