Everybody apparently loves Chris … except for Will Smith.
Ticket prices for Chris Rock’s upcoming comedy tour—which kicks off at the Borgata in Atlantic City on April 2—have spiked in the days since Will Smith now-infamously slapped Rock across the face on stage at the Oscars.
Ticket resale website TickPick reports that prices went up from a minimum of $46 per ticket on March 18 to a minimum of $341 following the Oscars, according to Variety.
“We sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than we did in the past month combined,” the site tweeted Monday, one day after the Academy Awards.
Rock, who lives in the ritzy celebrity enclave of Alpine, NJ, begins his nationwide Ego Death World Tour with two shows at the Borgata on April 2. On Tuesday night, tickets were sold out via direct Ticketmaster sales. On resale site Stubhub, Borgata tickets were going for $368-$720.
Will Smith accepts his Best Actor Oscar at Sunday’s show. Photo courtesy of Al Seib/A.M.P.A.S.
Prior to the official start of his tour, Rock, 57, is playing Boston’s Wilbur Theater from March 30-April 1. After his performances in the Garden State, he goes on to play cities including Pittsburgh and Las Vegas.
In a moment that shocked film fans worldwide, Smith walked up on stage and smacked Rock in the face at Sunday’s Oscars, after Rock made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s short hair. Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, which causes hair loss. Pinkett Smith has been open about her condition in the past.
Shortly after going after Rock, Smith, 53, won an Oscar, his first, for Best Actor for his role in “King Richard.” He gave a long, tear-filled speech that centered on defending his family.
During the speech, he apologized to the Academy and others at the show for his behavior, but did not mention Rock.
However, on Monday, he issued an apology on Instagram that read in part: “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally. I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith sit in the audience at the 2022 Oscars. Photo courtesy of Richard Harbaugh/A.M.P.A.S.
Rock has lived in a $3 million mansion in Alpine—which consistently ranks as New Jersey’s most expensive zip code—since 2011. The four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 10,300-square-foot pad is located on 2 acres, according to the New York Post. Other famous Alpine residents include Tracy Morgan, Lil Kim and Stevie Wonder.
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