Episode 272 - Kevin Hart
Guest:Lock the gates!
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Pow!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Marc:What's wrong with me?
Marc:It's time for WTF!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:With Mark Maron.
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fuckineers?
Marc:What the fuck tuckians?
Marc:What the fuckalos?
Marc:What the fuckstables?
Marc:And what the fuckanots?
Marc:And that's what the fuck enough.
Marc:Yes, I don't think I've ever said that before.
Marc:That is what the fuck enough.
Marc:I am Mark Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:for tuning in.
Marc:Thank you for all the lovely handwritten letters and gifts and artwork.
Marc:I don't know if I show my gratitude enough, but I do want to thank you people.
Marc:Thank you for all the emails.
Marc:I read as many as I can.
Marc:If I don't get back to you, it's because I have too many and I'm emotionally exhausted.
Marc:because I have no boundaries.
Marc:There is no difference between Twitter, the emails, the letters that come to me, my relationship with my girlfriend, my relationship with my cat, my parents.
Marc:Everything is operating at the same emotional intensity, and it's all happening at once.
Marc:That's who I am.
Marc:Who are you?
Marc:Are you exhausted?
Marc:You should be, if you can relate to what I'm talking about.
Marc:I don't know how many ways I got to put out that I'm going to be places.
Marc:And still people are like, I didn't know you were coming.
Marc:Really?
Marc:I hired a plane to fly with a banner over your city for four days.
Marc:You didn't see that?
Marc:The plane?
Marc:How about the Zeppelin?
Marc:Did you see the hot air balloon that I had over the top of Portland?
Marc:I will be in Portland at the Helium Club tonight.
Marc:That's Thursday.
Marc:through uh through Saturday that's the 19th 20th and 21st of April this month I will be at the Mohawk in Austin Texas for the Moon Tower Comedy Festival on April 26th and I will be in Phoenix at Stand Up Live on May 3rd I know on Monday I said April 3rd but uh I don't think many of you thought oh fuck I gotta go back in time I wonder if there's still tickets available back in time um
Marc:man what is happening my boomer cat has lost his voice and i don't know whether to panic or not so now i can't even try to coax him into being on the show his meows have become sad and squeaky and i know he seems healthy uh i'm not freaking out about it am i freaking out about anything right now yes yes i'm overwhelmed exhausted hyper anxious and i'm traveling today as i speak as i speak i'm traveling depending on when you listen to this
Marc:Kevin Hart is on the show.
Marc:I knew Kevin Hart when he was little Kev back a while.
Marc:I remember when he first got to New York, got a lot of opportunities, shot right up to the top of the flagpole, and then just was taken down.
Marc:It's an interesting thing.
Marc:We have the same management we used to.
Marc:Dave Beck, he's his manager.
Marc:We talk about that a bit.
Marc:He's not my manager anymore.
Marc:But but it's interesting when you have this when you share a manager with somebody and you you wonder what that other guy is doing.
Marc:And of course, a manager's job is to never tell you what anyone else is doing until you realize it.
Marc:But I didn't realize this, along with many people who probably listen to this show.
Marc:There's specific worlds of comedy, but I'm talking about the mainstream world.
Marc:Kevin Hart is probably the biggest selling act in comedy right now.
Marc:He is probably the biggest comic in the country right now.
Marc:I mean, I'm telling you, man, his laugh at my pain tour earned over 15 million dollars in ticket sales.
Marc:They turned it into a concert movie.
Marc:It showed at 99 theaters.
Marc:It earned $2 million on an opening weekend.
Marc:And a lot of movies on 2000 screens don't do that kind of business.
Marc:But many people have never heard of him.
Marc:Obviously, I'd heard of Kevin Hart, but I didn't know the status of Kevin Hart until I went and played the Wilbur in Boston.
Marc:They said Kevin Hart was coming.
Marc:He's doing five nights, 10 shows, sold down six hours.
Marc:1100, 1200 seat venue, six hours.
Marc:I'm like, when did that happen?
Marc:And this isn't even talking jealousy.
Marc:It's just sort of like, am I out of the fucking loop?
Marc:Is everybody but laugh spin out of the loop?
Marc:I mean, how come no one talks about Kevin Hart?
Marc:I'm talking to him today.
Marc:And when I went into this, I was like, I'm talking to the biggest act in comedy.
Marc:And I didn't really realize that.
Marc:But he is.
Marc:I've had very few people that are at his status that can really explore the process of that, because this was a guy who I remember, you know, got a lot of attention and then just disappeared for a while.
Marc:So I'm excited to talk to him about that.
Marc:He's going to be in two movies that are opening in the next couple weeks.
Marc:Think like a man.
Marc:That comes out on Friday.
Marc:That's tomorrow.
Marc:He's also in the new Apatow produced the five-year engagement.
Marc:That comes out a week from tomorrow.
Marc:But I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who are listening to this are like, Kevin who?
Marc:Well, Kevin Hart.
Marc:And you'll get to know him better in a few minutes.
Marc:I had a little awkward situation.
Marc:I wouldn't mind sharing.
Marc:Because I think I'm a pretty open-minded guy, but I'm starting to realize that being open-minded sometimes just means shutting your mouth.
Marc:Being open-minded means you don't say that you might be closed-minded or that you might be uncool or that you might not quite know how to handle the situation.
Marc:When in doubt, just act like you're cool.
Marc:Just act like everything is copacetic.
Marc:Everything is okay.
Marc:And this wasn't a big deal.
Marc:And I'm certainly a grown man, but I don't always know how to behave in situations.
Marc:Clearly, you've gleaned that from getting to know me on this show for a while.
Marc:But I was at my buddy's house.
Marc:He's an artist.
Marc:And we were hanging out and his girlfriend was there.
Marc:We were eating some pie.
Marc:Everything was cool.
Marc:Just talking about art, talking about stuff.
Marc:Got to talking about tattoos.
Marc:Now, I am fairly principled around tattoos.
Marc:I don't want one.
Marc:I don't know what I would put on my body.
Marc:I have a hard enough time committing to the body as is.
Marc:I have a hard enough time accepting my body the way it is as it is now, let alone with someone else's artwork on it.
Marc:Okay?
Marc:So I just, I was not into that.
Marc:My brother's got a few, and they're questionable, really.
Marc:My brother made some random choices about tattoos.
Marc:That's what I don't get about tattoos in general.
Marc:It's sort of like, you know, you see one, you're like, what the hell is that?
Marc:And people are like, yeah, I just thought that would be cool.
Marc:And all right, well, how is it now?
Marc:How are you with that thing now?
Marc:How are you with the Winnie the Pooh on your shoulder now?
Marc:You know, how are you with that piece of pie?
Marc:you know, on your neck now.
Marc:Those are actually, they would be all right.
Marc:But nonetheless, we just started talking about tattoos and then my buddy's into Japan.
Marc:He goes to Japan.
Marc:He says, yeah, in Japan, if you have tattoos, you can't, they don't let you into the private spa or you can't go in the communal pool with a tattoo.
Marc:The Japanese are very,
Marc:You know, a little stiff on the tattoos.
Marc:All right.
Marc:No big deal.
Marc:And then his girlfriend said, yeah, we did a photo shoot.
Marc:And and, you know, to to not offend, I think, the Japanese magazine or that it was a popular in Japan.
Marc:They she had a tattoo on her back or lower back, as women do.
Marc:And they airbrushed it out.
Marc:And then my buddy goes and gets a magazine and he gives me the magazine and shows me the pictures.
Marc:And they're biker themed pictures and sort of almost an ironic biker spread.
Marc:And his girlfriend who's sitting next to me is naked in these pictures.
Marc:And I'm there sitting there with my buddy on one side and his girlfriend on the other side looking at his girlfriend's boobs in this photograph.
Marc:Now, you know, what goes through your head in that mind?
Marc:I mean, it is sort of a a lot of people don't think twice about it.
Marc:I'm not hung up on sex, but I think I'm infantile inside, you know, because there's part of me that that just wants to say, oh, those are your boobs.
Marc:You're sitting right here and I'm looking at your boobs right here on the in the page.
Marc:I'm looking at these are your boobs right here and I'm sitting right here.
Marc:That's that's so fucking hilarious that your boobs are right.
Marc:If that's what the inner dialogue is.
Marc:you know and then part i i don't know what's what's proper to say in that moment really so uh so i just didn't react at all and i said so uh you know so where was the tattoo oh yeah look at that yeah you wouldn't even know it that's what i said that's what came out of my mouth would it have been inappropriate to do the other thing would it have been inappropriate to just say hey nice ones ah
Marc:Would that have been?
Marc:I think that would have been wrong.
