Might “the slap” – when Will Smith walloped Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony – have been a publicity stunt? Amid the tidal wave of coverage the incident unleashed, that theory was floated in some quarters – at risk of letting Smith off the hook for his act of violence. I rather doubt it was a devious act of media manipulation, but more tickets for Rock’s touring show sold overnight after the Oscars than during the whole preceding month. Prices for his next gig spiked from $46 to more than $400.
This week, the tour, Rock’s first in five years, arrives in the UK – hotly anticipated, because “the slap” has propelled the 57-year-old right back into the heart of the cultural conversation (where he has not been for a while). The incident is still fresh in our minds. When Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage last week with a replica handgun at the Netflix Is a Joke festival in LA, the comedian Paddy McGuinness called it “a direct result” of Will Smith’s Oscars behaviour. When Richard Ayoade hosted the Baftas last week, he joked repeatedly – of course he did – about the prospect of a repeat incident.
The question, I suppose, is: will Rock’s show reward all this renewed interest? You can’t say he hasn’t earned it. The Oscars incident brought disgrace on both Smith and the event’s organisers, but Rock emerged with some credit – if not for the slightly unpleasant joke that prompted the slap, then for the remarkable sang-froid and professionalism with which he responded to it.
One must hope the quality of the gags in his Ego Death World Tour show (I’m seeing it tomorrow) will outstrip that feeble Jada Pinkett Smith/GI Jane quip. Reviews of his US gigs are encouraging – if not for those looking to hear Rock’s side of the story. On stage, he has acknowledged that elephant in the room, of course, but with no more than a few remarks (“I’ve got my hearing back”). Instead, it sounds as though he’s sticking to the script of a show that was fully prepped and good to go before Smith offered him some eye-catching new material.
Early reports suggest no great departure from what Rock offered UK audiences on his last visit, with 2018’s Total Blackout. That show was much touted as a soul-searching and confessional response to Rock’s divorce. But it wasn’t, really: it was – as Rock’s shows usually are – a combination of big-hitting and pointed material on racial politics, and some lazier material on the battle of the sexes. Back then, he joked about his wife taking his money, and about the challenges of dating in middle-age. He returns to both topics, it seems, in the new show, alongside material on Covid, polarised US politics and the shallowness of performative corporate anti-racism.
I’m looking forward to it: Rock remains a fantastically expressive and often insightful comic who can build great connections with his audience. But I’m hoping too that, after a month to reflect, he might treat UK audiences to some fresh-minted “slap” material. To be in the eye of a media storm like that, caught in the crossfire of a hundred arguments about celebrity and chivalry, race and offence must, whether now or in the future, be a gift to an act like Rock – with greater comic potential, I’d argue, than more jokes about his alimony payments.
