Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle are giving fans an encore, with the comedians heading out on the road together for another joint headlining tour.
The tour, which kicks off Jan. 20 in Oklahoma City, will see Rock and Chappelle play five dates in cities across Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. Tickets for the tour go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com.
The two previously headlined a tour together in December 2022, performing in San Diego, San Francisco and Phoenix. They also toured the U.K. in September of that same year.
Rock and Chappelle have become known for their comic routines that cannily expose, diagnose and lampoon political, racial and cultural hypocrisy and identity, building on the foundation of such predecessors as Richard Pryor and George Carlin.
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In 2022, however, both men were in the headlines in association with various controversies.
Last March, Rock was the victim of the slap heard ’round world, when actor Will Smith walked onstage during the Academy Awards and smacked the comedian across the face in response to a joke Rock made about Smith’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
Meanwhile, Chappelle placed himself within a media firestorm, attracting criticism for jokes on “Saturday Night Live” and on other stages that some people condemned as anti-Semitic and transphobic.
These incidents explain why a press release announcing the show contains unusually strong wording about the prohibition of cellphones and the ownership “rights.” While concertgoers “maintain possession of their phones throughout the night,” all phones and smart watches are “secured in Yondr pouches that will be unlocked at the end of the show.”
“No cellphones, cameras or recording devices will be allowed at this show,” states the press release, from Live Nation Entertainment. “Anyone caught with a cellphone in the venue will be immediately ejected.”
On ownership rights, the release states that “any jokes and sketches delivered during (the) performance…may not be copied, translated, transmitted, displayed, distributed, or reproduced verbatim” without express prior consent from Pilot Boy Productions, a film and TV production company founded by Chappelle.
The release continues: “Any Use of the Materials without the express prior written consent of Pilot Boy Productions, Inc. is strictly prohibited and shall be subject to all available legal remedies, whether in equity or at law at the cost of anyone who violates this prohibition.”
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Contributing: Edward Segarra, USA TODAY
