The man who allegedly attacked Dave Chappelle on stage at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month is speaking out.
Isaiah Lee, the 23-year-old who was arrested and accused of tackling Chappelle while the comedian was performing on May 3 in Los Angeles at the Netflix Is A Joke show, is speaking to the media in a new jailhouse interview published on Sunday by the New York Post.
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According to the outlet, Lee says he is a member of the LGBT community and has experienced homelessness in his life — and so, he found some of Chappelle’s content about the transgender community as well as the unhoused community to be personally “triggering” for him.
During the interview, the outlet reported that Lee claimed the Chappelle’s Show alum ought to be “more sensitive” when he writes jokes, especially for those he makes against marginalized communities. Reportedly speaking to the news org from the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles while “dressed in brown jail garb and sporting a sling on his broken right arm,” Lee said at one point:
“I identify as bisexual … and I wanted him to know what he said was triggering. I wanted him to know that next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect.”
The outlet notes that Lee apparently expected to have “a good time” at Dave’s May 3 show on the tour that came through Los Angeles. However, he apparently grew frustrated after Chappelle joked about some of his prior controversies related to the LGBT community.
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Then, the alleged attacker claimed, Chappelle’s other comments about homelessness — which the Post reports Lee has previously experienced himself — were also aggravating.
The 23-year-old alleged assailant told the outlet:
“I’m also a single dad and my son is five. It’s a struggle and I wanted Dave Chappelle to know it’s not a joke.”
The outlet then reported that Lee’s alleged “breaking point” came when another comedian in the lineup that night made “a crude joke about pedophilia.” The joke, the news org says Lee asserted, “dredged up memories of [Lee’s] own molestation as a teen.”
The alleged assailant also took issue with the security team on hand that night to drag him from the stage. Speaking about the injuries he sustained in the attack — a broken arm and two black eyes, among other cuts and bruises — the incarcerated man said:
“They spat on me and twisted me as if on purpose.”
In the aftermath of Lee’s alleged attack on Chappelle, which shockingly did not net him felony charges, the young man was later charged with allegedly stabbing a former roommate in a separate incident last year.
The one-time wannabe rapper spoke about the consequences of that other case, lamenting that his allegations in the Chappelle incident were “pretty much done” before these other legal issues came about:
“It was pretty much done. But it went from me probably only doing six months [in jail] and having to do community service and living in a transitional home … to possibly 15 or more years in jail. My son will be big by the time I get out.”
Wow.
Reactions, Perezcious readers?
[Image via Netflix/YouTube]