Marc:I'm glad I handled it the way I did.
Marc:And yeah, so is he, I imagine.
Marc:But I don't know.
Marc:Maybe that would have been the next conversation.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe I'll go over there again and ask to see the magazine again.
Marc:Now, see, that would be awkward.
Marc:Like if I went over there again, I'm like, hey, can I just, can I look at that picture again?
Marc:Because I wanted to see if you really couldn't see that tattoo, right?
Marc:Can I just, can I, what?
Marc:I think that would be weird.
Marc:Yeah, I don't think I'd do that.
Marc:I haven't seen you in a long time.
Marc:It's been a minute.
Marc:It's been a minute.
Marc:I mean, I remember, you know, I'm such an asshole.
Marc:I just remember there was a time in New York, like Boston Comedy Club, when you were around, like I feel like it was the first time you were around, you're just like, there's a little cab, and I'm like, who the hell's this guy?
Marc:And you were happy and running around doing your comedy, and then I feel like I didn't see you for a while, and now all of a sudden you're the biggest comic on the planet.
Yeah.
Marc:What have you been doing for 10 years?
Guest:Dude, you know what's funny?
Guest:When you bring him to New York, you guys don't even realize it, man, but my comedy education came from that environment.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:By that environment, I mean, Keith Robinson was like my mentor.
Guest:So for me being around Keith and Patrice and Norton and Voss is how I kind of filtered through and met all you guys, yourself, Colin.
Guest:What year was that?
Guest:You're talking 2002, 2003, 2001.
Marc:But before that, I mean, I had Oakerson on here.
Marc:And it was funny because I... Some of the best stories ever.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Me and him have some of the best stories ever.
Marc:I was getting... I had him come on.
Marc:He talked about you guys starting out in Philly.
Marc:And then I start getting emails from black people who were saying, like, why do you have to segregate black and white rooms?
Marc:And I'm like, because they're different.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I know that some of my people don't know comedy, and maybe I should clarify it.
Marc:You got to explain it.
Marc:You got to tell them.
Guest:I talked to Don L. Rollins recently, too, and he laid it out.
Guest:Here's the thing, and this is for me speaking on my people's behalf.
Guest:OK, for all of the fellow African-American listeners that are fans of your podcast, me being one of these people, you know, you got to understand in New York, there's a mainstream world and there's a we call it the underground world, you know, and for a lot of for a lot of the urban comics, you know, we choose to go in the the underground world.
Guest:The reason why the money was quicker.
Guest:It was better going mainstream.
Marc:some of some of the urban comments felt like it wasn't worth it you know i'm not going over here to perform for ten dollars and get a food spot when i can go here right but that was like starting out like a lot of us were like we'll take stage time fucking anywhere exactly and and we just thought it was part of the process and even now man i'm a 48 year old dude and you do these alternative rooms and you perform for three four hundred people and you get off and they're like thanks i'm like we that's it you know not twenty dollars nothing at all
Marc:And so the idea was differently was that like, you know, I'm not going to fucking work for nothing, even if I'm only doing this a year.
Marc:It's the truth.
Marc:It's the truth.
Guest:But for me, I'm going to tell you what was different for me.
Guest:I looked at both worlds.
Guest:You know, I looked at the urban world.
Guest:I looked at the mainstream world.
Guest:And I think I figure it out.
Guest:Not even figured out because I think so many people know about it.
Guest:People just don't want to do it.
Guest:I said, why can't I do both?
Guest:Why can't I get involved in both worlds?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Keith Robinson was my gateway to the mainstream world.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I knew talent.
Guest:I knew Capone.
Guest:I knew Donnell Rawlings.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Drew Frazier.
Guest:All of these guys are guys who had rooms.
Guest:Rob Stapleton.
Guest:So in New York, they own the urban.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I said, there's no reason for me not to do both.
Guest:I can filter through both and learn and get better to where I appeal to everybody.
Guest:That was my goal.
Guest:At a young age, I was 19, 20.
Guest:So I said, if I can figure it out now, by the time I get to be 25, 26, I shouldn't have any problems performing anywhere.
Guest:It should be great for me.
Marc:And I think the interesting thing is that I think what...
Marc:It's odd to me that there are still a lot of black comics that are like, you know, fuck that.
Marc:I'm going to stay here and make the paycheck.
Marc:That there's not even maybe an attempt to cross over.
Guest:I think it's because of the quick reward.
Guest:People would much rather take the quick reward than wait for what can possibly be down the road.
Guest:I'm more of a long-term...
Guest:Thank her.
Guest:I can't I can't think about today.
Guest:I'm thinking about two weeks from now, like even now with success.
Guest:Thank God, knock on wood.
Guest:I'm glad to be where I am and I'm glad to be successful.
Guest:But my thoughts today are, well, how do I set up so I don't have to do what I'm doing now?
Guest:What happens when I don't want to?
Guest:How do I not die broke?
Guest:How do I not?
Guest:Honestly, that's what it is for me.
Guest:So for me, it's building an empire.
Guest:I started Heartbeat Productions where I'm producing and creating and owning my own content.
Guest:It's education.
Guest:So many people are around it and have the knowledge to see it but don't take advantage of it.
Guest:I can't do that.
Marc:I can't.
Marc:No, no, no.
Marc:I mean, and also, you know, once you, as you know, once you start making other people money, all of a sudden they're willing to help out.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And guide the way a little bit.
Marc:Hey, I can help you make me more money and make you some money.
Guest:How does that sound?
Guest:That sounds a pretty good deal.
Marc:As long as I'm making more than you, I'll be all right with that.
Marc:But, I mean, what's interesting to me is that as a comic, like I was in Boston, I did the Wilbur, and I just spent some time with Jeff Wills from Live Nation.
Marc:That's a good friend of mine.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, he's a good cat.
Marc:And I've known him since he was booking one-nighters for the Foxes in San Francisco.
Marc:So you see these guys come up.
Marc:But there's also an underground nerd comedy scene.
Marc:There's all these different little scenes, not just a black comedy scene.
Marc:There's this nerd comedy scene.
Marc:There's a lot of scenes that are separated.
Marc:And I was even surprised when they told me, like, oh, yeah, Kevin Hart's playing the entire month here at the Wilbur.
Marc:He's doing 900 shows, two shows a night.
Marc:I'm like, holy fuck.
Marc:When did that happen?
Marc:Does everybody know how popular that guy is?
Marc:How many fucking shows?
Guest:What shows did you do of this?
Guest:It's surreal.
Guest:It's actually in April.
Guest:Dude, it's unheard of.
Guest:I could have played the arena.
Guest:I could have played where the Celtics play.
Guest:But I talked to a friend of mine and Jeff who basically do the Wilbur.
Guest:Now, think about the Wilbur.
Guest:The Wilbur's intimate.
Guest:You know, it's a theater.
Guest:It's $1,100.
Guest:Yes, it's a theater, but it's intimate.
Guest:You still got a comedy club feel.
Guest:Now, for me, I play arenas.
Guest:I've done it.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:I won't act like it's not a big deal at all.
Guest:It's amazing.
Guest:But when you have the chance to still get that intimate feeling and make the money that you would make in an arena, I jump at those opportunities.
Guest:So I said, you know what?
Guest:I'm going to treat it like a comedy club.
Guest:I said, dude, the only way I'll make a deal with them is if I can go from like Wednesday
Guest:To Monday.
Guest:In an arena, I was going to do 10,000 people.
Guest:I need to come with that number.
Marc:So two shows a night, Wednesday through Monday.
Guest:I sold out every show.
Guest:I think we sold out in maybe six days.
Marc:Well, let me walk through this.
Marc:I want to walk through.
Marc:And look, I'm happy for your success.
Marc:But it just tells me that I'm out of the fucking loop.
Marc:Because I know you're a great comic.
Marc:I watched the first Shaq special.
Marc:And you kicked ass.
Marc:And I hadn't seen you in a while.
Marc:But I know you've always been out there doing it.
Marc:And then all of a sudden, then someone told me about, where was it?
Marc:Hampton?
Marc:Hampton, VA.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Hampton, Virginia.
Guest:25,000 people.
Marc:25,000 people.
Marc:So now, where do you get from 2003, 2004?
Marc:You're acting like a very humble, kind of like, I'm just happy to be doing a few minutes here and there.
Guest:And now you're selling out states.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:I'm going to be honest with you, Mark.
Guest:Social media.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Social media, man.
Guest:You know, everybody has a opinion about Dane Cook.
Guest:Everybody.
Guest:Everybody has an opinion, some negative, some positive.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I like Dane.
Guest:I like Dane, whether you are a fan of his jokes or not.
