Comedian Dave Chappelle was approached on stage as it happened in Los Angeles, according to witnesses and videos from the episode early...
Comedian Dave Chappelle was approached on stage as it happened in Los Angeles, according to witnesses and videos from the episode early Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the man to rush to the stage at the Hollywood Bowl. Footage circulating on social media appeared to show the man charging Mr Chappelle as he performed. There was no immediate indication that Mr. Chappelle had been seriously injured.
Several security guards punched and kicked the man, according to Brianna Sacks, a BuzzFeed News reporter who was on the show and wrote about the attack on Twitter.
Ms Sacks wrote that police and fire department officials then loaded the man into an ambulance. The video later showed the unidentified man’s elbow at an odd angle.
The attack happened just as her performance was ending. Ms Sacks wrote that actor Jamie Foxx took to the stage after Mr Chappelle, 48, was tackled, looking “absolutely shocked”, and musicians Mos Def and Talib Kweli performed as Los Angeles Police Department vehicles were arriving behind the scene.
Farshad Dehbozorgi, 34, a lawyer who was at Mr Chappell’s show on Tuesday, said someone jumped onto the stage and “practically tried to tackle” the comedian. “And then they kind of fought and wrestled and everybody kind of got involved,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday morning.
“Everyone was shocked,” Mr. Dehbozorgi added. “No one could believe what was happening.”
Mr Chappelle appeared to be handling the chaotic moment well, Mr Dehbozorgi said, adding that the comedian returned to the stage and the venue made no security announcements.
Afterwards, Mr Chappelle was “on the microphone, obviously a bit confused by the situation at first, then started cracking jokes”, said Sharon Carpenter, a British journalist who was in the audience, in a video shared on Twitter.
Representatives for the Hollywood Bowl and the Los Angeles Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for Mr Chappelle did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Tuesday night’s show featuring Mr. Chappelle and others was part of the “Netflix is a joke: the festival,” featuring more than 100 artists at venues across Los Angeles from April 28 through Sunday. Mr. Chappelle was scheduled to perform at least four times, all at the Hollywood Bowl, according to its website.
Last year Mr Chappelle came under fire for his comments about transgender people and gender in comedy special “The Closer”, which aired on Netflix. Several organizations, including GLAAD, the organization that monitors news media and entertainment companies for bias against the LGBTQ community, had criticized the special as transphobic.
In a interview with VarietyTed Sarandos, one of Netflix’s two chief executives, later admitted he had “messed up” his communications with Netflix employees over their concerns, but he defended the company’s decision to air the special from Mr. Chappelle.
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