Be a Dumb Genius with Kevin Hart

I've been moved to Los Angeles, and at no point during that process, did you ...

Dom, genius, I am moved to Los Angeles without a plan.

No acting classes, not moved to Los Angeles. With 25,000, I had about $25,000 left at the bottom of the field. About 60 grand to the IRS, because I didn't pay taxes. It's not totally in debt. I moved to Hollywood, and I remember moving and walking down, and walking down like Sunset Boulevard, and I was like, "Okay, here we go."

This is it. What now? This episode is brought to you by Chase Home Lyndon. Hey, little girl. Hi, Craig Robinson. How are you?

You know what I'm doing? I'm doing pretty good.

“You know, everything is in one piece. I believe I feel healthy.”

Good. How are you feeling? I feel great. Well, our next guest is his latest stand-up, which correct me. I'm serious rolling down my faces and talking about us getting old.

And you know, funny thing is he's still so young and he's talking about it. True. We got to say hello. We're talking about Kevin Hart, who is here with us today. Got to say hello. And it's like, yeah, he's all in shit. He looks like he's about to, I know.

We're talking about not being able to run and pull and stuff, and what's not like what you're pulling? And I'll be stretching more now. You know, we love all of our guests. But you know, I haven't met Kevin Hart. And I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to Kevin.

I mean, we've met on some photo line or something where just like, hey, are you doing? But yeah. So I'm excited. Yeah. Well, let me, let me get his introduction going.

Kevin Hart has made a name for himself as the hardest working comedian, entrepreneur, producer, and actor. He is a global box office powerhouse and has earned both Emmy and Grammy nominations. His authentic approach to sharing life's everyday moments like we talked about with humor and and Hart has earned him a devoted global audience and social media fan base.

So without further ado, let's, let's bring out the former varsity basketball player. And Hart, you knew I did my research. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Beautiful introduction. This is great.

You always got to stay together.

You know how that is. This is, this is so great.

“So how are you talking about feeling old?”

What do you mean? Really? I'm getting older. What do you mean? It happens.

You don't look it. What you look and feel the two different things. I think you're right. Look. Okay.

The perception is amazing. I expected you to come in here. You're like, do a cartoon or something like that or or twist the egg or something. It's a lot going on under hood. I'm in pain.

I am in pain. The maintenance to keep this up is extremely high. I find that. Min though. Just don't stretch.

It's true. I can't touch my toes. See? Now that's the thing.

I've been talking to Barack about this.

I have no ego about it. But you can. But you can. You could be able to do it. I mean, you could if you were doing

Yen yoga once a week. You could touch your toes. I challenge you. Well, I don't want the challenge. You okay?

It's the challenge. Like you just give me a challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin.

I challenge you. You're going to do it. In touch your toes. I want to touch my toes. Kevin.

“So you know how some people become famous.”

And what? And become bullies. Yes. They're just bullies. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm bullies. I'm bullies. I'm bullies. She just comes.

What's the name? I mean, it didn't work. No, what you just did is the clear definition of bullies. Like, if we're just going to be honest about it. That is exactly.

And what bullying is. And then act like she's not. No. She said it can slam the hand. Challenge accepted.

Wait a minute. I've never asked. But the challenge. This is. This is unwarrant.

I won't try it though. My flexibility is in dire need of help. But that's why you ripped up here. What did you take? Yeah.

I tore my abductor. That's like. See. And yoga that abductor stretched out. It would be.

It would be prepared. It would be prepared. You decided. I'm a ratio. Yeah.

You'll see when I get up. The problem here is like jump up. Yeah. See. I needed a minute to just like let this leg get out.

Get low dizzy. You jump up. You know.

Get low dizzy.

- Yeah, that's on balance, right?

- Right? - The dizzyness is a problem. - That's not how you break a hip. - Is that how it happened? - Oh, right.

- When you get a quiet, dizzy spell, if you don't want to alert anybody,

“but you're like, oh, this is it, this is it.”

- This is it. - This is a goat's outfit. - Oh, this is, it's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is.

- It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is.

- It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. - It's not what it is. back to bullying. We're back to bullying you. No, it was a full circle. But we're the same age. And, you know, you start having, you know, swallowing problems. Things just stop. You know, yeah. So how about you on your flu. But she had chewed her food, but she had told me that she had this a soft, Jill issue where things will get stuck. Right. So I knew that about her. Now we're there with Malia and two of her friends. They're in their 20s, right? But there's still babies, right? She stands up, finished eating. She stands up and coughs.