Guest:Dane's work ethic and Dane's social media presence is what put Dane in a place where, stand-up-wise, he played some of the biggest venues ever.
Guest:And I was like, how did he do it?
Guest:How did he get there?
Guest:Like, I was asking these questions when I was doing the improvs, you know?
Guest:I had a conversation when he told me.
Guest:And once he told me it was through emails, through MySpace at the time, through Facebook, through Twitter, it was branding yourself.
Guest:So I was doing movies.
Guest:I didn't have big parts in movies, but I constantly had cameos.
Guest:Nobody knew I was a comedian.
Guest:So what I did was I did the comedy club circuit four years in a row to a point to where every time I went, I got all the emails.
Guest:I got everybody's information.
Guest:By hand.
Guest:By hand.
Guest:It was me.
Guest:I had a guy with me.
Guest:That was my assistant slash role manager.
Marc:Stand there with a clipboard or put the cards out on the table.
Guest:As everybody walked out that door, he received a three by five card that we filled and we made ourselves.
Guest:Kevin Hart needs to know who you are.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And people gave me their email addresses and everything.
Guest:And he got it back from each and every single person.
Guest:At the end of it, his job was to take that information, put it in a computer, our laptop that we travel with us.
Guest:Put under it, Cleveland.
Guest:Cleveland.
Guest:Cleveland, here's a representation of my fan base in Cleveland.
Guest:I'm coming back in a year.
Guest:I hit each and every single one of those people to say, I'm coming back, I'm performing again.
Guest:So that's old school.
Guest:That's like pre-Twitter.
Marc:Now Twitter, you just blast it out.
Guest:But you can't get a Twitter audience to blast out if you don't have some place to tell people to come from.
Marc:But the truth was that when you were starting out, when I saw you in New York, you'd already come out of Philly.
Marc:How many years did you do in Philly?
Guest:I only did a year and a half in Philly, then I came to New York.
Guest:How old were you when you started?
Guest:I was 17, 18.
Guest:Yeah, and you grew up in Philly?
Guest:Grew up in Philadelphia, PA.
Marc:Like what kind of area, what kind of neighborhood?
Guest:my neighborhood shit uh north philadelphia 15th area you know crime city you know we right now i think we third in the in the world of deaths probably yeah new year's we opened it up with five murders in my city yeah happy new year yeah it's like it's you know it's it's not the best place in the world but i love it it's home for me that's that's what i know how did you come around to doing comedy i mean what was the process i mean who were your heroes and what were you looking at
Guest:Well, Bill Cosby's a Philadelphia native.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So for me coming up, my mom and dad were album people.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It was Bill Cosby's album.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Richard Pryor's album.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, Red Fox's album.
Guest:Eddie Murphy, when Eddie came along, it was, I saw it.
Guest:I could see it.
Guest:But for me back then, it was just, wow, these guys are funny.
Guest:Sid Mad.
Guest:It was funny.
Guest:Whoa.
Guest:Yeah, look at that outfit.
Guest:Wow, look at this.
Guest:This is crazy.
Guest:Is that one piece or two pieces?
Guest:As I got older...
Guest:I didn't really know what I wanted to do.
Guest:I'm not going to sit up here and lie and say, yeah, I was destined to be a comedian.
Guest:It's what I wanted to do from the gate.
Guest:I didn't know.
Marc:But older.
Marc:I mean, if you started when you were 17, what do you mean older?
Guest:Well, older by- When you were 12?
Guest:I mean, I'm graduating from high school and everybody's saying, what are you going to college for to study?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Are you going to college?
Guest:I don't think so.
Guest:I'm going to community though.
Guest:I'm going to community.
Guest:I went to community for two weeks.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I dropped out like I'm not going to do it.
Marc:Oh, that wasn't the full program?
Guest:My mom said, look, you're not going to sit on your ass and just literally not do nothing.
Guest:You better figure something out.
Guest:My mom was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Guest:I could have went to the University of Pennsylvania.
Guest:No shit.
Guest:What did she profess?
Guest:My mom was in computer.
Guest:She was a computer analyst.
Guest:So within her program, it was like computer 101 something.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But so she had a gig at the university.
Guest:She was serious.
Marc:You could have got in there.
Marc:With no problem.
Marc:Right.
Marc:State school.
Guest:I was so stupid, I said, I don't want it.
Guest:I don't want to go to college.
Guest:I don't want the world of smarts.
Guest:That's not me, mom.
Guest:I was that guy.
Guest:Don't try to make me this guy.
Guest:I ain't the school dude, lady.
Guest:All right, so basically-
Marc:That's what she said.
Marc:You better find your own place.
Guest:You better find something.
Guest:She said, look, you're not going to sit here and do nothing.
Guest:So I went to community college.
Guest:I found a job.
Guest:Dude, community worked for two weeks.
Guest:I dropped out.
Guest:I was working.
Guest:I said, mom, just give me a year to figure things out.
Guest:Figure things out.
Guest:And my job, I was the funny guy.
Guest:I was the funny guy.
Guest:I kept everybody laughing.
Guest:I worked for this place, City Sports.
Guest:Sneaker salesman.
Guest:They fell in love with my personality.
Guest:And this girl named Alice.
Marc:You didn't have to wear the ref shirt, did you?
Guest:No, we weren't like that.
Guest:We were T-shirts, City Sports.
Guest:We just had T-shirts and jeans.
Marc:I'm thinking locker room or foot locker.
Guest:Foot locker.
Guest:Yeah, no, no.
Guest:We were good.
Guest:We were comfortable.
Guest:But the thing with that, with Alice, Alice was like, dude, you should really do comedy, Kev.
Guest:Like, you're funny.
Guest:You have us dying.
Guest:Why don't you do comedy?
Guest:And I was like, what?
Guest:I don't even know how to do that.
Guest:What do I do?
Guest:She's like, go to Laugh House.
Guest:They got amateur nights.
Guest:We go all the time.
Marc:Really?
Guest:What?
Guest:Really?
Marc:What's the Laugh House?
Guest:What are you talking about?
Guest:It's a comedy club.
Guest:What happens at a comedy club?
Guest:They get up.
Guest:People tell jokes.
Guest:Comedians come through.
Guest:You gotta come.
Guest:I went with them on a Thursday.
Guest:Just to watch.
Guest:It was amateur night.
Guest:Just to watch.
Guest:I get there.
Guest:I'm looking.
Guest:I'm like, holy shit.
Guest:I'm laughing at these comedians.
Guest:There's like 30 people in a crowd, but people are coming to see these guys perform.
Guest:So at the end of the night, this guy named Terey Gordon, who's the host, he gets on stage and says, all right, yo, please tell somebody Amateur Nights every Thursday, man.
Guest:It's the best.
Guest:We get to see new faces.
Guest:Who's going to be our next star?
Guest:We don't know.
Guest:Is this an urban room?
Guest:It's a comedy club, so it doesn't have to be.
Guest:But that night got a lot of urban people because whoever performed had to break people.
Guest:Why do we say urban and not black?
Guest:Can't we just say black?
Guest:Well, we can say black, but then we say we're not being politically correct.
Guest:I would love to say black.
Guest:If it was up to me, I'd say niggas.
Guest:But I can't do it because I'm trying to be politically correct.
Guest:No, you actually think you can do it.
Guest:I can't.
Guest:I can't do it.
Guest:You can't.
Guest:But I'm saying just for that, to keep it in a great place, I say urban room.
Guest:So, you know, a lot of the comics before me were urban comics.
Guest:So I say, you know what?
Guest:I'm going to do it.
Guest:I sign up, do.
Guest:All my coworkers come down.
Guest:I perform one time, fell in love with it.
Guest:I won a competition.
Marc:Did you tank or did you do it?
Guest:I actually did good.
Guest:It was awful material.
Guest:It was horrible.
Guest:But I did good.
Guest:You remember?
Guest:Was it just takes on standard shit?
Guest:No, dude.
Guest:It was so bad.
Guest:I got robbed by a cross-eyed midget.
Guest:My joke was I didn't know he was robbing me.
Guest:I said, you got to look at me when you talking to me.
Guest:He said, I am looking at you.
Guest:My punchline was, well, why are you looking at him when you talking to me?
Guest:He's like, I'm looking at you.
Guest:It was just a bunch of awful, hacky cross-eyed stuff.
Guest:And I wound up saying, like, the ending of it was I got head-butted by the midget and I fell.
Guest:It was more jokes like black people talk like this, white people talk like that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:uh what else it was why black people dance like this and white people dance like this it was a bunch of that yeah that's all i heard and all i knew so uh it went well i won i got sixty dollars i was like holy shit got sixty dollars is it this is got my way yeah dude i came back for about five thursdays in a row uh won a competition each night
Guest:Quit my job.
