Saturday Night Live’s Chris Redd Opens Up About Comedy Club Attack

Chris Redd, a former Saturday Night Live cast member who was recently attacked outside of New York’s Comedy Cellar, says he believes the attack was planned, and not random. Redd’s attack was first characterized as a random attack, but after reviewing security footage from outside the comedy club, he says he is confident that the attack was planned and that he was targeted. The comedian was sucker-punched by someone dressed as a security guard back on October 26, leaving him a bloody and confused mess. Fast forward to last week, and Redd appeared on SiriusXM’s The Bennington Show to say he doesn’t think it can be fairly characterized as random anymore.

“People called it a random attack. I don’t believe that,” Redd said. “He waited for me for an hour before I got there. He was on the phone. He had a lookout dude and everything. All I’m saying is this: I’ve never done nothing random where it took me an hour to do it.”

He added, “I would say it was a planned situation. That’s what I feel in my heart.”

You can see the conversation below.

Redd also looked on the bright side of the attacks, which was that it served as the best promotion he could possibly want for his HBO Max special Why Am I Like This?, which dropped on November 3.

“No promotion was better than getting knocked in the f—ing face,” Redd joked. “People didn’t even know I had a special out and they were like, ‘Aw, hope he’s okay! What, special?’”

Redd also said that he did not think the New York Police Department had taken the attack very seriously, claiming that after not finding a suspect right away, he was “ghosted by the chief of police.” 

The attack, which happened on his way to the Comedy Cellar, left Redd with a facial fracture. The attacker fled the scene, and Redd had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.  He also said that he was not robbed during the incident, contrary to prior reports, suggesting that the attack itself was seemingly the point.

You can see Why Am I Like This? on HBO Max now.

via EW