Earlier today, comedian Kevin Hart made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss Mother’s Day, his writing process and the recent Dave Chappelle on stage attack.
Host Mike Birbiglia, who is standing in for Jimmy Kimmel as he recovers from Covid-19, probed Hart on this thoughts on the recent Chappelle incident.
Earlier this week, Chappelle was attacked while on stage doing a stand up routine for the Netflix Is A Joke Fest.
“The Chappelle thing was so scary this week, right?” asked Birbiglia.
“Not scary, but all right,” responded Hart, as the audience burst into laughter. “Somebody ran on stage and got their ass whooped. Not scary. It’s one of those things that need to happen, though.”
After Birbiglia responded that it didn’t need to happen, he went on to explain that it sent a lesson to people that it isn’t good to storm the stage and attack comedians.
“Mike, do you want people to continue to think that they can cross that line and break the barrier of entertainer (and fan)?”
“I think that the world that we’re in right now there’s a lot of lines that have gotten blurred. Sometimes you take a couple of steps backwards to take some steps forward and I think that moment we just witnessed with Dave is like fogging up a bigger moment."
The “bigger moment” Hart was referring to was the fact that Chappelle had just made history at the Hollywood Bowl by selling over 70 000 tickets and matching the record for most headline shows at the venue.
“Dave went back after that and finished the show and didn’t let that thing be a big thing,” he added.
“He quickly moved on from it and got back to doing comedy. That’s what a professional does.”
Hart also said that he felt it was time to get back to a place of respect for entertainers, before sharing that the worst experience he’s ever had on stage was when he got hit by a buffalo wing.
"We’ve now lost sight of the relationship of audience to comedian and that line has got blurred to where it’s like, ‘Well, I don’t need to like this and I can stand up and make a point’.
“It becomes a case of why did you come then? Why did you buy a ticket if that was your want and need?”
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