Guest:Tell my mom I knew what I wanted to do.
Guest:In my mind, I'm going to go back every Thursday, 60 plus 60 plus 60 plus 60.
Guest:That's my rent money.
Guest:I'm getting a good 280, close to 300 a month.
Guest:Go get that.
Guest:Flip that.
Guest:I'm in my own place.
Guest:As soon as I quit, they stopped the average night competition.
Guest:So there's no lie on everything, on God.
Guest:Holy shit, what I'm going to do.
Guest:I told my mom, look, mom, I don't ask you for nothing.
Guest:I never have.
Guest:I found out what I want to do in my life.
Guest:This is my career.
Guest:I want to be a comedian.
Guest:Just help me figure it out.
Guest:Give me a year to figure it out.
Guest:And I promise, mom, if it doesn't work, I'll do whatever you want me to do.
Marc:And what'd she say?
Guest:She said she paid my rent for a year.
Guest:and if i didn't have it figured out that year i had to go do her plan within that year uh what was her plan go to college college what'd your dad think my dad did at the time my dad might have been in my dad was on drugs at the time no he was so he didn't really know that much about what was going on my dad my dad only been sober for five six years now yeah yeah yeah my dad caught the good half as i got successful he cleaned up smart smart move on his behalf
Guest:It's very smart.
Guest:Was he just laying around, just kind of like out of it?
Guest:My dad was just in and out of rehab.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:What was his thing?
Guest:My dad was cocaine.
Guest:My dad was heroin, weed.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:That's probably it.
Marc:So that was always in the house or, you know...
Guest:Well, my mom kicked him out when I was young, but he was still in our life.
Guest:So he was in and out of jail.
Guest:My dad was a rebel.
Guest:I love him for it, though.
Guest:I know what not to do because of what my dad did.
Marc:And you never got that thing because sometimes it runs in families.
Guest:No, I don't have it.
Marc:And he wasn't in the house enough for you to have that weird kind of like, you know, how do we help dad thing?
Guest:No, it was as I got older, me and my brother figured out like, yo, we got to help dad.
Marc:You got one brother?
Guest:yeah one brother one brother older younger older yeah older brother and did you try to help him out uh me and my brother we we put him in a rehab it didn't go he came out and i think the disappointment on your older son's face when we're older adults we look at you yeah it's enough to make you feel like you need to get your shit together right
Guest:And I think that's what did it.
Guest:You can put a person at all to help you.
Guest:At the end of the day, if they don't mentally want to do it, they're not going to do it.
Guest:So for us, it was saying, you know what, Dad?
Guest:Do you live your life?
Guest:We can't change you.
Guest:And he had the realization on his own.
Guest:But I'm glad, honestly, that he went through what he did.
Guest:I don't have a drug itch in my body.
Guest:I would never touch drugs just because of what I saw.
Guest:But if you take him out of my life, who knows, dude?
Guest:All this money, I would fucking be...
Guest:snorting up pounds of cocaine.
Guest:Who knows what I would be doing?
Guest:Because I wouldn't know why it was bad and why not to mess with it.
Guest:But now I have a visual reality of what it can do.
Marc:The toll it took on him.
Guest:So I kind of let it go.
Guest:But my mom, once she supported me and she gave me that year, dude, I met comedians and
Guest:You know, guys were doing rooms here and there.
Guest:Well, let me open up for him for $50, $25.
Guest:And I kind of started to find a way.
Guest:Then once I met Keith and found him out in New York, Big Jay Oakerson, he was supposed to go to New York with me.
Guest:Jay thought it was a stupid idea.
Guest:He didn't want to do it.
Guest:And I kept doing it.
Marc:You kept going up to New York.
Guest:I kept going.
Guest:And Jay stopped.
Guest:So by the time Jay got there, I was already in.
Guest:I was...
Guest:I was doing all the stuff that we should have been doing together.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then by the time he got in, I was out.
Guest:You're moving on.
Guest:I'm going to Montreal and all this other stuff.
Guest:So he was one step behind because he didn't stick with me.
Guest:He quit on me.
Marc:Well, he was nervous, and clearly he wasn't quite sure what the hell he was doing up there.
Guest:He didn't want to do it.
Guest:And I was like, I'm just going to go for it, man.
Guest:And do you think he had a fear of actually playing white rooms?
Guest:Yo, believe it or not, Jay was one of the best players.
Guest:white comics that I've ever seen in the urban room yeah Jay used to destroy right he told the story listen there was one time when this dude told him to shut the fuck up and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life we were at a beef bar and grill in Philadelphia okay it's like it's just a it's one level it just goes straight back it's not set up for comedy at all Jay gets out there as Mike dies somebody yells out I can't hear you Jay goes taps the microphone yeah yeah
Guest:okay guys what about now can you hear me now like together shut the fuck up white boy he just all right good night just walked off stage it was the most humbling thing i've ever seen in my life because he didn't fight he didn't argue he didn't say anything they said shut the fuck up white boy
Guest:all right good night guys he just he just walked off the stage it was it like there wasn't a there wasn't an excuse there was nothing he just said all right guys good night thanks for everything he just walked off the funniest thing i've ever seen in my life hilarious but the stories that me and jay have you like me and jay dude that that's that's a great friend of mine i mean we've lost contact over the years have you
Guest:Yeah, just, you know, he stayed.
Guest:We both have kids.
Guest:We have family.
Guest:So as you grow, you know... It happens.
Guest:There's nothing you can do.
Guest:There's nothing intentional, but it happens.
Guest:Our lives went in two different directions.
Guest:But when I tell you just the stories, man, like from us going to do shitty colleges together, like...
Guest:Me and Jay have spent hours in cars together.
Guest:It's unbelievable the shit that we've done.
Guest:Words can only explain, man.
Guest:I love the guy.
Guest:He's a guy who honestly, he made me appreciate the struggle.
Guest:When you got guys to struggle with, you appreciate it.
Guest:There's no point of getting successful if you don't have bad fucking stories about what happened before you got there.
Marc:You gotta appreciate it.
Marc:There's a dues paying process.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:But Keith, he seemed to be a pivotal part in a few people's lives.
Marc:I know Keith many years.
Marc:I opened for Keith when I first started, and he still tells that story.
Marc:Wait, he was a guy from Philly, but you didn't know him in Philly, but he knew you guys?
Guest:Keith Robinson looked at the Laugh House.
Guest:Like it was like it was not a good club.
Guest:He didn't like the way it was ran.
Guest:The reason why he had something to compare it to.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Keith was up there in New York.
Guest:He he saw the way comedy clubs should be ran.
Guest:He knew how comedians should be treated.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He felt like the laugh house didn't treat comedians properly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So he didn't really support it.
Guest:But he came to see me one night.
Guest:He didn't know me, but he just came and dropped by and saw and heard about some stuff going on, and there was this funny guy.
Guest:He just wanted to see.
Guest:So I meet him, we shake hands, man, and I'm the young guy.
Guest:I'm like, hey, can you watch my set?
Guest:I've heard a lot about you.
Guest:People talk about you.
Guest:Can you just watch me tell me what you think?
Guest:And I got off, you know, classic Keith.
Guest:When I got off, he was like, you stink.
Guest:You're not talking about shit, stupid.
Guest:I don't even know this guy.
Guest:Listen, I just met you.
Guest:He's the most degrading human being.
Guest:Stupid.
Guest:Stupid.
Guest:Little dummy.
Guest:You stink.
Guest:He said, you're not talking about nothing.
Guest:You're up there just talking.
Guest:I don't know who you are.
Guest:I don't know shit about you.
Guest:You're up there talking about shit that everybody can say.
Guest:Who are you?
Guest:This is the first time I met him.
Guest:So I'm like, you're an asshole, man.
Guest:You're crazy.
Guest:I killed just now.
Guest:The crowd was going crazy.
Guest:He's like, it means nothing.
Guest:And then he went out and thought about that shit.
Guest:He left.
Guest:He didn't say anything else to me.
Guest:He came back the following Thursday.
Guest:I asked him to watch me again.
Guest:And I actually tried to change and adapt.
Guest:And he wound up telling me, he's like, look, man, I know what I said last week.
Guest:You might have thought I was being a jerk.
Guest:So I'm not.
Guest:He said, I'm going to tell you what I think you should hear because you're talented.
Guest:He said, I can see from you being on stage.
Guest:You got a stage presence.
Guest:There's an aura about you.
Guest:He said, but now is when you have to start learning how to talk about stuff.
Guest:He said, why don't you come up to New York with me a couple of times?