And I think she coughed up something and it got stuck in her throat. And she was like, and I said, "Are you okay?" And she said, "Now the three children, they just pushed away from the table."

“And laughed. It started laughing. No, they didn't laugh. They were like, "Huh. Oh, that's what I would do."”

That's what I would do. It was girls. They weren't laughing. They were moving away. And I got up and I said, "I went behind her and I just pull up like they'd, I'd never done the high notes."

They were laughing. They were moving away. And I got up and I said, "I went behind her and I just pull up like they'd never done the high notes." I'd never done the high notes before and it dislodged it. Did they pop out of the way? It just popped up. Right away. One, one. Good. Got it. That's pretty big. That was pretty big. And I was like, "What were you all doing?" You know? I mean, my question and they were like, "You're right." You're like, "We were useless. They realized that that was a matter of time." That's actually a story. That's a, that's the one that you got to pull out.

That's a big one. We talked about it. We talked about it. No, we didn't. But in, in our family orbit, we talked about it. Because it's your life to throw out a casual hero story of, "Yeah, I saved the light." I'm trying to make up for the movie. But I only say that because that's kind of stuff that happens when we get older. And the reason why I was like, "I knew she wasn't faking because she told me that it happened to her before, where she, something got caught in her throat and she was fallen alone."

And it didn't pop out of her mouth? It didn't pop out. But it dislodged and then she could swallow it. And then went back down. Oh, no. Oh, she, she, she, she, she, that's great. It could have happened again. She gave a read. A read. A read. You can't read. You can't do a read. You can't do a read. You can't do a read over the problem piece. You gotta get that out. But she's alive when it's a hazard of aging. You know? It's the things that break down. You're right. And the definitions form the words, you know, I think that's the funniest thing that I found about getting older is that you have a word and reason for everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because right now I'm losing mobility in my elbow. So what they said to me is like, you just, you look for so much information.

“Yeah. So apparently, I don't have the same recoil that I did. So I have to basically extend my elbow, but over extend to get the full, the full variation of use.”

But other than that, I'm fine. Yeah. Other than that. But when it rains, it times up like that. You turn it like that. And what did you say you can't eat anything? No, you know, you get to the point where you're still living in water. Is that who? Yeah. Yeah. Lemon's going to mess up my system. I cracked up. I'm going to advance that way. You're emotional regular. You know, sometimes it's like not now. It's too much not now. Yeah. I'm not eating. If I have a driver, you know, you wind up this 20 minutes to get there.

I'll wait. I'll eat when we get there. I'll eat once we're there. I don't think I've eaten the day. [ Laughter ] That is so true. I mean, oh, I got a flight. Let me -- let me -- let me -- let me just -- let me be in the air.

You see, we're going over somebody's house? Yeah. [ Laughter ] I'm a -- I'm a -- I'm a way -- I'm a way to have to read. Because I don't know these people, but I don't want to --

I don't want to eat over there. And they'll give me anything, no joke. Yeah, please. Please, please. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. What's in that? Walnuts. Yeah, I can't. I can't.

I can't. I'm going to push this back. just wait, can you just have dry lettuce that I can, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll

Look and go, "Oh Jesus, I would never make it to the car.

Respectfully, you know, the language, I won't, I'll curb my language.

“But it's like, having no fear for consequence.”

- Yeah. - What you eat is an unbelievable answer. It's unbelievable. - Try it like. - Eating an ass bun. (laughing)

- Lack of a better worker. Like it's gonna, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be good. - It's gonna blow. You're not afraid of when that's gonna detonate. - When?

- Yeah, but they can still control it. - They can hold it. - Yeah. - They're like, they're like, when the sequels, they're like the birds

that can just hold the horn for so long.

Like, I've never seen anything like it.

- It's flying. - Yeah, it's not. - Oh, my gosh. - I made this very Hindi. - Oh, well, we, we're supposed to be talking about you.

- Yes. I'm ready. - Well, that was a great conversation. (laughing) Relative ability, just now.

- Yeah, you got that trigger, right? - No, you stand up for the trigger. - Dizzy? - Yeah. - No, I don't see, yeah, all of it.

- Oh, you don't be the other thing. - Yeah, I've eaten a day either. - Oh, my goodness.

“- That's good to know to all the same man.”

- We're all in the same boat. - But please, before we talk about me, I just want to say congrats, guys. This is amazing. Thank you for having me.

Amazing team that you have, amazing energy here.

And excited. So excited to get in all things, of course. Kevin and B.A. Open Book of Dialogue, - Thank you. - And congratulations.

