An audience member attacked renowned United States comedian Dave Chappelle during a Los Angeles show, according to local media reports and videos on social media.
The incident occurred at the end of Chappelle’s show on Tuesday night, part of the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival at the city’s Hollywood Bowl venue, according to multiple reports.
The comedian and the man appeared to scuffle on stage, videos on social media showed. The attacker then began to run and was tackled by security. Videos of the incident appeared to show security guards kicking him afterwards.
Chappelle was not injured in the attack and returned to the stage.
The Los Angels Police Department told multiple news agencies the attacker suffered “superficial injuries” and was in the possession of a replica gun that contains a knife at the time of the attack.
Comedian Chris Rock later joined Chappelle on stage, quipping “was that Will Smith?”, a reference to the actor who slapped Rock on stage during a live Academy Awards broadcast in March.
A representative for the Hollywood Bowl said in an email statement to the Reuters news agency that the incident was subject to “an active investigation” and that it was unable to comment further.
Chappelle, one of the US’s most famous comedians, rose to prominence for his Comedy Central sketch show Chappelle’s Show, which highlighted his acerbic take on racial dynamics in the country.
He was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2019.
However, he has been widely criticised for making jokes considered by some to be transphobic, particularly in his special The Closer released last year.
Protests over the material included an employee walkout at Netflix.
Chappelle remained defiant amid the backlash, but said he planned to move on from the subject matter in his shows.
Following Tuesday night’s attack, British comedian Jimmy Carr, who was also performing at the festival, called the situation “crazy”.
“Just hope everyone’s okay,” he tweeted.