Guest:Like just out the blue, this guy could have been a pedophile.
Guest:I didn't know what he was about.
Guest:He could have been trying to get me on a road by himself and do some things to me.
Guest:I don't know what he was thinking.
Marc:Do you still have the fade?
Guest:No, that's what they think.
Guest:He looked like a creepy old man.
Guest:It was dress pants.
Guest:Nobody wore dress pants.
Guest:Slacks.
Guest:It was weird.
Guest:It was scary.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:uh i trusted him i told jay jay was like dude you gonna go i said yeah man maybe you should come too jay's like no i'm gonna stay and just work out here in the room yeah i went with keith and once i saw new york and saw the comedy club scene i didn't go back me and keith slaved that road for dude you're talking seven years
Marc:Did you go out on the road with him or anything?
Guest:No, we were just back and forth to New York in that car.
Guest:Literally.
Guest:We would leave Philadelphia at 3 o'clock, get to New York by 5, stay in New York until 3 a.m., drive back, get home by 5, 4.30 a.m., sleep, wake up at 3 o'clock, do the same thing every single day for about six, seven years.
Marc:Just hanging out.
Guest:Hanging out.
Guest:I didn't get in.
Guest:I literally had to hang out in New York for, it might have been a year and a half before I actually got in to the Comedy Club Circus.
Guest:The only club that they were letting me perform at was in Boston.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that was on Sundays, which was urban night.
Guest:Yeah, talent night.
Guest:Other than that, it took a while.
Guest:But once I got in at the cellar, once Esty let me in at the cellar,
Marc:That took me about eight years.
Marc:It's tough not to crack in.
Guest:Once she allowed me to come in, then every place started to trickle.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Every place else started to come around.
Marc:Am I remembering wrong?
Marc:It seems to me, not unlike Bill Burr, that you went through a period where you rose up, and then you got some deals, you got some heat, and then it kind of went away.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:Because I remember there was like, oh, who's this hotshot?
Marc:I saw you one time, and you're like, hey, I'm here.
Marc:And then the next thing you know, it's like, ah, Kevin's fucking doing television.
Marc:I know that you developed something with Bill, right?
Marc:Me and Bill.
Marc:Let's start before that, though.
Marc:Didn't you have a series on it?
Guest:Before that, I had a show called The Big House.
Guest:I went to Montreal.
Guest:Went to Montreal Comedy Festival.
Marc:Now, this is what?
Marc:You've been doing comedy four or five years?
Guest:I've been doing comedy.
Guest:I went to Montreal in 2004.
Guest:At this point, I was doing comedy since 1998.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was hanging out in New York.
Guest:Six years.
Guest:I was hanging out in New York.
Guest:So you're a new face.
Guest:New faces.
Guest:Definitely a new face.
Guest:But I was in New York for about two years at this time.
Guest:So, you know, I felt that I was a little seasoned.
Guest:I wasn't a good comic yet.
Guest:But you were a good 15-minute comic.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I had seven minutes to be a great set, which I needed in Montreal.
Guest:Ten minutes at most.
Marc:And this is also right on the cusp.
Marc:This is before, like, everyone was overexposed from YouTube.
Marc:You still had a shot at people going, who the fuck is this guy?
Marc:Yep.
Marc:So this was a big thing.
Marc:I don't know if people understand that, that listen to it, that you used to go to the Montreal Festival, and if people hadn't seen you, it was a buyer's market.
Marc:It was huge.
Marc:You had everybody in show business up there looking at some sort of a trade show.
Marc:The thing was deals.
Marc:The thing were the deals that were being given out.
Guest:Right, we're going to throw some money.
Marc:We're going to hold on to this guy.
Guest:We own you.
Guest:$500,000, $300,000.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:Whatever that number is, we're going to hold you for a year.
Marc:Okay, so you're a 15-minute act.
Marc:You've got a lot of juice and you can sell the shit out of stuff.
Marc:And you go up there, you do new faces.
Guest:Yes, sir.
Marc:And then what happens?
Guest:Do new faces, I kill.
Guest:I destroy new faces.
Guest:All the papers in Montreal were Kevin Hart.
Guest:Phil.
Guest:Oh, this guy, Kevin Hart.
Guest:New faces.
Guest:Kevin Hart took the crowds over.
Guest:Agents are all talking about Kevin Hart.
Guest:Blah, blah, blah.
Guest:Who's Kevin Hart?
Guest:Get back.
Guest:My management puts together the meetings.
Guest:I got about 25 meetings.
Marc:You come out here.
Marc:I'm out LA.
Marc:You start running around with Becky.
Marc:Yep.
Guest:Yep, out here in LA.
Guest:I'm staying at the Hyatt Hotel at the time, which has changed now.
Guest:We're out here.
Guest:They're like, okay, dude, we got tons of meetings set up.
Guest:You got to come out for like two weeks.
Guest:Every day, literally, I'm doing four or five meetings a day.
Guest:Now, you married at this time?
Guest:At this time, I wasn't.
Guest:At this time, I wasn't married.
Marc:It's all business.
Guest:All business right now.
Guest:It's huge.
Guest:So I'm like, okay.
Guest:This is big.
Guest:They're explaining to me why I'm taking the meetings, what the meetings are about.
Guest:They just want to know you, be yourself, go in these meetings and kill.
Marc:Go in there and dance.
Guest:Honestly, that's basically what it is, Mark.
Guest:I know.
Guest:Basically what it is is, hey, go in here and shuffle.
Guest:Now, I had no idea.
Guest:What do you mean by kill at the meetings?
Guest:Dude, make them laugh.
Guest:Just be yourself.
Guest:So literally, you're in these meetings performing.
Guest:You're not doing your set, but you're, hey, yeah, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.
Guest:Like you're that guy.
Guest:Two white guys sitting behind a desk.
Guest:And just literally just judging you to see who you are and if we feel like we can give you money to do something for us.
Marc:Can he make us money?
Marc:Do we want to give him money?
Guest:That's basically what it was.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:meetings go well I destroy all the meetings everybody's making offers gets to a point where I had CBS I had ABC I had Fox I had NBC right all the major networks were trying to offer deals bidding war bidding war so you made big chunks
Guest:You know, I mean, I don't care about being honest.
Guest:I think at the time I got, it might have been like $275,000.
Guest:That's a lot of money for a guy who's been doing it six years.
Guest:And it's, you know, for me, I'm 21.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, 21 going on 22.
Guest:That's big.
Guest:This is huge.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Hell, yeah.
Marc:Did you have that moment where you're like, I'm there.
Marc:I did it.
Marc:No, in my mind, I was rich.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It was done.
Guest:This is it.
Marc:And from here, it's going to be.
Guest:This is it.
Guest:I'm planning on buying my house.
Guest:I'm going to buy my mom a house.
Guest:I'm going to get me a house.
Guest:I'm probably going to get the bins.
Guest:After I get the bins, I'll probably get my brother like $50,000.
Guest:Probably take my dad somewhere, throw my dad like $25,000.
Guest:No taxes are involved in my thought process at all.
Guest:Nobody's told me about taxes.
Marc:I know nothing about it.
Marc:And in your mind, it was like, this is the way it's going to be from here on out.
Marc:Oh, this is my life.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:This is it.
Marc:I've made it.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:I've made it.
Guest:This is who I am.
Guest:I make $250,000 to $75,000 probably a month now.
Guest:So I'll probably get this.
Guest:I'll probably get another deal as soon as this deal is done.
Guest:That's how naive you are.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Because you don't know.
Guest:So I get the money.
Guest:I think I go with, it was ABC.
Guest:Go into development.
Guest:I had a deal.
Guest:It was a holding deal.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Nothing happened from the holding deal.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Just held me.
Guest:Did a pilot.
Guest:Nothing.
Guest:Following year.
Marc:They didn't do a pilot.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:We did.
Guest:I shot a pilot.
Guest:Not for me.
Guest:This is me.
Marc:It was just a holding deal.
Marc:So that means like we own you and we're going to stick you in something.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:Shot me an awful pilot.
Guest:I was the black crazy roommate in the pilot.
Guest:Pilot was awful.
Guest:Follow a year.
Guest:I sat, I talked to Dave, I talked to my agents.
Guest:I said, look, I was behind the scenes a lot.
Guest:I saw the process.
Guest:I think I have a show idea.
Guest:This is the next year.
Guest:I want to pitch a show.
Guest:Well, why don't we set up a meeting with us, managers, agents, and yourself.
Guest:You pitch to us and we determine if it's good.
Guest:I'm a young guy, so what do I know?
Guest:Come up with a show idea.
