Recently, Chris Rock was booked to perform at billionaire Anthony Pratt’s Christmas Party in New York City, but the headlines following the appearance claimed he “stormed out” of the event.
An Abrupt Exit
Columnist, Cindy Adams of the New York Post, reported that the comedian, 59, saw something that “upset” him halfway through his set. After shouting at the audience, presumably at the person who upset him, he “forcefully” entered the crowd before exiting.
Adams’ report also said that Rock shouted that “He wasn’t supposed to be taped, videoed, reported, or whatever else wasn’t supposed to happen” before he then “[barreled] quickly, forcefully, through people to the exit doors…Without a second’s hesitation [he] stormed out–never to return.”
Later, The Independent spoke with a source close to the comedian who said Rock left due to someone filming the comic’s set.
Additionally, the source said that a report by the Daily Mail that Rock cut his set short due to children in the audience and his set being adults-only was not true.
Another report from a source claims that the comedian did not cause a scene. Instead, the source says, “He didn’t storm off. He did stop performing, but he wasn’t angry. He simply put the mic down and walked away.”
Rock has a “no filming” policy since 2017.
According to a source, most comedians have the same policy. “People were filming him, and there’s an unspoken rule that you lock up your phone and don’t film during sets. All of the major comedians ask that you don’t film while they’re onstage. It’s just violating protocol.”
Keith Urban took the stage after Rock left and performed a concert for the partygoers that lasted nearly two hours.
The Infamous Oscar Slap
Since Rock was slapped by Will Smith during the 2022 Oscars for insulting Smith’s wife, he has mostly kept out of the spotlight. In March 2023, he released a Netflix special, Selective Outrage, addressing the infamous Oscar slap.
Rock quipped, “Will Smith practices selective outrage. Because everybody knows what the f*** happened. I didn’t have any entanglements. Will Smith’s wife was f***ing her son’s friend, OK. Normally I would not talk about that s*** but for some reason (they) put that on the internet. We’ve all been cheated on. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person we cheated on on television. She hurt him way more than he hurt me.”
In this comment, Rock referenced the 2020 episode of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk, where she and her husband discussed her affair with R&B singer August Alsina.
After the episode aired, Rock said he tried to contact Smith to “offer his condolences about the affair.”
“He didn’t take my call,” Rock revealed.
“Nobody’s picking on her — she started this s***,” Rock said.
Rock also claimed that Jada Pinkett Smith tried to force him to quit being an Oscar host in 2016 after Smith didn’t get a Best Actor nomination for the drama Concussion.
Rock states, “Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars. I shouldn’t host ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for Concussion. And then he gives me a f***ing concussion.”
Though Rock admitted Smith’s slap hurt, he later joked, “But I’m not a victim baby. You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle, crying. Never gonna happen. I took that hit like Pacquiao.”
As for why he didn’t fight back when Smith struck him, Rock said, “I got parents, and you know what my parents told me, don’t fight in front of white people.”
