“Family Matters” star Jaleel White shares time he got 'really f–--ing high' with Dave Chappelle
"Do you remember Urkel?"
After four decades in show business, Family Matters star Jaleel White has some stories.
In his new book, Growing Up Urkel, he tells many, including one about bonding with Dave Chappelle, just before the comedian took the stage. It led to Chappelle calling him out during the middle of his performance.
"I gotta tell you, I’m really f---ing high right now . . . this s--- feels great! And you will never believe who gave me this weed. Do you remember Urkel from Family Matters? Jaleel White?" the actor remembered Chappell asking the audience. "He's backstage right now. This N----'s a gangster now and runs a whole drug cartel!"
White and rapper Talib Kweli had hung out with Chappelle in his dressing room ahead of a show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. White had brought along a taste of his cannabis line, ItsPurpl.
"Dave is someone I consider a real one," he wrote. "Not simply because he's famous but more because I strongly identify with his Hollywood journey, we've organically kept in touch, and we hap- pen to be GirlDads with daughters in the same age range."
White said what he brought was a Noodle — "itsPurpl's signature product, a unique premium pre-roll with actual rotini pasta as its filter" — for the three.
Related: Family Matters star Jaleel White says Urkel switched from jeans to khakis to hide his bulge
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"My instinct was to warn him, this was truly something special and purple, he might want to wait until after the show," White wrote.
Chappelle wanted it then, though, so White handed his product over. After all, he wrote, "it was an ordinary moment like many we'd shared."
When he settled in to watch one of many of his friend's performances, he felt it.
"The more I strained to take in the show the more my head felt stretched to the ceiling," White said. "That's when it hit me, I was so high I could barely form words. And Talib was just as high as me. My respect for Dave shot clear through the roof. I was awestruck. If Dave was anywhere near as high as we were and still managing to get through a live comedy set, we were being treated to a mental giant at work. No normal dude is supposed to be able to do what Dave was doing on that stage."
That's when White heard the shoutout to him, and he laughed.
Growing Up Urkel is available in bookstores now.