Chris Rock Leaves Stage at the Lyric
A few readers have written to express their puzzlement at an unexplained, four-minute gap in Chris Rock's stand-up comedy show at the Lyric Opera House on Sunday.
I didn't notice these events myself, as I attended the 7:30 p.m. Saturday show. But, it appears that, 45 minutes or an hour into the show, Rock abruptly said goodnight, dropped the microphone, and hurried off-stage.
A confused Mario Joyner (Rock's opening act), came on-stage and apparently was about to offer some kind of explanation, when Rock came back on and proceeded as before -- though without addressing the reason for his sudden departure.
Some folks found this so distracting it was hard for them to focus on the remainder of the show. Readers also noticed that Rock seemed to be having vocal problems, perhaps a result of doing three shows in less than 24 hours.
UPDATE: Mystery solved -- according to a source at the Lyric, Chris Rock left stage abruptly Sunday night because he had eaten something that disagreed with him, and had a sudden, urgent, cannot be postponed need to use the facilities.
My source tells me that he bolted into the bathroom, and, a few minutes later, somewhat sheepishly went back on stage.
Hey, we've all been there.
Presumably, Chris was too embarrassed to respond to the shouted questions about where he'd gone, and why. After he made that comment about not being good in bed, I didn't think there was ANYTHING too inimate to discuss. Guess I was wrong.