- And to help out with that, we have a special guest in studio. - Yes. - My little, your eldest daughter. - My oldest.

- Are you the oldest, Kevin? Are you the oldest or the- - I am, yeah, the oldest. - Grom, Jeff. - That's crazy.

- Yeah, that's my- - And she, look, I asked you to. - My first mistake. - Two minutes later. Well, she is your greatest treasure. Your awards come in a proof of concept, right?

Like I mean, in parenting, are you doing give your best? And you hope that your efforts didn't fall on deaf ears. And have the time aren't you thinking, oh God, I don't know what I'm doing.

- I just, I mean, you don't, but you don't, right? You're figuring out what we're doing.

“- You're figuring it out, but I think for me,”

the biggest reward has been seeing her actively put the things that I've been in her head over the years to use. And she's just a responsible, driven person. Like she, she truly is a little mold of the world of what her parents have put in front of her.

And I think that's just, it's the plus. She's the best example in the world for her brothers. - Oh, that's right. - That's right. (upbeat music)

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AppleCard issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA Salt Lake City Branch, terms and more at AppleCard.com. - You talked more about your mom. - Oh my goodness.

“- Because, look, she's bad ass, you know?”

Single mother, I wanna know where she got it from. - That's a good question.

I mean, no disrespect to this amazing woman

that I'm sitting across from at the table, but how are you anybody down and say, pound for pound of best woman to walk the earth? - Yep. - Ooh, my mom.

- I think you're done by her. - Oh, I know what you mean. - And then he's gone, aren't you? - Yes, that's what a brother says. My big brother.

- That's like, no, not even, not even my mom. - Okay. - You know what's crazy is like, I got a, as I got older, I got a different version of my mom. - Yeah.

- So the bad version of my mom,

I never got to see because my mom flipped her life

and went in the direction of spiritual, Godfaring and energy towards self-improvement and from the age like four on, there was no relationship with my dad, there was no, I never saw another man with my mom.

All I saw was my mom, go to work, come home, tend to me, my brother, and whatever my knees or our knees were, I never saw anything else. So the commitment to doing whatever had to be done

was bar nut. We didn't have money, but we also never saw that we didn't have money. We didn't have a life or life started allowed us to do the most or have the most, but we had the things that we needed.

It wasn't until my mom passed away. That me and my brother got to see how much my mom did and what she prepared for.

“Like, you know, I remember she passed away”

and there was insurance and money that was given to me, and my brother, and we counted that one set up and she had college funds just in case. And like, literally without having any, this crazy salary or if the money coming in

didn't have a financial advisor, yeah. My mom was a, she was hungry for information. She thought that it was free. And she said that you can obtain as much of it as you can keep.

So she was in college, I mean for the duration of her adulthood, chasing masters at the masters,

after masters, always just further extending

the opportunity to educate and to do. So in my younger years it was like she does too much and it's annoying and like it's always something. You always want me to read.

You always want me to like look up something.

You always want me to study these things

and like I'm not a good student. I don't want to do this.

“I don't want to finish or complete these things.”

I don't want to prepare or study. But when the adulthood kicked in, something happened and those lessons, all of a sudden, it was second nature. If I could tell my mom, anything,

if I could have a conversation with Nancy, it would just be, you were right. And I think like parents, how are you when she passed? - Correct, I get a little, I look.

- It gets weird. - Just give me a little. - We cannot talk about our parents. - No, get out, sorry. - Yeah, no.

- No need to apologize. - With Nancy, that's my one regret.

I never got to say you were right.

And that's what? - How were you when she passed? - Man. 26, yeah, 27, yeah. - And it's not like my tier isn't like a,

- No, I know. - It's gotta angle to, it's like, yeah, it's, the appreciation for the energy. - Yes. - And love in real time that a parent is giving.

- Yeah. - As a child, you overlook it.

“You don't value it at the level that you should.”

So it's not until kids get older. It's not until kids get older. - Yeah.

- That should go damn, right?

- Yeah. - I actually had, I had to make up around me, I had it. I had the machine around me, and because it wasn't glamorous because it wasn't the bells, the whistles, the cars, the big houses, the front yards.

It was like, oh man, we're looking at us. We're struggling, we're poor with this or that. - Yeah. - I also had the flip side of this as well, right? So like, my dad was the opposite.

- Yeah. - And it's not glamorous is actually really bad. Like my dad's, my dad was really like, there was some, a lot of shit with my dad. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - But if I didn't see it firsthand, and I didn't see my dad battle with addiction, with, you know, the law, I mean, - So he checked all of this.