Guest:The reverse of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Guest:Guy moving from a rich family, going to go live with his poor family.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This is like my life, guys.
Guest:I can mimic it all for my family.
Guest:Blah, blah, blah.
Guest:Whoa, that's actually good, Kevin.
Guest:Let's set it up.
Guest:Keep in mind, it's year two.
Guest:I just got $250,000 or $270,000, whatever it was.
Guest:So that money is damn near gone after all of my splurging that I did.
Guest:Okay, so I'm probably in debt at this point.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:I think I bought 37 throwback jerseys.
Guest:I probably spent, I think I spent $60,000 on apparel alone.
Guest:My clothes were amazing in 2002, 2003, 2004.
Guest:It was unbelievable.
Guest:I had a car.
Guest:I didn't have any credit, so I think I bought a Ford Explorer Sport, and the car was probably worth 25 grand.
Guest:By the time I got done, I paid $45,000 with interest and everything.
Guest:It was just awful.
Guest:got an apartment, furnished it as if I was the godfather.
Guest:It was just, fuck that money off.
Guest:I can't tell you where that money is today.
Guest:You tapped out.
Guest:It was disgusting.
Guest:That money was going within four months.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Good timing, right?
Guest:Oh, best time of my life.
Guest:uh so i go i set up this idea i pitch it holy shit i sell it abc again now give me another holding deal this time it's not the 200 something thousand i got before it's like 175 but this is my life dude i could do this forever i could just sell shit and get it made sure this time it goes a little bigger and better
Guest:Get the show sold.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:They say we want to do it.
Guest:Now we shoot the pilot.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:We're going to pick it up.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm executive producing, creating, starring, writing in my own television show.
Guest:24.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:24 years old.
Guest:Perfect.
Guest:About to be a millionaire.
Guest:Hell yeah.
Guest:My face going to be on buses.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I got billboards.
Guest:Kiss my ass, world.
Guest:Hey, lady at community college told me I need to focus.
Guest:Suck it.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Look at me.
Guest:I'm focusing now, bitch.
Guest:I'm telling everybody.
Guest:I'm going back after everybody, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We do the show.
Guest:After they pick it up, it's the announcements.
Guest:We're all in New York.
Guest:The upfronts.
Guest:The upfronts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm about to go on stage and they're going to announce my show.
Guest:I get stopped.
Guest:Somebody puts a hand on my chest.
Guest:Wait, Mr. Hart, they just decided they're not going to pick you up.
Guest:What?
Guest:At the up front?
Guest:At the up front.
Guest:At the announcement.
Guest:This is the most brutal thing that's ever happened to me.
Marc:Have you ever shot six, right?
Guest:No.
Guest:At the time, this is like we shot the pilot and we were picked up so late that this was, they were announcing that they were going to do our show and they were just showing the pilot and stuff.
Guest:But we had nothing shot at the time.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We go.
Guest:Sarah, we're not going to pick you up.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:They stopped you on your way to the stage.
Guest:God is my witness.
Guest:God is my witness.
Marc:That is brutal.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:Keep in mind, I get there.
Guest:In your mind, are you giving back all the shit you just bought?
Guest:In my mind, I'm like, what am I going to do?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, I changed.
Guest:My wife is now moving out to L.A.
Guest:My family, I've told them what we're going to do.
Marc:So when you got the first deal, you got married?
Guest:When I got the first deal, yeah, that's after I got married and moved out.
Guest:But this is crazy.
Guest:So many people, I've told what's going to happen.
Guest:Horrible, horrible.
Guest:They don't pick it up.
Guest:It's bad.
Guest:All right, fine.
Guest:I'm not going to have a show.
Guest:I get a call six months later, they want you for mid-seasons.
Guest:To do the show.
Guest:To do the show.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So they picked me up for seven episodes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Back.
Guest:Shoot the episodes.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:I get the money per episode and I'm getting a writing fee and the producer's free.
Guest:Checks are coming in.
Guest:I think I was getting like 25 grand an episode.
Guest:Nice.
Guest:Like five grand for writing and like another 3,000 for EP and whatever.
Guest:So checks are coming in.
Guest:This is great.
Guest:I got six of them.
Guest:I'm back.
Guest:Time to ball out.
Guest:I'm rich again.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:They air four of them.
Guest:the president's ABC got fired new president comes in TGIF they wanted to get rid of it everything with TGIF with the exception of George Lopez and I think it was Kelly Ripa's show yeah she had a show with her like another woman or something like that they just want clean slate
Guest:Kept that.
Guest:Everything else got decayed.
Guest:Now, Soul Plane, I shot the movie while I was doing a TV show.
Guest:I'm about to be a movie star, and I got a TV show that's huge.
Guest:Soul Plane gets bootleg crazy.
Guest:Nobody goes to see it in the theaters.
Guest:On the street, it's probably made $40 million.
Guest:Is that what happened?
Guest:Yes, literally.
Guest:It was bootleg three months before the movie came out.
Guest:So everybody saw the movie.
Guest:It was a national thing.
Guest:Everybody had the movie.
Guest:So it comes out.
Guest:Nobody goes and sees it.
Guest:It's all over the street.
Guest:Everybody has it already.
Guest:For three months before it came out.
Guest:How'd that happen?
Guest:Somebody pirated it.
Guest:Somebody from inside leaked it and made money off of it.
Guest:Probably cut a deal.
Guest:That's normally how bootlegging happens.
Marc:But I never heard it happen on that big of a scale.
Guest:No, it was three months.
Guest:Dude, Soul Plane did so much.
Guest:Soul Plane is what got me popular enough to start touring.
Marc:And the movie never really got anything.
Guest:Never got any type of love.
Guest:But you go on the road and they're like, oh, you were great in Soulplay.
Guest:Like, dude, as it's in the theater, I was actually signing bootleg copies of the movie for people.
Guest:They were coming to me, yo, Duke, you signed this.
Guest:Like, they're serious.
Guest:So now, keep in mind, I was just at the peak of what I thought was my career.
Guest:TV show movie.
Guest:Now nothing.
Guest:Movie tanks.
Guest:Oh, we gave this guy a chance to star in something.
Guest:It doesn't work.
Guest:He had a TV show he starred in.
Guest:It got canceled.
Guest:Oh, man, another comedian failed.
Guest:Now, what the fuck do I do?
Guest:I don't have money.
Guest:I don't have a financial revenue stream coming in.
Marc:And you're also a little played on the other side in the industry.
Guest:They're like, you tanked out.
Guest:Yeah, this guy, we're not gonna throw money at him.
Marc:We tried.
Guest:So now, I got a decision to make.
Guest:Am I gonna move back?
Guest:I'm already living in LA.
Guest:I said, no.
Guest:I said, dude, you know what I want to do?
Guest:I said, Dave, you got to get me into comedy clubs.
Guest:I said, I don't care what the money is.
Guest:I don't care if it's shit.
Guest:I got to get back to comedy.
Guest:I got to get back to my root and just build myself up.
Marc:And now at that time, what do you think?
Marc:You were headlining already, right?
Guest:I was, well, headlining, but it was the C and B minus comedy clubs.
Guest:The improv wouldn't mess with me.
Marc:So I was doing like- So you got no draw and you probably had a good 40?
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:So you're really a middle.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I'm a middle that they're putting in a headliner slot.
Marc:And so you'd already had a TV shot, two TV shots, and a movie that crapped out, but you'd really let go of the comedy.
Marc:You got into comedy.
Marc:You love comedy.
Marc:But as soon as the money came, you're like, fuck comedy.
Guest:I'm done.
Guest:I'm done.
Guest:I need to focus on this.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Sorry.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So allergies, people.
Guest:So I know y'all hear me out there sniffling stuff.
Guest:Is there cats?
Guest:No.
Guest:In general?
Guest:In general.
Guest:It's been cold in L.A.
Guest:the last couple of days.
Marc:So this is... Does it have any bearing on it?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:But see, that moment is fucking insane, though, right?
Marc:It was the craziest part of my life.
Marc:I have a tremendous amount of respect for guys that do that, because there are guys, because you said it yourself, that you think everything's set, you're walking around with that attitude, you've got other people around you going, he's going to fall.
Marc:Fuck that kid.
Marc:You've got all that, especially in the black community, a lot of that shit goes on.
Marc:Instantly.
Marc:Instant.
Marc:The competitiveness is so different in black rooms and white rooms.
Marc:I don't know why that is.
Marc:We don't talk about it.
Marc:But black people seem like, you're going down.
Marc:I'm going to hand you your ass.
Guest:What it is, is everybody feels like it should be them.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:At the same time, there's nothing bad with that way of thinking, but it's not something that should be voiced.
