Following the slap heard around the world, comedian Chris Rock is headed back to the comedy stage for his first tour in five years.
The interest in Rock has led to a surge in ticket prices and additional show dates added, making comedy venues and ticket resellers the big winners from the incident at the Academy Awards.
What Happened: Rock was slapped by actor Will Smith at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 27, 2022. The event was watched by millions on television, airing on ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS). Outside of watching the event, the slap became the talk of the town and trended on social media for what already seems like weeks.
Now as Rock returns to the comedy stage, fans are turning out to sold-out shows and paying huge prices for a chance to hear the comedian talk about the events that happened on Sunday.
Rock was greeted with a two-minute standing ovation for Wednesday night’s show, his return to the stage after five years and his first show since Sunday’s events.
“Yo, let me do the show!” Rock said interrupting the ovation.
“I don’t have a bunch of s*it about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that s*it. And it will be serious and funny.”
Rock said it was “nice to just be out” and ignored an audience member in the crowd who chanted “F*** Will Smith.”
While many expected a ton of Will Smith jokes as part of the routine, they instead got classic Rock comedy with a range of topics. Among the items discussed were being a divorced dad raising his daughters, COVID-19, vasectomies, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
Rock also discussed the “sexual prowess” of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
Smith publicly apologized to Rock on Instagram earlier this week. The Academy is now investigating the incident and is considering suspending Smith from future appearances.
Related Link: Will Smith Slap At Oscars Wasn't His First Famous Slap
Why It’s Important: Wednesday night’s show at a 1,000 seat venue in Boston was sold out. Fans looking for tickets to the additional Boston shows will have to pay up with all tickets sold out on Ticketmaster, a unit of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV).
People waiting in line for the comedy show said they paid prices ranging from $70 and $225 on the low end to people admitting they paid $800 to $1,200 per ticket for the event.
Rick Ingram, the opening comedian for the show, teased the people in the balcony.
“Never thought you’d pay $1,000 for the worst seats in the house,” Ingram said.
“Why wouldn’t they be here? It’s a historic night,” one attendee said of the small media presence gathered outside the venue.
Ticket prices for the Boston shows originally sold for $49.50 each. Rock has four more shows at the venue Thursday and Friday nights (March 31, April 1).
StubHub saw tickets for the Boston shows listed for $800 to $8,000. The popular ticket resale site said it saw an increase of more than 25 times the daily sales in the two days after the slap compared to the prior month.
“It is incredibly unusual to see the spike we have experienced,” StubHub spokesperson Mike Silveria said.
Another ticket resale site TickPick tweeted Monday that it sold more Rock tickets on Sunday night into Monday morning than they did in the past month combined.
A quick search on Vivid Seats Inc (NASDAQ:SEAT) shows prices of $680 for the March 31 show at 10 p.m. EDT and $406 for the April 1, 10 p.m. EDT time slot.
SeatGeek, which is going public with RedBall Acquisition Corp (NYSE:RBAC), shows tickets for the March 31 shows listed at $499 for the 7:30 p.m. EDT time and $732 for the 10 p.m. EDT time.
Rock's next stop after Boston on the “Ego Death World Tour” is April 2 in New Jersey, marking the first time Rock has taken his comedy show on the road in five years.
Due to popularity and demand, many cities and venues are adding additional dates and showtimes. Cleveland and Detroit are among the cities that have announced additional times with tickets going on sale on April 1 at 10 a.m. EDT.
Photo: Whittlz via Flickr Creative Commons
