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'Dave Chappelle's Block Party': A celebration of celebration

Let's get this out of the way. The black, blind white supremacist Clayton Bigsby; Rick 'Helluva Drug' James; crackhead Tyrone Biggums; and other characters from his Comedy Central show do not appear in "Dave Chappelle's Block Party." But a whole lot of musicians do, including Mos Def, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Jill Scott and the Roots.

"Block Party" is a concert film. And while Chappelle's comic riffs are sometimes front and center, he serves more as a host, showcasing the musical gifts of the artists he invited to a semi-secret street party in Brooklyn one September day in 2004.

Rogue Pictures 'Dave Chappelle's Block Party' B+ The verdict: Great music and good laughs make for some kind of party. Director: Michel Gondry Starring: Dave Chappelle, Kanye West, Dante 'Mos Def' Smith, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli Run time: 100 minutes Release date: March 3, 2006 Rating: R for language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Shot by longtime video and film director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), "Block Party" is an easygoing, loose-limbed, big-lunged celebration of, well, celebration. Zigging back and forth in time, the movie serves up ample concert numbers from the singers. (You can bet the forthcoming soundtrack, streeting March 14, will find its way into a bunch of CD collections.)

Prior to the concert, which happened before Chappelle's still mysterious vanishing act pulled the plug on a third season of his TV show, the comedian and his film crew wander around Dayton, Ohio (some 20 miles from his home in Yellow Springs). There, he's greeted by residents, both white and black, just as what he is: local guy gone good. He hands out tickets (good for bus transportation and a hotel room) for those who want to go to New York for the concert, including a middle-aged white convenience store cashier who laments, as she packs, "I knew I should've bought a thong."

Chappelle also enlists Central State University's eager marching band members to pile onto two buses and take their tubas, drums and batons to New York. (The sight of the drumline parading through the blasted urban streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant is a visually surreal highlight of the movie.)

The rest of "Block Party" alternates between concert footage, informal interviews, riffs from studio rehearsals prior to the show and backstage moments.

These behind-the-scene clips give a rounder sense of the musicians' offstage personalities. For instance, there's a mutual-admiration society between divas Badu and Scott, who team together onstage for some sensuous wailing.

A few civilians also get engaging screen time — not only the CSU drumliners, but the older married hippie couple restoring a ramshackle house that faces the concert setting. (The woman invites Chappelle to come on over and "rest your loins at any point.")

The overall sensation is of a gleeful, music-packed melting pot — though Chappelle, from the stage, quips that the concert audience comprises 5,000 black people, and 19 whites.

It's no surprise that he delivers some laugh-out-loud asides and jokes. But he also comes up with some insightful observations about similarities between the worlds of comedy and music.

He claims that, despite being "mediocre at both, I have managed to talk my way into a fortune."

The common ground musicians and comics share? He says it's all about timing. Since his self-titled Comedy Central show is currently MIA, his timing with "Block Party" couldn't be better.

And when he says, "This is the concert I've always wanted to see," you can understand what he means.