Chris Rock hasn’t said a thing since Oscar night, when he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith and got smacked on live television by her husband, who then won an Academy Award. Though the incident initially left many confused, the tide has turned more or less definitively against Will Smith. His actions have been slammed by many, with Zoe Kravitz, who was present, calling it assault. But at least there’s been some great news for Rock himself.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, in the two days since the chaotic ceremony, Rock’s stand-up ticket sales have spiked through the roof:
StubHub, the ticket exchange and resale company, said it experienced more than 25x the daily sales each of the past two days than occurred last month for Rock’s tour. The company added that cumulative sales over the past two days are more than the total sales for Rock’s tour in the entirety of March. Additionally, the average price of tickets sold jumped from between $150-$200 a ticket to about $250 a ticket.
Ticket sales, StubHub told THR, tend to spike in the day or two before a show. Thing is, Rock’s next show isn’t even until April 8, leading them to blame the surge on what may wind up being the most famous thing to ever happen in the near century of Academy Awards ceremonies (including the naked jogger and, yes, the Moonlight kerfuffle).
During Sunday’s Oscars, Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, which is the result of a hair loss condition called alopecia. (It’s not yet clear whether Rock knew about this ailment.) Her husband then stormed the stage, struck him across the face, then yelled profanities at him. The American broadcast cut the sound for most of the incident, but it played uncensored in other countries.
The following day Smith issued a formal apology to Rock, while Pinkett Smith wrote a more cryptic statement about what happened. Smith’s actions have been met with widespread condemnation, even from Richard Williams, who Smith played in the film for which he won an Oscar.
You can purchase tickets to upcoming Chris Rock shows here.
(Via THR)