THE CLASSIEST COMIC IN AMERICA
Concert Photos / Alamy Stock Photo
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hat would you do if you were speaking onstage and someone got up from their chair in the front row, walked up to you at the podium, and slapped your face in front of the live audience and tens of millions more watching worldwide on TVs, tablets, and telephones? That scenario is more than a hypothetical one for comedian Chris Rock. You’ve seen the video if you didn’t catch it all live: Rock was presenting earlier this year at the Oscars when he was assaulted, and he miraculously and thankfully reacted very differently than you or I may have. Immediately following “the slap,” abuser and Academy Award-winning actor Will Smith, who, believe it or not, graced the cover of “Men In Leadership” issue of this magazine in 2016, sauntered back to his chair, smirking. Meanwhile, Rock remained composed, even managing to crack a joke or two. As the old show business axiom goes, the show went on, with Rock presenting an Oscar to someone that, today, few people remember and no one’s talking about. In my opinion, Rock deserves an Emmy Award for that performance. Let me be clear: if I’d been slapped, every “angry black man” | 8 | T H E HU B MA G A Z I N E
CHRIS ROCK
By Michael P Coleman, Freelance Writer
trope would have played out during that television broadcast. While a variety of Smith’s Hollywood projects are being cancelled or put “on hold,” Rock is on the road in Europe, performing and cutting up during his “Ego Death” tour. “I’m OK, if anybody was wondering,” Rock recently joked from the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “I got most of my hearing back.” According to the New York Times, Rock had said he wasn’t going to talk about “the slap heard around the world” during his tour. Clearly, he’s had a change of heart. “People expect me to talk about the b———,” Rock continued from the stage in London. “I’m not going to talk about it right now. I’ll get to it eventually…on Netflix.” Get your coin, Chris! If Rock isn’t a Man In Leadership, and worthy of this cover story, I don’t know who is! While leadership isn’t necessarily tied to bank balances, Rock’s net worth is a cool $60 million.
