BOSTON (AP) — Comedian Chris Rock is performing in public for the first time since Oscar-winning actor Will Smith slapped him for a joke about Smith’s wife during the Academy Awards show.
Rock’s first set begins at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Boston.
The performance comes just three days after Smith slapped Rock on the Oscars stage, stunning the crowd at the 94th Academy Awards and those watching at home.
Rock had made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s buzzed haircut.
Pinkett Smith has spoken publicly about her diagnosis of alopecia, which can cause baldness. Smith has publicly apologized to the film academy and Rock for his behavior.
StubHub, a ticket exchange and resale company, said it saw 25x the daily sales for Rock’s shows in the days following the Oscar incident, exceeding cumulative sales for the comedian’s tour during the entire month of March.
Ticket marketplace TickPick said Monday it sold more tickets to see Rock overnight after the slap than it did in the past month combined.
We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined.
— TickPick (@TickPick) March 28, 2022