- He checked. - Name it, name it, my dad, man. - I mean, are you believe that humor, the ability to dark humor, like it's my dad?

“And example of my dad, I remember my mom's sister had passed away.”

And we're going to the funeral. And you know, this is my mom's side, right? But you know, a couple of people had passed, like this is like another sister of my mom's mom, her dad, like, you know, the funerals are,

they're happy, they're coming, right? - It's coming fast, my dad is there. You get there, we're like standing with the family, and my dad goes, they drop in life flowers, (laughing)

- It's like, it's like, it's like, too soon. - Dad, so soon. - Yeah, look around, I mean, small, no. - Okay, she's out with the sense of you. - What, what, what, what, what, what, what,

the word is called, my dad had the words, can't say, like, look, can't take his lung out, he's a battle with every level of C-O-P-D, I mean, you name it, like, my dad was supposed to be going, years ago, years ago, but he was so good.

- She's there, kinda. - He gets about, you know, I'm not kicking the stuff, I mean, you can't say that, I mean, does it? I'll beat that, he's wearing it, like, bad, just like, beat that, that one didn't get me.

- Can't sit, can't sit, can't sit, he tried it. I mean, it was the chemo, I told him, kiss my ass, I got out of there, I beat it. - Y'all ain't knocked that, I mean, it was bad. (laughing)

- So you got, your mom has this shiny example on the one side and your dad has a different kind of example on the other side. - The worst of it, yes, so what people talk about a lot today is raising young men to be good men. - Yeah, my dad was very adamant about the stance of men.

So bullying and things like that when I was a kid, like, yeah, they mess with me or they're getting mess, or I don't like that, they're picking on me, that down the street, my dad was the, come on, what we're going, we're going down the street.

You wanna go down there and whoever it was, you're gonna handle your situation, I'ma stand there.

When I lose, it doesn't matter.

What matters to me is that you understand

that you're not supposed to allow these things to happen.

“Whether I'm there or not, you have to respect yourself”

enough to wanna see the best for yourself. So I can go to several street fights when I was younger. By the way, this is a different time of parenting. Like we're a much different time where some of these things are frowned upon,

but I can say the character that was built because of the things that my dad made necessary. And it was so out of the, so far out of the loop of what should be done. Everything my dad did, I was standing in,

and are you, I think it was wrong. (laughing) I can say, I think it was, that was getting bad. No, looking back at it, my dad,

my dad, my dad, my dad threw me off a cliff in the lake. I was scared to jump, he grabbed me through me. I was like, no, no, that wasn't how you did it. I'm in the lake, trying to yell down, see you fine. No, I'm, no, not, you just stand to shut me.

I'm not comfortable in here, but his approach, the shock factor that it came with, it gave me a level of comfort with things that will be will be. Like it is when it is, I don't care like, my dad, we in car, the car break down.

All right, leave part, we're gonna walk, walk, we're home. (laughing) We're in another state that, we're gonna walk. We're in a boat, boat break down. All right, we're just okay.

We wait for somebody to come by, flag 'em down, give 'em a name boat, take it's in. Who do we know I am, rest wait, here you go, hey, let's have a go about it, ain't stopping, get next one.

Whatever, things that were bad were never that bad to him.

So, my, my, my, I have such a simplistic like, stands to problems, like I don't talk about the problem, like there's gotta be a solution. When did you come to appreciate the wisdom that you were getting from your father?

“I mean, what you got from your mother was evident, right?”

But, you know, and I'm sure there's some tension to his approach, who he was, what he wasn't, who he wasn't to your mother. There were a lot of reasons to not, not see his wisdom. When did it start to, when did this clarity?

When my, when I realized that my dad wasn't afraid to be honest about any of his flaws. He was a very, my dad was very accountable. Yeah, I did it. Yeah, I wasn't there.

Yeah. Now, your mother should've done what she'd done. I, I was a piece of shit, I did this, I did that. I was on drugs, yeah.

I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

If you, the, the, the, the story defines, have I don't know if I told you the story, 'cause we don't hear it now. You want to hear it, this is up. This didn't know about the cliff.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. The cliff. Heaven's didn't there go on, Jesus.

“This is gonna mess you up, don't have about, about grandma.”

(laughing) There we go. It's not gonna mess you up, it's like a real, real moment. Yeah, it's the same. So my dad, through like his craziest,

about with drugs, my dad disappeared from it. And how old were you when I was in place? I was 14, 15. Okay, so okay. So he's, dad's gone important times.

