Chris Rock Tells Audience He Wont Discuss Will Smith Oscar Slap ‘Until I Get Paid’

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Chris Rock told audience members of a recent stand-up show that he will not address the Oscars slap until he gets paid to do so.

“I’m ok,” Rock assured the crowd at California’s Fantasy Springs on Friday night. “I have a whole show and I’m not talking about that until I get paid. Life is good. I got my hearing back.”

The remark comes after the Academy banned Will Smith from attending an Oscars ceremony for 10 years in response to his on-stage slap of Rock.

Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson directly praised Rock in the letter sent to the Academy’s board of governors, thanking him for “maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances.”

While Rock has not made a public statement on the incident, he has briefly discussed the slap while on stage during recent stand-up sets.

Rock addressed the slap during his first show following the Oscars, simply asking a Boston audience, “How was your weekend?”

“I don’t have like a bunch of shit about what happened,” he added. “So if you came to hear that I’m not–I had like a whole I wrote before this weekend. And I’m still kinda processing what happened.”

During another show at Boston’s The Wilbur, Rock shut down a heckler who cursed out Smith.

The stand-up comedian again asked the audience how their weekend was, prompting an audience member to shout, “Fuck Will Smith,” according to People. 

“No, no, no, no, no…” Rock replied, immediately shutting it down.