Staying quiet. Chris Rock told an excited crowd that he wouldn’t be speaking out about getting slapped by Will Smith just yet.
The comic, 57, made a surprise appearance at the Comedy Cellar in New York City on Tuesday, April 5, and the audience gave him a warm welcome.
“He literally only addressed it as the crowd was going wild for his surprise appearance, and he got on stage and said, ‘Lower your expectations. I’m not going to address that s–t,’” an eyewitness told Page Six.
Rock returned to the stage just a few days after the Oscars for several sold-out shows in Massachusetts. “What’s up, Boston?” the Everybody Hates Chris creator asked the audience during his March 30 comedy show at the Wilbur Theater. “How was your weekend?”
The Osmosis Jones actor noted, “I’m still processing what happened” before going on with his routine. An eyewitness exclusively told Us Weekly that the audience “laughed a lot and it really cut the tension” for Rock.
However, the next day’s show didn’t go as smoothly. Rock didn’t want to engage after a ticket holder yelled, “F–k Will Smith,” during the Thursday, March 31 show.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Rock replied before moving along with his set, according to multiple outlets.
That weekend, his tour headed to Atlantic City, New Jersey, not too far from 53-year-old Smith’s hometown of Philadelphia. “Chris broke the ice by sarcastically saying he’s had an interesting week,” an audience member at the April 2 show exclusively told Us. “Everyone laughed because they knew what he was referring to, of course.”
Rock quipped that he couldn’t speak out on the incident because of their location.
“He made a joke about how Atlantic City is too close to Philly for him to get into it,” the insider recalled. “The general vibe of the comment was that Atlantic City could be hostile territory because it’s so close to Philly. It was said in a casual joking way and everyone laughed.”
Rock was presenting at the Oscars on March 27 when he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, starring in G.I. Jane 2. Smith marched on stage and slapped Rock’s face. Smith later apologized for the incident.
“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris,” the Hitch star wrote, in part, via Instagram the day after the incident. “I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Smith, who won the Oscar for best actor after slapping Rock, stepped down from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is investigating the incident to determine the best course of disciplinary action.