Guest:But it is, is it not?
Guest:I mean, it's voiced a lot.
Guest:People say, hey man, he ain't shit.
Guest:He's not that funny.
Guest:I'm better than him.
Guest:That's how people feel.
Guest:So when you get certain opportunities, people look down on you because they feel like you don't deserve those opportunities.
Guest:I've been doing it for 37 years.
Guest:This guy's been doing it for nine months.
Guest:He comes in, gets this, gets that.
Guest:Why aren't they checking for me?
Guest:Why aren't I getting these opportunities?
Guest:So that's where the anger comes from.
Guest:which you know to some degree i understand what people know i have that anger too i get it yeah you get this young guy who comes out of nowhere and everybody's gung-ho about him you're like look i don't put blood sweat and tears about it i need my opportunity i want my chance to look for me and give me my chance but now you get now you got that cross the barrier you got to go back in the comedy rooms as a middle and a headliner and b and c room
Marc:and eat some fucking shit.
Guest:So now, and eating shit isn't the word.
Guest:It was tough because everybody knew he doesn't have the time.
Guest:Not only do I not have the time, I'm not selling tickets.
Guest:So the comedy clubs are raping me.
Guest:I'm making $600 for the weekend and they're making whatever off of food, drinks at the door.
Marc:You're drawing a few people from the bootleg though, right?
Guest:Yeah, just a few.
Guest:A few like, you know, in these places.
Guest:But the comedy because I'm doing is so shitty.
Guest:I'm in like Cumberland, Kentucky.
Guest:You know, I'm in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Marc:But these are just these are just comedy rooms.
Marc:They're not black rooms.
Marc:No, they're just comedy rooms.
Marc:So were you doing the black circuit at all?
Guest:It was whoever would take me, man.
Guest:Really?
Guest:It was whoever would give me a shot.
Marc:So you didn't have any love coming from any direction?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:Because nobody knew me.
Guest:Nobody really knew me.
Guest:And the people that didn't know me didn't really know my name.
Guest:That's the guy I'm from.
Guest:It wasn't Kevin Hart.
Guest:How long did you fucking do that, dude?
Guest:Dude, I struggled in that circuit for about two years, just grinding.
Guest:And then I just went back to New York in between L.A.
Guest:and just started working on my set.
Marc:You left L.A.
Marc:?
Guest:I left LA, but not to live.
Guest:I just would go stay with my mom.
Guest:So now you got a family too, right?
Guest:Yeah, so I would stay with them, and I didn't have kids yet.
Guest:So me and my wife at the time would just go back to the East Coast, and I would literally- Stay at your mom's house?
Guest:Stay at her mom's, or I would go to my mom's, and I would just do the comedy circuit, like try to get my chops up.
Marc:Thank God you had those shirts you bought, huh?
Guest:Oh, geez, that's about it.
Guest:They lasted me forever.
Guest:Those jerseys were the best thing I ever bought.
Guest:I was always cool.
Guest:I never looked like I was broke.
Guest:Thank God.
Guest:So out of nowhere, I signed to a personal appearance agency.
Guest:For some reason, Soul Plane is getting popular.
Guest:My management talks to Chris Smith.
Guest:Chris Smith, who was booking all the guys and he's supposed to be a popular guy.
Guest:So this guy's putting me on shows, but the shows- Chris Smith, the agent?
Guest:Chris Smith, the personal parents agent.
Guest:So he's putting me on these tours, like the black comedy explosion tours.
Guest:So I'm making money, but- Who were you traveling with?
Guest:It was me, like Bruce Bruce and talent, like some more or something, just all these shows.
Guest:But I'm coming out, I'm not really doing well.
Guest:By the time I hit the stage, nobody's there yet.
Guest:They all come in to see the later acts.
Guest:It's just not good.
Guest:So then he convinces me that you can go do dates by yourself.
Guest:So he starts throwing me in these big venues.
Guest:Nobody's coming to see me.
Guest:So now I'm fucking failing as a stand-up as well.
Guest:I done dropped the ball doing television.
Guest:My movie didn't do well.
Guest:Now I'm going out and doing theaters way before I should be trying to do theaters.
Marc:Isn't that the worst?
Marc:Because you know in your head, you're like, I'm not going to sell tickets.
Marc:I'm not going to sell.
Marc:So just stick me in the club and let me build.
Guest:But this guy's convincing me, dude, you're going to do great.
Guest:I'm not going to sell.
Marc:But then he said, then you look like an asshole.
Marc:He says, all right, I'll do it.
Marc:And then 300 people come into a place that says 1,000 people.
Guest:And I look like the promoters look at me as if I'm the guy that takes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I take their weekend.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So now this guy is selling tickets.
Guest:So that's when I decided after some time of taking those Eagle Blows,
Guest:I talked to Davis and I don't want to use him anymore.
Guest:I want to just do comedy clubs.
Guest:Can you just get me into the A rooms?
Guest:I don't care what they pay.
Guest:I don't care if it's shit.
Guest:I just need the reps.
Guest:I need to build on my fan base.
Guest:I need to work on myself.
Guest:It's not about acting.
Guest:If something comes along, great.
Guest:If it doesn't, I don't care.
Guest:It's about comedy.
Guest:And, dude, I just started to focus on stand-up.
Guest:And I vowed to never turn my back on stand-up comedy again.
Guest:I made that promise to myself.
Marc:That's all you got to fall back on, right?
Guest:I don't care how big things get.
Guest:I don't care.
Guest:Like right now, movies are crazy.
Guest:Television is crazy.
Guest:Just everybody's throwing the world at me.
Guest:I refuse to compromise stand-up.
Guest:You have to work around my stand-up schedule.
Guest:I control it.
Guest:And these people are my fans.
Guest:These people are who really...
Marc:genuinely support so when's the big break how'd that happen so you're out there you're doing what fifteen hundred two hundred two thousand dollar weeks at the improv i'm not even at i'm getting i'm honestly i was getting about nine hundred to twelve hundred dollars at the improv for the weekend but i'm doing wednesday through sunday okay like literally my my didn't you take that as some sort even though you were where you were at didn't you feel that i was disrespectful
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I mean, you know, you're being overworked and you know, you're not being compensated for what they're asking you to do.
Guest:And you're doing 30,000 prestations.
Marc:Were you able to tell them to fuck off?
Guest:Not at all.
Guest:You can't.
Guest:There's nothing you can do about it.
Guest:No, but I mean now.
Guest:You go back in the improv now.
Guest:Now, you know, I'm a person that takes, I find a positive in everything.
Guest:Like, you know what?
Guest:I took my rapings for years.
Guest:Now, let me be a businessman for a second.
Guest:If I'm the improv comedy clubs and I'm giving this guy that's not going to sell tickets a chance to work in my club, you know what?
Guest:I'm going to pay you this because you need me.
Guest:And you needing me, I'm going to make my money off of you.
Guest:I'm going to make my money off of food and drinks to support my business.
Guest:I'm going to paper the room.
Guest:I'm going to give these tickets away to get people in here that are going to buy food and drinks.
Guest:You're not bringing people in here, but I'm giving you a stage.
Guest:You need my stage.
Guest:Which I do.
Guest:As a businessman, I get your way of thinking.
Guest:Now, as a comedian, you got to put your business hat on.
Guest:They're bringing the room in here for free.
Guest:They're papering.
Guest:This is from their email list.
Guest:These are their clients on a weekly basis.
Marc:So you think I can get new people?
Guest:I'm going to steal their people back.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:So I'm not getting paid, but these people become a check for me at some point in time in my life if I do what I'm supposed to do.
Guest:So that's what I did.
Guest:That's a very mature way to look at it.
Guest:I'm a smart dude.
Guest:You put a book in front of me and tell you to read it and then tell me to read back to you what I just read, I'm going to have a difficult time.
Guest:But when it comes to business hits and working the dollar and understanding how to grow as a businessman, I'm a fucking genius.
Marc:But you could have gotten bitter.
Marc:I mean, there's no reason.
Marc:You're telling me this story, and I felt the same way about Bill, and I've seen guys go up and do what you went through, and they don't come back.
Marc:I don't know where Reggie McFadden is.
Marc:Do you?
Marc:Not at all.
Marc:Not at all.
Marc:No disrespect.
Marc:He was a funny guy, but he was one of those guys.
Marc:This is it.
Marc:This is it.
Marc:That was it.
Guest:It's gone now.
Guest:What do I do?
Guest:You know what I think it was for me, Mark?
Guest:It was the scare of me taking my raping so early.
Guest:I was 22, 21, 22.
Guest:And you'd already been used up.
Guest:I've already been hit.
Guest:I've been drained.
