Chris Rock speaks at the Oscars on Sunday. (Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
“How was your weekend?”
Chris Rock opened his first comedy show since being slapped onstage by Will Smith at the Oscars, performing to a packed audience at Boston’s Wilbur Theater on Wednesday. The audience gave Rock a standing ovation, which the participants said lasted about five minutes.
Aside from his tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment at the beginning, Rock said he’s “still processing what happened,” but at some point he’ll talk about “that shit.” Ahead of the show, the venue manager said Rock was “in great spirits.”
Prices for his shows there — one at 7:30 p.m. and one at 10 p.m. on three consecutive nights — had skyrocketed to over $1,000 a piece after the Oscars incident. Rock had made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who was in GI Jane 2 because she was bald. But she has alopecia, which causes hair loss, and Smith didn’t take well to Rock’s words.
Smith has since apologized to everyone involved; However, Rock’s brother said Smith has yet to reach out to the comedian personally. Despite Smith’s mea culpas, many continued to condemn his actions, including Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes, who called Smith’s actions “disgusting.”
The same day Rock got back up, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, announced that it had instituted “disciplinary proceedings” against Smith for violating her code of conduct after an emergency meeting on the matter. His offenses included “inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior and endangering the integrity of the Academy,” the group wrote in a statement, also revealing that after the altercation he was asked to leave the Kodak Theater but was denied.
Smith, who received the Best Actor award for King Richard after the incident, was given the opportunity to respond; Members will vote on April 18 to suspend, expel or otherwise sanction him.
“Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in person and on television,” the Academy’s statement continued. “Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience in this moment. We also apologize to our nominees, guests and viewers for what happened during a celebratory event,” the statement read. “Things developed in a way that we could not have foreseen. While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize that we could have handled the situation differently.”