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Dave Chappelle quietly returned to town, then not-so-quietly dropped in at the Hollywood Improv last night for a surprise appearance at the CollegeHumor.com show:

So having only been in Los Angeles for one day, one of the very first things [Chappelle] did is what he's been doing regularly since he was 16 years old. He walked into a club to do standup. Upon hearing his name announced, the crowd went absolutely crazy, with two hundred people giving a standing ovation to their missing hero. He got on stage and took his time to settle in as he proceeded to do twenty-five minutes of stage time in a very conversational style.

He joked easily about his disappearance as well as the many rumors that surrounded the situation. "When I see people they pretend that they haven't heard anything about this whole thing. Then I'll say something like 'I'm not crazy' and then they'll say 'Oh yeah, that's right. I read something about that.'" At one point, after thanking the crowd for helping the "Chappelle's Show Season 2" DVD break Season 1's own sales record for a television show, he quipped, "Of course if I want to see any of that money I better get my ass back to work." He talked candidly about his future prospects saying that Hollywood is a forgiving place, but that he wasn't sure what he was going to do next. But when someone in the crowd answered that statement with a suggestion of doing "Half Baked 2," Dave was as quick as ever saying, "If I do Half Baked 2, you'll know I've run out of money."

He's still probably a little fragile, so if you see him out in the wild, no sudden movements, please. We wouldn't want to scare him away before he makes an appearance on Conan.