Chris Rock was greeted with a standing ovation at his first comedy show since Will Smith hit him during the Oscars on Sunday (27 March).
The comedian addressed the altercation on Wednesday night (30 March) at the sold-out Boston show of his Ego Death tour, where he said he was “still processing” what happened last weekend.
Smith struck and swore at Rock after the 57-year-old comedian made a joke about the appearance of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, live on stage at the Oscars awards ceremony. The slap made headlines around the world and Smith is now facing the prospect of disciplinary action from the Academy.
Interest in Rock’s ongoing Ego Death tour soared in the aftermath of what has been described as the most shocking incident in the Oscars’s 94-year history.
Ticket marketplace site TickPick tweeted that it sold more tickets to Rock’s tour in the night following the Oscars than it did in the entire month preceding.
It was also reported that individual ticket prices had surged from $46 (£35) to $411 (£314) for the cheapest seats available as of Monday evening (28 March), clocking an increase of almost 800 per cent.
After the crowd greeted him with a standing ovation at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre on Wednesday, Rock, 57, continued: “Let me be all misty and s***.” It’s being claimed the comedian had tears in his eyes.
Addressing the interest in Rock’s comment over the altercation with Smith, the comedian said: “I don’t have a bunch of s*** to say about that, so if you came here for that...
“I had written a whole show before this weekend.”
Rock will perform in more than 30 cities across the states as well as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds in the UK in May as part of his ongoing live tour.
“Ego Death World Tour 2022 all new material introspective very personal and very funny,” Rock wrote on Instagram when announcing the tour in February. “Can’t wait to show you. The link for tickets is in my bio.”
Smith has publicly apologised to Rock in a statement posted to the actor’s Instagram account, acknowledging that “I was out of line. I was wrong”.