Yes, like this is the time when my brother was military, coming home, 'cause my brother was having problems. And it's just me and my mom, right? Like me and my mom and my mom's, figuring that out, my mom's got me

in every extra correctly activity. She's doing anything to keep me off the streets. My brother was an example of what can happen. If you're on the streets, I'm not gonna let that happen, which you, I got the iron fist.

It's about two years since I've seen my dad. Oh, right? Like, yeah. So we, so you don't know, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know.

Well, you hear, because at the time he was battling with drugs, you hear stories about your dad's been up on X, Y, Z. That's what the addicts are. Like my brother was hearing things. I'm on a train, subway, public transportation

in Philadelphia, and I'm sitting on a train. And... No way. That's my dad. No way. On a train? Yeah.

Dad? Fifteen years old, I'm coming home from school. Doris opened on a train. My dad looks at me dead in the eye. He looks bad, horrible.

My dad ran off the train. About seven months after, me and my brother, finding checks he meant to rehab. My brother finally was.

His reason for getting in the rehab and doing everything. Because he was so hurt at what he looked like when I saw him. Yeah. That is worse. Mm-hmm.

And he said, he would rather go through life. But I'll see him again. Then me seeing him at his worse.

His road to getting back

was such a crazy road to experience

because it was just...

“it was unapologetic in authentic and real.”

So, whether than in frowning upon the years that I missed or the moments of my dad was in there, I kind of like, I've relished in the fact that like, oh, he's changing, he's aware and he wants to be better and do the right thing.

And when he got on the other side of it, he said, look, I can't change anything of what I've done with you. Well, your brother, I could say, sorry. But now y'all got grandkids, like, I got grandkids.

I can be the best version of myself to them because they don't know everything. Give me the opportunity to create that with them. Mm-hmm. And seeing him, seeing him repair his years of bad father

by great-grandparent energy. Oh, shit, this is, this is for so... I'll take that out. I'll take it every day at a week. Yeah.

And that's bigger than in the apology to me. Yeah. It's much bigger.

You don't need to say anything.

Right, right. I dealt with it, I'm okay. We're okay. I still love you, my dad. But oh, you know, you're wrong to repair

and how you're going about it. I can't find the level of more respect. So seeing him do that, it was when I started to really, like, really peel back the layers and go, I mean, this is a man's man.

This is a, you're talking about falling to the bottom and climbing back up and finding a reason to smile every day after finding solace and then the blessings of your son becoming and you being able to see it.

Yeah. Whether, whether the, like, who's the say who deserve to, or who didn't, like, my mom didn't get to see any of it. Mm-hmm. My dad was able to be on my, my dad was on jets with me.

And, and here's a house there. And here's a car. Give me what you need. What do you want? My dad was able to reap the benefits of his son becoming

because somehow he managed to make it through. I don't know why it plays out the way that it does.

“But I think everything happens for a reason.”

I'm sure. But I love the fact that my dad got a world of blessings after his world of term. And in, in some ways, you got extra blessings from that. Well, I won't touch drugs because my dad.

Yeah. And, and I've only met heaven. I've met your other kids. But I suspect that it's affected you in the way you parent. 1,000%.

1,000%.

How you might, they've never spent the night, like,

over there, grandpa's house. Well, yeah. And I was like, look, it's like, you're not going over there. That's exactly what you're talking about.

You're not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid. That's not going to get a kid.

That's not going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid. That's going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid.

“Presenting the opportunity for so much for this next generation, I think what I'm very”

adamant about at this point in my career is creating opportunities for the new. For example, funny AF is a comedy series that I did with Netflix, where we're finding the next voice and comedy, right? And the winner of the competition gets an hour special on Netflix. So I was able to go to Netflix and say, look, I want to do something cool, but the hour

special has to come with it. Kevin, we don't know. That's a lot to give. What's my partner?

I mean, you got to align with me because this has never been done.

Are you guys? You're working with everybody. You're working primarily with Netflix. Personally was doing. Am not was.

Was doing a film deal with Netflix. Unbelievable partners. Unbelievable relationship that we've had over the course like the last five years. The company still does business with all, right? It's free game in opportunity for.

That's it. With all, with all, with all. That's neat.

“So, Mish, how does that compare to higher ground and what you guys are?”

It sounds really similar. A philosophy, you know, except you, you're Kevin Hart. You've been doing this for a while, you know, which is a wonderful brand. But yeah, it's the same sort of thing. I mean, we've had a wonderful relationship with Netflix.

Yeah, but actively producing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, we moved from an exclusive deal to a first look with a goal always to be independent.

Yes. Right. Because our reason for getting into storytelling was to tell a broad base of stories, you know, and get it out there. So our goal is to work with everyone.

