Will Chris Rock address Will Smith’s slap in 3 Bay Area shows?

Fresh off Chris Rock’s shocking confrontation with Will Smith at the Oscars Sunday, which ended with Rock being slapped by Smith during the live telecast, the comedian is set to launch a major comedy tour this week.

Rock’s “Ego Death World Tour” includes three shows in the Bay Area — July 7-9 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. It kicks off this week in Boston.

To say the timing is uncanny would be an understatement. The tour will come with plenty of buzz, not to mention intense scrutiny, that Rock couldn’t have foreseen before Sunday. While presenting an award at the Academy Awards, Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, reportedly not knowing that Smith’s longtime wife has alopecia, a condition that leads to hair loss. Rock’s joke prompted a violent response by Smith that was watched by millions around the world and that has since become the focus of a fierce national debate about many hot-button issues in American culture.

While Smith was seen laughing along with the joke at first, his wife clearly did not appreciate it. Smith then walked purposely onto the stage at the Dolby Theatre and slapped Rock in the face in front of a stunned audience of other Hollywood A-listers. After returning his seat, Smith let loose with expletives, yelling at Rock on stage to “Keep my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth.”

Minutes later, Smith won the best actor Oscar for his performance in “King Richard.” He apologized in his acceptance speech, and again on Monday, when he posted a message addressed to Rock, the academy, fellow nominees and others, explaining that he “reacted emotionally” when Rock joked about his wife’s medical condition, while acknowledging that his behavior was “unacceptable and inexcusable.”

In the aftermath of the confrontation, many of Smith’s supporters on social media said they understood his impulse to stand up for his wife against Rock, a comedian known for pushing buttons. Some said the episode showed how Black women and marginalized people often are forced to endure insults and abuse in the name of comedy — from the likes of comedians like Rock.

But critics saw in Smith’s actions a corrosive mixture of Hollywood ego and hypocrisy, and many condemned the slap as a display of “toxic masculinity.” On Tuesday, those critics came to include NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who said in a blog post that Smith’s actions “perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community.”

In an interview Tuesday, actor Jim Carrey also called Smith’s outburst “selfish” and said it was shameful and “spineless” for the way that other Hollywood luminaries gave him a standing ovation when he received his best actor trophy.

In the days since the “slap seen around the world,” sympathy has shifted to Rock, even as New York Times columnist Roxane Gay wrote that Pinkett Smith shouldn’t have to endure “tasteless” jokes from comedians like Rock.

Gay also said that Rock should have known better than to joke about women’s looks or hair, given that he produced the documentary “Good Hair,” about Black women and their often fraught relationships with their hair.

Speculation also has grown about how Rock could mine this incident for material for his comedy act, as all comedians do with personal experiences and ordeals. Certainly, there’s a lot to unpack and there’s lots Rock could comment on in ways that are humorous or not.

Judging by ticket sales, the Oscars debacle hasn’t hurt Rock’s popularity. Indeed, it appears that tickets sales are actually surging.

“We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined,” ticket-seller TickPick tweeted on March 28, the day after the Oscars.

We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined.

— TickPick (@TickPick) March 28, 2022

Variety, CBS News and the New York Post are among the news outlets reporting that ticket prices are indeed spiking after the incident.

Tickets are sold-out for Rock’s first night at the Paramount, but — at least as of Tuesday night — they were still available for the shows on July 8 and 9.

For more information, visit paramountoakland.org.