Chris Rock performed a surprise set at NYC’s Comedy Cellar on Tuesday — but he made it clear from the get-go that he wasn’t touching the Will Smith Oscars drama.
“He literally only addressed it as the crowd was going wild for his surprise appearance,” an audience member told Page Six. “He got on stage and said, ‘Lower your expectations. I’m not going to address that s***.'”
The same person told the outlet that the reason he was workshopping material — in between dates on his Chris Rock Ego Death World Tour — was because all of a sudden “people cared about his early shows.”
Rock, who has a long history with the Comedy Cellar, where he’s been known to make surprise appearances (it was also seen in his 2014 film Top Five), has a tour date Friday in Indio, Calif., and two in Reno, Nev., the day after that.
Right after the Oscars drama — during which Will Smith slapped Rock for a G.I. Jane joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair — Rock performed in Boston and received a standing ovation at his first show.
“So, how was your weekend?” he quipped, as his weekend made headlines around the world. He went on to say he was “still processing what happened,” but said eventually he will talk about “that s***.” Before the show, the venue manager said that Rock was “in a great mood” despite all the noise around the shocking slap.
Ticket sales for Chris’s comedy tour skyrocketed after the drama. He has dates scheduled through Nov. 19, when he is set to appear at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Oscars took place.
In the wake of the slap, Smith resigned as an Academy member as the organization investigates the incident. He publicly apologized to Rock in his statement for a second time.
Oscars producer Will Packer said last week that Chris declined to have Smith arrested or removed from the show on Oscars night. However, a Chris source told TMZ he “was never asked if he wanted Will removed.”
Earlier this week, Rock’s brother Kenny told the Los Angeles Times that it “eats at” him watching footage of Smith clapping his brother at the March 27 awards show “because you’ve seen a loved one being attacked and there’s nothing you can do about it. Every time I’m watching the videos, it’s like a rendition that just keeps going over and over in my head.”
Kenny added, “My brother was no threat to him and you just had no respect for him at that moment. You just belittled him in front of millions of people that watch the show.”
