Chris Rock was greeted with applause at his first show after Will Smith slapped him at the Oscars, admitting that he was “still going through” what happened.
As the Boston crowd cheered him on, he told the crowd he was getting “foggy and crappy,” before joking, “How was your weekend?”
He continued: “I had a whole show before this weekend. I’m still processing.”
The 57-year-old Rock then told the audience that he would eventually talk about what happened, but “now I’m going to tell some jokes.”
Tickets to the comedian’s show on Wednesday evening were sold out, and they were supposedly supposed to take the phones from the audience, but people wrote his comments live when the show opened.
One fan at a public event shouted for Rock to sue Smith, who slapped him Sunday night for making a “G.I. Jane” joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith. However, Rock “doesn’t even think” of suing the “King Richard” star.
A few hours before his speech, the Academy announced that they had asked the 53-year-old Smith to leave after the incident, but the Oscar winner refused.
Moments after Smith refused to leave, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for playing the father of Serena and Venus Williams. In his tearful speech, he said that he “hopes that the Academy will invite me back.”
But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has yet to determine what the consequences of Smith’s actions will be. They condemned his behavior at the beginning of the week and began an official check.
Smith also apologized on social media this week, saying he “reacted emotionally” because Jada suffers from alopecia, which Rock was reportedly unaware of.
“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am confused, and my actions did not indicate who I want to be. There is no place for violence in the world of love and kindness.”