So we're now at the phase after that great foundational support from Netflix to be able to go independent. You know, it's all about mentoring to opening doors ecosystem. Yeah. You have the same thing. But in order to do that, we've got to be working with everyone, right?

Because not every story belongs on every platform. And Netflix was example that. I mean, they do certain things, but they don't do everything. And so having the freedom now to go and work with everyone. You know, we've got projects with HBO.

There's a project that Barack is doing with Larry David on HBO that's coming out like right around the fourth of July that is, you know, a sort of scoop on America. You know, so it's a comedy. They, there is no problem with working with everyone. Well, it was great to support you and fatherhood. You know, I mean, that was, that was really one of my favorite movies of the year that year.

I mean, the, you know, the depiction of real fatherhood. I mean, you've been on, that's been a part of your brand. And I think that is beautiful. That story was so absolutely touching. Kevin, when you started out in comedy.

And we've, we've been talking about a lot of stuff here. We haven't even touched on your Genesis account because I'm trying to figure out where you, where you'd better in comedy or basketball when you were growing up. If you really want to be honest, man, I, I feel like. I chose comedy, but basketball chose me.

Right. You could who? Like, like, who? It was one thing. I think people, people don't understand. No, nobody does.

How good.

“How good you have to be to play varsity basketball in high school.”

Nobody understands that. But usually people can really know that before they get to varsity. Yeah. It's, it's a tough thing that I struggle with more than anything because. That's why I should be.

I should be. I should be. You carry yourself like a hoop. I should be on the court, right? Uh, but instead I chose the stage.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I had to, right? Like the demand for laughter was, was, was so high. Um, and I just had to put the basketball sneaks up. I had to put them up.

But when you, when you finally got in the comedy,

Yeah. Did you envision what you're doing with heart beat or did you think? All right. And no, no, no. No, let me just, let me give you a few.

You're looking at a dumb genius and accident on accident on accident.

Like, stand up comedy was an accident.

I was working at city sports.

Uh, friend of mine at city sports. I kept you funny.

“You should do one of those amateur nights.”

The comedy club was right up the street. They said, would you do it? I said, I'm okay. I'll do it. As if you do it, we'll go.

It was like a joke. I did amateur night. I fell in love with it. Oh, my God. This is this is amazing.

I want a couple competitions being a dumb genius that I am. I quit my job because I got $75 from winning the comedy. I was like, how am I doing it? I was going to come here every week. Win this.

They stopped the competition soon after. I had no job. No more access to this. $75.

That was that was my plan of attack.

So you weren't like right in jokes and prepare. You just know I want to hear that. Hi. When did you start like treating it as a profession? When my mom laid down the hammer.

My mom was like, you got a year. You got one year. So figure it out. You're away. If you do not figure it out, I'm still living my mom.

And you're held at this point. I'm 18. Okay. So you do not figure it out. You're away.

“You have to do my way, which is college.”

College, back to the community college. Back to what? School trade job. Everything. Keep mine.

I'm out here with a dream. My mom, you don't know. I will be a comedian. What? I'm going to be a comedian.

I got it into her credit. She did not. She did not like. She did not. She didn't lessen my dream.

She never was not alive. She just, she put a time on it. And what that did. Credit to her or not. It made me go, oh, my God.

I got a year. I got a good career. I got one year. So I put the most pressure on myself. And I figured it out.

So in figuring out where the amateur night rooms were. Where the comedians were that we're getting work doing work. How? Who can I get access to? Who can I travel with?

“Who can show me more than what I know now?”

And I started to figure it out. So my mom, there's the Bible story of like, where she put checks in the Bible. She's asking like, am I reading my Bible? I told the story several times.

And I was lying. Yeah, yeah, I read the Bible. She was like, let me know when you read the Bible. I was a mom reading the Bible. But at the time, the rent was getting crazy.

I was getting notices. Like they're about to kick me out. Like right now, I'm having a hard time covering the rent. And she's like, we'll read the Bible. You know, talk to God about it.

Mom, this ain't-- I don't know. This is not a game. All right? I get the spiritual side of the Bible.

Look, I believe. Okay? But right now, they put a notice on the door. I need to-- you gotta help me out, mom, this month. It's a lot of-- so I do these open mics.

The next month, read the Bible. Damn it, mom! Like I'm getting frustrated. So one night, I over the Bible, she had all the checks for the year. Like she had rent checks to cover me for the year, and the Bible.

They all fell out. And the dopest thing ever, but okay. Yeah. Let me actually read it. Just have given me the checks.

