UPDATE: Dave Chappelle tackled on stage during his comedy set at the Hollywood Bowl; attacker identified

UPDATE: We now have a positive ID on the man who tackled Dave Chappelle during his set at the Netflix Is A Joke Festival. The attacker in question is 23-year-old Isaiah Lee and he was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, per The Hollywood Reporter. No motive revealed at this time but Lee is currently being held on $30,000 bail.

ORIGINAL STORY:

In the wake of the Will Smith and Chris Rock slap, many have worried that some people will feel this rush of courage to attack talent on stage if they don’t agree with a particular joke. We got a taste of that new level of fear last night when a man ran on stage and tackled comedian Dave Chappelle during his comedy set at the Hollywood Bowl.

Many of the attendees at the Netlflix Is A Joke Festival posted videos following the incident that showed Chappelle on stage performing when a man decides to rush him from the right and tackle him straight to the floor. The man is soon dragged away by security following the attack.

NBC News out of Los Angeles reported that the LAPD had confirmed they had taken a man into custody and that he was armed with a replica gun “that can eject a knife blade” when discharged correctly. It wasn’t immediately clear if the man tried to use the weapon against Chappelle when he tackled him to the floor. Despite the apparent severity of the matter, LAPD confirmed that Chappelle was not hurt during the incident.

In true comedic form, video footage after the attack shows Chappelle regaining his composure and immediately joking that “It was a trans man.” This is in reference to the controversy surrounding some of his jokes in his last Netflix special that some thought to be transphobic. BuzzFeed News reporter Brianna Sacks, who attended the show, tweeted that the attack happened towards the end of his set and after he joked that he needed more security after the controversy over his trans jokes. Oddly enough, Chris Rock was also at the event and even joked about the attacker being Will Smith. I swear you can’t make this stuff up.

As of now, the man is unidentified but there is video footage of him being taken away for medical attention and it appears that his arm is already regretting his decision to rush the stage. Needless to say, security wasn’t playing last night when it came to taking him down.

The Netflix Is A Joke Festival is an 11-day stand-up comedy festival backed by the Netflix platform. The festival features 130 comedians with some of the biggest names in the industry in its inaugural lineup including Seth Rogen, Chelsea Handler, Aziz Ansari, Bill Burr, and Conan O’Brien. The Los Angeles-based event is set to span 25 different venues. I would imagine that security is going to be beefed up A LOT moving forward.

What are YOUR thoughts on Dave Chappelle being attacked while on stage during his comedy set?