Chris Rock’s ticket sales soar after being assaulted by Will Smith at the Oscars

Here’s something positive to come from Chris Rock’s very public assault on live television by Will Smith. People have begun to purchase more tickets to his tour that kicks off this week. So much in fact that the going rate for the tickets have soared in the secondary market.

After Sunday night’s incident drew global attention tickets for Rock’s shows that were going for an face value of $46 per ticket are now commanding substantially higher prices on secondary marketplaces like TickPick and StubHub. In fact, doing some basic browsing of said sites, we’ve seen them as high as $670 for certain shows.

It seems any press is good press in this instance and Rock kicking off a 38 date tour right now might be benefitting the most from the incident. It certainly isn’t Will Smith or Jada Pinkett Smith who both released fairly basic statements (about apologizing, healing, and the usual things these apologies contain) As their public images are taking a beating in the court of public opinion at the moment.

Additionally The Recording Academy has begun a “a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law.” Which seems like a CYA statement to what millions of people seem to think is a fairly simple case.

“I am not reading much about how, or even if, the producers attended to Chris. But I love you, Chris Rock, And I’m sorry the Oscars turned into the Jerry Springer show.” – Alec Baldwin