Yeah, I mean, by the way, very child. She had enough. Extremely childish, right? Extremely childish. I made things.

Just give me the damn checks, lady. I'm not going to get cut down. Okay, but I don't want to-- She knew you weren't going to read the Bible. She knew I was lying on the floor.

A month and a half, a lot of times. I read the Bible, mom. I want Page 76. The Matthews talking to Peter about stuff he did to David. I'm clearly reading it.

I'm just clicking on the Bible. I'm looking at the new stuff. Clicking notes from the Bible. So when I gave that year and figuring it out, I saw the energy that you should have

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your energy, and your self back. I did a dev common jam competition, and I won. I wanted dev common jam competition. I wanted to say 1998. I was probably doing a comedy for like maybe two years

and maybe a little over at the time. This was so big. To me, I loved it. I just wanted dev common jam competition. By the way, you were supposed to get so much.

None of that happened. Everything was promised with the competition. None of that happened.

I never even got the jacket.

I never even got my leather jacket. I used to get a dev common jam jacket, which was the biggest thing to me. It's a people who know, I love you. You've got to be funny.

Do you see it's on my back? They never gave you my jacket. And after winning,

“you were supposed to be on a dev comedy jam tour.”

I did one date in the tour disappeared. It was a very lackluster left. Yeah. Russell, listen, Russell, he's my guy. I've told Russell the story to his face.

You owe me a jacket. I've said it several times. Nothing else. Give me my damn jacket, Russell. But things were starting to happen.

I did BET comic view. Like there were, I started to find my way to TV. And I ended up doing Montreal Comedy Festival. When I did the Montreal Comedy Festival, when everything changed.

I did the festival of new faces. And the Hollywood side of the business was like, you got to see this guy. This Kevin Hart guy. You got to see him.

And I started to take then move to a place of like auditions and things here. And oh my god. Now I'm like, oh, this is the comedy.

Get you to the, oh, never thought about it.

I never thought about it. I can probably do movies and stuff. And I remember getting a deal. I got a deal for like $250,000. It was a development deal with,

I want to say ABC, ABC or NBC. I got a development deal. And when I got that, you know, I got a bridge. You have a bridge.

You got to get that. By the way, got to get a car. Right. I'm a whole day. I know you want some.

Don't worry. I got that money was gone in two weeks. Two weeks. That money was gone. But I up and moved to Los Angeles.

And at no point during that process, did you get any kind of professional development? Dom genius. Dom genius. And to Los Angeles without a plan.

No acting classes. I moved to Los Angeles with 25,000. I had about $25,000 left of the development deal. About 60 granted to the IRS, because I didn't pay taxes.

So that we, in debt, I moved to Hollywood. And I remember, I remember moving and walking down, walking down like sunset Boulevard.

I was like, okay. Here we go. This is it. What now?

The opportunities with MTV and movie

they started to come.

“That was when the big house and soul plane.”

All this stuff happened early on. I was supposed to be made from it. And those things fail. Yeah. Not even worked.

So I kept. I kept getting. Hit with failure. But while failure was hitting me. Because I was such a road warrior.

The next wave of opportunity came from Will Packer, who saw me at a comedy show. And he wanted to develop think like a man, which was Steve Harvey's book.

Yeah. And he wanted me to star.

Think like a man was a $12 million budget.

We did $90 something man dollars in the box office. And. And that was that. That was like literally. Think like a man hit.

I was the. Comedy relief. I can't think this cast enough. The cast I think like a man. Romney Malco.

Megan Good. Gabrielle Regina Lala. Gary was Jerry. I mean. Terrence.

Tim's Tim's story. Directed like the this movie. Was set up. And such a way to where I was. The funny.

But without the cast.

“That's giving me the the ammunition or the moments.”

None of it will work. And everybody was was okay with it. And I was able to improv and I was able to to do this thing. That created like some movie magic. So this thing comes out.

And then to Hollywood. This is the new guy. I mean, this time I've been doing comedy for. 12 years. Yeah.

You know. I'm like. I'm like. Oh my god. This is.

This is it. It's going to happen.

I have not taken my foot off the gas.

I've done the same thing over the course of a 30 year career. And to most it's. Oh, man. It's overnight. Yeah.

No. No. Not. That's my grind. Yeah.

In the real hard work. That it took to get here. And you know, when I sit down for. Too long. I'm like.

Okay. Like I'm working and working, but I'm. Kevin, he got to figure out the next wave of comedy. Like what do we. What are we talking about?

Where's the. Where's the next. Computer energy wave coming from. And what I do to die in brace. I go to a comedy club.

