Chris Rock arrives at the Wilbur Theatre before a performance,
(Picture: AP)Chris Rock has defended Will Smith from jeers at his latest stand-up appearance following the Oscars slap.
The comedian received rapturous applause and standing ovations as he returned to his day job as a touring stand-up in Boston just days after Will Smith attacked him for cracking a GI Jane joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
But in a break between jokes, a member of the crowd screamed out “F*** Will Smith!”
Rock, who ignored “Will Smith” chants the night before, this time responded quickly.
“No, no, no, no, no...” Rock hit back, silencing the heckler, according to audio recordings reported in People Magazine.
Dressed in all white, Rock finished the show largely avoiding referencing the slap seen around the world.
“I don’t have a bunch of s*** about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend, and I’m still kind of processing what happened,” Rock had told the previous night’s crowd.
He also told the crowd, “I haven’t talked to anyone, despite what you heard” in reference to P-Diddy’s claim the pair had reconciled.
Demand for Chris Rock’s Ego Death World Tour surged in the wake of the Oscars with fans reportedly spending as much as $2,000 on a pair of tickets.
It emerged that Los Angeles police were ready to arrest actor Will Smith at the Academy Awards on Sunday for slapping presenter Chris Rock, the producer of the Hollywood ceremony revealed.
But LAPD did not take any action because Rock declined to press charges, said producer Will Packer, echoing what a police spokesperson said on Sunday.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was a word they used in that moment,” Packer said in excerpts from an interview that will air Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“They said, we will go get him. We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now,” Packer added.
During Sunday’s live broadcast, Smith slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, before returning to his seat and shouting, “keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth”.
Just 15 minutes later, Smith won an Oscar for best actor.
