Amy Schumer Calls Will Smith ‘Ali’ and Slapping Incident ‘Just a F—ing Bummer’ in Las Vegas Stand-Up Show
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Amy Schumer and friends performed for a packed house at Las Vegas’ Mirage Theater as part of the Aces of Comedy series on Saturday (April 2). In her first public appearance since hosting the 94th Academy Awards, the comedian talked about Will Smith, motherhood and her surgery last fall to remove both her uterus and appendix.
The Mirage show, originally announced in October for Nov. 4, 2021, was moved due to scheduling conflicts and postponed until this weekend.
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“This is my first time doing a headlining show since I was pregnant. I am so excited, it feels so good to be back in Vegas,” the Life & Beth star told the audience. “We’re gonna talk about everything and the Oscars but I just want to talk about drinking because I have been drinking so much and I am severely hung over.”
Schumer shared she was still speechless over what happened at the awards telecast: “I don’t even know what to say about the Oscars, like I really don’t know what to say, I have no jokes about it. All I can say is that I don’t know if you saw this but Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Did you read that in your news feed?”
Of her moments before the incident, “I was kind of feeling myself … and then all of a sudden Ali was making his way up,” she says, making a reference to Smith having played the famed boxer in the 2001 film Ali. “And it was just a f—ing bummer. All I can say is that it was really sad and I think it says so much about toxic masculinity. It was really upsetting but I think the best way to comfort ourselves would be for me to say the Oscar jokes that I wasn’t allowed to say on TV.”
She warned the audience, “This does not leave this casino. I’ll just say it was a mirage, it didn’t happen. I want to preface these Oscar jokes by saying that my lawyer said not to say these. Don’t tell anybody and don’t get mad at me.”
The outtakes included jabs at Hollywood and other stars. “Hollywood has recovered so beautifully from not being allowed to rape anymore, you know?” she said.
She then added, “This was what I was going to say about the foreign films but my lawyer said no,” before making a joke about allegations against James Franco for sexually inappropriate behavior.
And she continued, “I wanted to shout out to health care workers and by that I mean Joe Rogan. Don’t Look Up is the name of a movie, more like don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun.”
“I wasn’t allowed to say any of that but you can just come up and [clock] someone,” Schumer lamented, trailing off into the rest of her set.
Of the surgery she had last fall, she revealed, “They took out my uterus and it was ravaged by endometriosis, cysts in my ovaries. I had a tumor in my appendix. They took it all out. And the craziest thing is that they said my liver was fine — it looked like a teen’s liver, I have been celebrating ever since.”
The show included stand-up from openers Julian McCullough, Jaye McBride and Mia Jackson.
Earlier in the week, Schumer shared on Instagram that she was going OOO after the Will Smith incident that left her “triggered and traumatized.” Her new Hulu show, Life & Beth, debuted in March. She will host the Netflix Is A Joke: The Festival live comedy fest in Hollywood on May 6 and then start her “Whore Tour” Aug. 4, canvassing the country with dozens of dates through the end of November. Many comedians use the Mirage’s Aces of Comedy to test new material prior to going on tour. Guests locked their cell phones and smart watches in Yondr pouches upon arrival during the device-free show.
Schumer’s performance on the Strip coincided with one of Las Vegas’s biggest weekends in the last couple of years: the 64th Grammy Awards, which take place for the first time on the Strip at MGM Grand on Sunday.
Performers scheduled to appear include Lady Gaga, John Legend, Billie Eilish and Silk Sonic, among many others. Friday night (April 1), the Academy’s MusiCares Gala honored Joni Mitchell, with the iconic artist in attendance and Cyndi Lauper, Beck, Legend and Herbie Hancock paying tribute to her in song. Tao Beach at The Venetian showed off its $50 million remodel with celebrity guests including Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Kendall Jenner, Euphoria’s Angus Cloud and model Winnie Harlow, with DJs Afrojack, Fisher, Illenium and Kaskade playing back-to-back sets. And the in-real-life version of the Peppermint Hippo Gentleman’s Club immortalized in South Park debuted in the historic Olympic Garden space on Las Vegas Boulevard.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
