Feature: Kevin Hart

Even though he’s just recently become a household name, the Philadelphia native began his stand-up routine over a decade ago after being persuaded by co-workers to do an amateur night at a hometown comedy club. Declaring, “I knew I was funny,” Hart promptly quit his job as a shoe salesman once his foot was in the entertainment door. Finding other local comedians with more experience to take him under their wings, the newer talent began performing on stages full time and looked to the likes of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby and Chris Rock for inspiration. “They were all huge names and people I looked up to in the sense that, wow, you know what? I want to try to accomplish what these guys accomplished,” Hart says. “These guys are doing so much with their careers. I’d love to get to that place eventually.”

For some of his fans, Hart may already be there, and if you’re still unsure then let the numbers speak for themselves. Before hitting the big screen, “Laugh At My Pain” was a hugely successful comedy tour for Hart, earning more than $15 million in just a couple of days and breaking Eddie Murphy’s long-standing record in two-day ticket sales. As he becomes a legitimate peer of those he previously looked up to, Hart explains how his stand-up material has changed over the last few years.

“It’s matured. My stand-up material is constantly maturing. I’m allowing my audience and my fans to grow up with me. In ‘I’m a Grown Little Man’ – that was my first special – you saw me talk about things that I was new to. I had just had a baby; I was talking about my fears, me not being the tough guy, me being small. ‘Seriously Funny’ came around and it was more family-oriented, it was me as a name, talking about my goals and my priorities, the things that I had to take care of, the necessities that I now have in life and why it went that deep. And then after that, ‘Laugh At My Pain’ got a little deeper. I went and talked about my mother passing away, my dad being on drugs, me going through a divorce. So you know, as I go through experiences I allow my audience, not only to see them, but go through them with me. This way, you guys can see that what I’m talking about is real and not fabricated in any way, shape or form.”

With material that touches on such personal topics, it may be surprising for some audiences to see just how much Hart lets them in to his life experiences. Delivered in a way that he’s mastered, the comedian is able to make light of tough situations like childhood embarrassments, his mother’s death, his father’s drug addiction and his own divorce. While it’s common to see comics take this route in putting all their grievances out there, Hart becomes completely relatable on stage and the approach has skyrocketed him to the forefront of the industry.

“It took time for me to talk about my mother passing away,” he admits, “but when you look at all of the great comedians – these are all guys that didn’t hesitate to put their lives on display and talk about what was bothering them. And at the end of the day, us being on stage and talking about whatever we talk about, that’s us venting, that’s our therapy. I look at it as my audience is my therapist. I wanna get something off my chest, I do it live, I do it on stage and the feedback I get is rewarding enough to help me get past whatever it is I’m thinking about that could potentially be bad.”