I go to New York.

“And I go to the, you know, the smallest places.”

And in these places. Where. Where I. Or I'm to my wife. I'm still here.

Teller. Hey. I'm still here. Say hi. Hey.

We're on. We're on the podcast. What? You're on. Hi.

Completely different smile.

I saw you. Did you see that? I did see that. Did you see it? Completely different.

What are you doing? What are you doing? I got so proud. What do you know? I'm still there, baby.

She saw. I mean, what just happened? I'll. I'll. I'll call you around.

I'm done. Have us here, too. Hey, Nico. I had. All right.

I'll go all here. All right. Love you. Bye. See.

Oh, you got some points. Yeah, bro. I mean, you got some points. His wife's call. Oh, no.

He got to that. I don't want to end that one. Yeah. You got to do it. No.

I do not end that one. No. No. Hey. You see Michelle?

Hey. Everybody's here. Is this all? You see everybody. It's still filming.

You said you would be gone. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. That's a beating.

Yeah. With stand-up comedy. So I go these small places. And I don't have a thought. I go on stage and I talk.

I'm not afraid of silence. I'm not afraid of the joke-not-working. I embrace the idea of an order to get to the hour. I got to step on stage with nothing. And I got to go.

Okay. Here we go. And I got to figure it out. And real time, I got to figure it out. And as you start to figure it out, energy starts to pick up.

Oh, I got to joke. Oh, that joke connects to this. Oh, I got to go back out. I got to get on stage again. Oh, I'm so excited to do these things.

See if they work. And then after eight to nine months, ten months, a preparation and doing that over and over again. Five to seven days out the week. I have a skeleton of what I want to talk about. It's a brutal process.

But I embrace it. Because without that, well, you can't celebrate the good. Heaven, we are going to take you off the hook. Because we have a listener question. So he can lecture them.

Oh, it's coming. It's coming.

Here we go.

So we do this little question. What we give back. This is our wisdom share. Okay. We share some thoughts.

So this one is from Carrie. I'm a parent to two amazing kids. For years, I was close to both of them, but with the teenage years and probably all the hormones. My oldest has become challenging for me to be around. I feel like she has a mean streak that's developed towards me.

And we're really not getting along these days. I love both my children, but I am close to my youngest right now.

I feel horrible because my brother has always was always the favorite growing up.

And I'm extremely sensitive to how hurtful that can be. How do you think I could connect with my oldest? Do I just ignore what's going on or try to talk to her about it? And how do I make sure that my kids know I love them both equally? This is from Carrie and Madison, Wisconsin.

I think that, you know, when you're in that period of battle, as a parent, you create settings that are just better for your mode. I would recommend your oldest, take your oldest breakfast. Take your oldest for a hike, walk. You know, go to dinner, a bike ride, an activity that forces you guys to talk.

That forces you to enjoy one another in a different manner than what you've been doing. Good always comes out of quality time, right? And not your version of quality time, but something that acts as a new version for the both of you. I would recommend.

“And I think, you know, in doing that, you get to see and remember why your parent is fun.”

Or why your parent is cool or good energy. Um, did you like that? You should do a book. Well, yeah. Yeah.

Not from.

I think that would be great.

I don't know what, this is what I'm going to do. I want to focus on doing an audio version of. I think you should. A parenting and information. Yeah, that's why I could be of help.

Thank you. Thank you for that idea. But I do. I like that advice. Um, I think we talked about this as well.

I would encourage her to make sure she is taking each child as they come. So I would just say, make sure you see the child in front of you and try to, you know, just like you did with heaven, you know? I love that. I mean, I think that's too phenomenal breakdown. So hopefully, information is taken and not, uh, not frowned upon.

If not, then get Kevin's audible book. Yeah. Yeah. Which I just made the decision to do. Yes.

Thanks to Michelle Obama. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.

“And should I start negotiating a percentage now?”

Well, you said it without that. Right. We are. Yeah. You.

You. Yeah. You didn't. Yes.

First, you know, the first idea.

Wasn't. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business.

It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business.

It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business. It didn't come with a business.

Transcript

I've been moved to Los Angeles, and at no point during that process, did you ...

Get low dizzy.

Look and go, "Oh Jesus, I would never make it to the car.

I also like their new custom removals feature

You always want me to like look up something.

When I lose, it doesn't matter.

His road to getting back

That's not going to get a kid.

That's going to get a kid.

Like, stand up comedy was an accident.

Check out any of Aloha's protein bars.

The opportunities with MTV and movie

Here we go.

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