Dave Chappelle’s Rep Responds To Rumors That Jamie Foxx And Busta Rhymes Helped Tackle Attacker
After being attacked at the Hollywood Bowl during his stand-up routine, Dave Chappelle shouted out to Jamie Foxx and Busta Rhymes, who he thanked for rushing to help him after the incident. Now the comics reps respond to the speculation that Foxx and Rhymes actually helped beat up the attacker.
According to TMZ, Carla Sims, Chappelle’s spokesperson, said that the comedian was joking when he mentioned that Foxx, and Rhymes were involved in the altercation and insisted that none of them took part. Sims also clarified that Chappelle was also joking when he said that Jon Stewart intervened.
“I watched him get kicked around, and I couldn’t believe it was my friends ’cause it’s so good what they do,” the 48-year-old comedian said the evening of the attack, Complex notes. “I felt good my friends broke his arm. I felt good, how bad does a n***a have to be that Jon Stewart would stomp him! […] I’m very proud of them. Killing that n***a would have been stupid. Those are very powerful friends and I’m sharing [tonight] with people I love very much.”
In case you missed it, on Tuesday night (May 3), Chappelle was performing stand-up as part of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles when a man ran on the stage attempting to tackle the comic. Later identified as 23-year-old Isaiah Lee, an aspiring rapper by the name NoName__Trapper, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after having a replica handgun that could eject a blade in his possession, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
He is being held on a $30,000 bail.
According to Variety, a rep for Chappelle’s production company released a statement condemning the actions of the attack:
Dave Chappelle celebrated four nights of comedy and music, setting record-breaking sales for a comedian at the Hollywood Bowl. This run ties Chappelle with Monty Python for the most headlined shows by any comedian at the Hollywood Bowl, reaching 70k fans of diverse backgrounds during the first Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival, and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment. As unfortunate and unsettling as the incident was, Chappelle went on with the show. Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock helped calm the crowd with humor before Chappelle introduced the last and featured musical guests for the evening, hip-hop artists yasiin bey and Talib Kweli, a.k.a. Black Star, who performed music from their new album – the first in nearly 24 years – which was released on Luminary. Other special comedic guests last night included Earthquake, Leslie Jones, Jeff Ross, Sebastian, Jon Stewart and Michelle Wolf.
Netflix also released a statement to say, “We care deeply about the safety of creators and we strongly defend the right of stand-up comedians to perform on stage without fear of violence.”
Chappelle is fully cooperating with the active police investigation into this incident. The Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival kicked off Apr. 28 and runs through May 8.
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