Dave Chappelle Was Attacked On Stage At An LA Comedy Festival Last Night
"I thought for a moment: ‘OK, is this a prank?’ because they had made some Will Smith jokes.”
Another US comedian has been attacked while performing on stage, this time veteran comic Dave Chappelle.
Chappelle was attacked during his performance at the Netflix Is a Joke festival in LA, which took place at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night. The attacker apparently got on stage just as Chappelle was thanking the other performers — that included Leslie Jones, John Stewart, and Chris Rock.
The suspect — 23-year-old man Isaiah Lee — is reported to have had a replica handgun on him that contained a knife blade. The weapon was reportedly “pointed” at Chappelle. Video footage of the incident shows him tackling the comedian before both men fall to the ground. Security guards then run on to the stage, at which point the attacker gets up and swerves, before being tackled near the back of the stage.
Sharon Carpenter, an LA-based journo who was in the audience, reportedly said: “It looked like someone dashed from the side of the stage, lunged at Dave, and all I saw was Dave basically flying in the air. He fell backwards onto his back, with his arms and legs up in the air. He was obviously in shock. We were all in shock. And I thought for a moment: ‘OK, is this a prank?’ because they had made some Will Smith jokes”.
Dave Chappelle was reportedly unharmed by the incident and later returned to the stage to finish his set. Chris Rock joined him, taking the microphone and joking, “was that Will Smith?”, an obvious reference to the infamous Oscars slap back in March.
While it looks like Chappelle got out unscathed, his attacker wasn’t so fortunate. According to Brianna Sacks, a journalist at Buzzfeed News, about ten security guards punched and kicked the attacker. Lee was later seen being loaded into an ambulance with a badly injured arm.
Just came out of the Hollywood Bowl where a man charged and tackled Dave Chapelle on stage and got his ass kicked by at least 10 people.
LAPD and LAFD are now loading him into an ambulance pic.twitter.com/7SXPe9e8az
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) May 4, 2022
The LAPD has since released a statement: “A famous comedian was performing at the Hollywood Bowl and when he finished his act, a male jumped on to the stage and tackled the celebrity. The suspect produced a replica handgun and pointed the item at the victim. He was taken into custody and was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon”.
Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage