Feature: Kevin Hart

by Gina Ponce // Photography by Miguel Starcevich // Styling by Ashley North // Grooming by John Clausell While the original kings of comedy will always stay in tact, there's definitely new royalty creating quite a buzz in the comedian realm. Kevin Hart has seen exceptional success in the last few years with his comedy specials and tours, but has now stepped it up a notch to dominate in those areas as well as Hollywood. A lot of people think they’re funny. But it takes more than some encouraging words from your family and a few jokes around the water cooler to get a real, side-splitting laugh from millions of people. Comedian Kevin Hart has managed to not only accomplish that in comedy clubs and on TV, but after raking in an estimated eight million dollars from his limited theater release, Laugh At My Pain, there’s no denying he’s turned his humorous personality into a lucrative and reputable career. Starting off in less than 100 theaters nationwide, the stand-up concert film broke all kinds of records and surprised the star himself, in some respects. “The feeling is unreal,” Hart expresses. “I mean, to have the opportunity to have a stand-up come out theatrically is unreal. And to have my fans support it the way that they did is even more unreal…and the good news is I own it. It’s a Hartbeat production (his own production company he started last year) along with Codeblack Entertainment, so I’m not upset or surprised in the outcome of the production, but in the support and in the result of box office numbers, it definitely took me back.” But even with massive amounts of support come a few haters and those who are just on a different wavelength in what they determine is funny. Unarguably, even the greatest comedians have undergone moments of backlash while on stage, when they’re open to judgment and at their most vulnerable. Recalling one such moment with an audience in New Jersey, Hart says: “I got hit in the face with a buffalo wing in Atlantic City. This guy was so disgusted with my performance that he decided to throw a buffalo wing at me. I tried to get mad, and then when he stood up I saw he was a big dude so I went and played the race card, [saying], ‘This is why black people can never achieve anything, because of people like this.’ And then I said goodnight and just walked off the stage.” Taking it all with a grain of salt, the good-natured funnyman has made it his mission to build a career out of making fun of himself. In 2009, Hart had his first comedy special air on Comedy Central, titled “I’m a Grown Little Man,” an obvious acknowledgment to his shorter stature. The following year brought “Seriously Funny,” which became the highest rated comedy special of 2010 and went on to go triple platinum in DVD sales. With his success at an all-time high, the Los Angeles resident reveals what he’s found will always get a laugh and admits that there’s no subject safe from being made the butt of a joke. “I’m self-deprecating. Being self-deprecating is funny. I give the audience a chance to laugh at me before someone else does. In other words, there’s no way a person can poke fun at me because I’ve said it all myself. So by addressing my own personal defects and things that I write about myself, bringing it up will always get a laugh because it’s about me and people can visually see what it is I’m talking about… I’m not a political comedian. I’ve never [seen myself] going that direction. Other than that, a lot of my stuff is family-based and personal, so as long as it falls within that realm then I’ll touch on any topic. I don’t care.” 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.” Staying true to his statement that no topic is safe from comical scrutiny, the jokester doesn’t shy away from talk about personal pitfalls and inadequacies in the bedroom. But that doesn’t stop him from publicly proclaiming himself a sex symbol and giving advice to those who may find themselves in the same dejecting situation. “When it comes to sex, my personality plays a big part in my sex life. I mean, if you can make a woman laugh but you’re bad [in bed], you’re personality can cover it up – that’s what I’ve found. If you’re horrible at sex but you can make a woman laugh, there’s a chance she might forgive you and give you another chance… So if you’ve got a personality don’t lose it.” While it doesn’t look like Hart will forget his comedic roots any time soon, he also won’t be tied down to comedy club stages. He has been popping up on the big screen for years after Damon Dash discovered him one night during an N.Y.C. stand-up routine, resulting in his first feature film, Paper Soldiers. Using that opportunity to score himself a manager and take his skills to the Hollywood level, Hart went on to appear in Soul Plane, Along Came Polly, Scary Movie 3, Death at a Funeral and Little Fockers, to name a few. Moving into 2012, Hart will become a familiar face to an even wider audience as he branches out with a role in the multi-award-winning Modern Family TV series as Phil’s next-door neighbor. He will also return to the theater in the Judd Apatow-produced comedy, The Five-Year Engagement, alongside Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as a graduate student studying theories and philosophies of the brain, as well as joins an all-star cast in the anticipated Think Like a Man adaptation of Steve Harvey’s self-help book. “It’s a long road for a lot of comedians,” Harts speaks on the respect of his craft in Hollywood. “Our grind is so much harder than an actor’s or an actress’s. We’re in bars; we’re in bowling alleys performing... I remember when I was in New York, I was performing at comedy clubs for food. So the grind of a comedian is ridiculous, and that’s why the rewards for us are so amazing - ‘cause of all that we went through. To go from there to get to where we can potentially be not only successful, but wealthy, is an amazing thing.” Acting turned out to be a natural progression for Hart, and while he has no problem taking someone else’s written material and making it his own, he knows just what type of character he’d write for himself given the chance. “In Goodfellas I think the best character in that movie was Joe Pesci. He was ridiculous. So if I could have a character similar to Joe Pesci or similar to what he did, that mafia style because it’s so not me, it’s not me in real life, so just to play the complete opposite of who I am I think would be a really, really good look for me.” Although he’s had his heart in comedy for years, you could potentially call 2011 Kevin Hart’s breakthrough year. He’s invited you to laugh at his pain on stage and in theaters and has critics wondering if he may just be taking the reins as the new king of comedy. Among all his ventures for next year, a new comedy tour, “Let Me Explain,” is in the works for fall 2012, and besides wanting people to know, “I’m real tall and almost sexy,” the comedian is looking forward to big things in the new year. “I got to a point where people now know my name. Before it was ‘that guy,’ but now it’s Kevin Hart, and I think I’m considered a real player in the industry and in the Hollywood business. And I feel that once you get that respect as a talent than other things will come. I’m patient. I’m patient enough to wait for it. I know it’s gonna come, and right now it’s about being prepared when it does come.”