Chris Rock is publicly speaking for the first time since the infamous debacle at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday, in which he was slapped on stage by Best Actor Oscar winner Will Smith.
Wednesday night, the comedian returned to the comedy stage at Boston’s Wilbur Theater, where he addressed the elephant in the room.
For those unfamiliar, Rock appeared onstage at the 94th Academy Awards to present the award for Best Documentary Feature.
During his presentation, the comedian made a joke about actress Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. The actress has been candid about her battle with alopecia, which causes hair loss. Shortly afterwards, Will Smith took the stage and slapped the comedian. Smith later issued an apology to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Rock on his Instagram page on Monday.
Rock was met with a standing ovation during his comedy set at the Boston’s Wilbur Theater.
“Let me be all misty and s***,” Rock said with tears in his eyes, gesturing to the crowd’s warm response, as reported by CNN Wire.
“How was your weekend?” he quipped, to which the audience responded with laughter.
While Rock didn’t address the debacle any further, the comedian did reveal plans to discuss the matter later at some point.
“I don’t have a bunch of s*** about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. And I’m still kind of processing what happened, so at some point I’ll talk about that s***. And it’ll be serious and it’ll be funny, but right now I’m going to tell some jokes.”
Thursday, the Academy released another statement that continued to condemn Smith's actions.
The statement said they have initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violating their standards of conduct and he faces “suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted.” Actions may be taken during their next meeting for the Board of Governors in April.