Guest:I was already done.
Guest:I had my movie I starred in.
Guest:I had my TV show.
Guest:I'm not even 26, 25, and I can't get an acting gig.
Guest:I'm doing nothing.
Guest:I'm auditioning.
Guest:I'm trying.
Guest:I'm not getting it.
Marc:So what was the change in your stand-up?
Marc:When did you start talking about real shit?
Guest:I started talking about real shit probably after the marriage and after the kids, my material started to grow.
Guest:I had some real stuff to talk about.
Marc:After the marriage went bad?
Marc:After I was married in general.
Guest:Because I'm a grown little man is what I was talking about there.
Guest:But that's where... That was your first special?
Guest:That was my first special that I shot.
Guest:But the stuff, my content...
Guest:was just different.
Guest:Not even just because of the marriage, just because I was maturing as a person.
Guest:I'm responsible for people.
Guest:I have something to do.
Guest:I'm no longer a kid.
Guest:I'm not talking about farting and shitting on myself or boo-booing in the pen.
Guest:I have to talk about something.
Guest:I'm an adult.
Marc:You've got to talk to adults.
Guest:I'm talking to adults.
Guest:And the realization of that came.
Guest:And when you watch other comedians, I was like, all of these guys...
Guest:And when they leave a show, I feel like I know who they are.
Guest:I know about them.
Guest:I said, I ain't talking about shit.
Guest:It started to click.
Marc:So it's Keith Robbins' advice from years ago.
Guest:Just now started to click.
Guest:And I had a conversation with Keith.
Guest:I had the pleasure of knowing guys like Damon Wayans, Chris Rock, George Wallace, Seinfeld.
Marc:That came later though.
Marc:When was the thing that put you back on the map?
Guest:For me, what put me back on the map, I would say I'm a grown little man.
Marc:You self-produced that?
Guest:It was self-produced, but Dave found a way to get me to do an hour special without going through Comedy Central for an hour special.
Guest:So I got we got an independent producer to come in and do it.
Guest:And then we sold it to Comedy Central and they did it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it was something to where, hey, this is going to launch and we did it.
Guest:And from it launching it, it, it did OK.
Guest:Like this was this was.
Guest:We use the big house and we use all those things that I did from the guy who did this and this and this is now doing this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we found a way to launch it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it did.
Guest:It didn't do great.
Guest:It didn't exceed.
Marc:But you had an hour.
Marc:It was good shit.
Guest:And it was personal.
Marc:It defined you.
Guest:So now I got to go back out on the road, but now people were coming that saw Grow a Little Man.
Guest:So I'm not selling out yet, but I'm actually filling up the comedy room halfway, three quarters way, and they're papering the rest.
Guest:But now people are paying to come see me.
Guest:I did that for about another year and a half just off of Grow a Little Man.
Guest:My rooms are getting bigger.
Guest:My email list is getting bigger.
Guest:My social media presence is getting bigger.
Guest:After that, I did Shaq's All-Star Comedy Jam.
Marc:That's what I saw with D-Ray and Ari Spears.
Marc:When I did that.
Guest:That was it, right?
Guest:I don't know where it came from.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:My following got huge.
Guest:And I had already filmed Seriously Funny.
Guest:It just wasn't coming out until later.
Guest:But everybody was watching.
Guest:The special.
Guest:Second special.
Guest:Yeah, my second special.
Guest:It just wasn't coming out until like five months after I'd already did the Shaq thing.
Guest:So I thought the Shaq thing was going to be some bullshit.
Marc:But that was weird though because I watched that thing and I don't watch a lot of comedy.
Marc:I was in a hotel.
Marc:I was on the road.
Marc:And you clearly were the standout.
Guest:It was... It was just your night, man.
Guest:It was unexpected.
Guest:I did not expect it to be as big as it was.
Guest:I thought it was a regular show that they were filming.
Guest:I thought it was something that was going to DVD.
Guest:Just one of those 10-minute spot things.
Guest:It's going to go to DVD.
Guest:It is what it is.
Guest:I was at that point.
Guest:I was doing a favor for my friend Shaq.
Guest:How do you know him?
Guest:Shaq, just from... Dude, I'm around.
Guest:I'm around all the shit.
Guest:For some reason, I know everybody, dude.
Guest:It's amazing.
Guest:I've been blessed to meet...
Guest:I don't think there's not a person that I don't know haven't met that's in a young entertainment realm and what we do.
Guest:I know them all.
Guest:Did the special.
Guest:I don't know where I'm going to comedy clubs and I'm adding shows now.
Guest:Because of the Shaq special.
Guest:Because of the Shaq special.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:Look, I was a mad show.
Guest:Then Seriously Funny comes out right after.
Guest:Now, a weekend, I'm doing eight shows, but I'm selling out.
Guest:Nobody's papering anything.
Guest:They're selling out.
Guest:Keep in mind, this is about three and a half years now.
Guest:I'm just doing comedy clubs.
Guest:They were like, Kev, you can go do theaters.
Guest:I don't want to.
Guest:I want to do the comedy clubs again.
Guest:So I patiently did comedy clubs another year.
Guest:Now I'm at a nine, 10 shows a weekend.
Guest:Caroline's.
Guest:We did 10 shows at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York.
Guest:Had a conversation with my agent.
Guest:What's the makeup of the audience?
Guest:At this point, I was about 70, 30 black to white.
Guest:So now my crossover is getting bigger.
Guest:I said, fine, I want to do a test theater.
Marc:You don't make two lists though, do you?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:Not two lists.
Guest:I don't have a divided.
Guest:Blacks, no.
Guest:It's all the same.
Guest:So we go.
Guest:We say, you know what?
Guest:Let's give a test out to do theaters.
Guest:I think the city was like Kansas City.
Guest:We did three shows in a 1,200-seater.
Guest:And I was like, I think I'm now ready to do theaters.
Guest:Seriously Funny was out.
Guest:It aired, debuted.
Guest:I started doing theaters.
Guest:Dude, we're adding three shows, two shows.
Guest:We go out to 5,000-seaters.
Guest:I'm selling out.
Guest:We're adding shows.
Marc:Now, aren't you happy, though?
Marc:Like the one thing I noticed, and I'm in a much different level, but in the sense of that whatever happens, the one thing I know that when I did the Wilbur is that when I'm about to go on stage for that many people, I think even five years ago, I would be backstage going, fuck.
Marc:I don't know if I got the juice for this, but I don't even think twice about it anymore.
Marc:So, I mean, I think that it's interesting that it all synced up for you because you don't have any fear about that.
Marc:You know who you are and you got the shit.
Marc:But I think that if this would have happened when you got those other opportunities that didn't pan out.
Marc:There's no way I would have been ready for it.
Marc:You would have been fucked up.
Guest:There's no way I would have been ready for it.
Guest:That's why I think that's why, you know, when you talk to me, you see my mental approach to things.
Guest:You're like, wow, you're not bitter.
Guest:You're not this.
Guest:I find a positive in anything negative to happen.
Guest:Because I know it happened for a reason.
Guest:So you got two choices to make.
Guest:You're a religious man.
Guest:You know, I'm not over religious.
Guest:I believe in God, but I'm not the guy that's in church every Sunday.
Guest:Right.
Marc:But you believe enough to think that it happens for a reason.
Guest:I believe enough to think that it happens for a reason.
Guest:I believe in a higher being.
Guest:I definitely do.
Guest:And for me, it's I refuse to treat people like shit because I see that things come full circle.
Guest:That's for sure.
Marc:Don't yell at that assistant.
Guest:Hey, I'm serious.
Guest:Even with the improvs, you know, I got to a point where the improvs.
Guest:Yeah, I knew that I wasn't getting paid when I should, but I never got mad at them.
Guest:And now when I go back, I do the improv comedy clubs.
Guest:And when I work on my sets, I'll go Tuesday and Wednesday and I'll take a door deal where I get 95 to 100 percent of the door to work out shit.
Guest:And I'm going there to work out.
Guest:And they have to do it because they want my business.
Guest:But at the same time, I'm not going there like I'm the big bad wolf.
Guest:I'm going there because this is conducive and convenient for my schedule.
Marc:When you do that, do you tell the audience you're working out shit?
Guest:No, because they can't tell.
Guest:I make sure it's still a show.
Guest:I don't go in that element until I've been in New York.
Guest:I went to New York for about five months just going back and forth just to get a template of what I want my material to be.
Guest:Doing 15-minute sets?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just to get it, build it up to where I have an hour where it's not a strong hour, but there's a template and I have jokes with it, but I need to tighten them up and figure out things.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So once I have that template, then I'm comfortable enough to go to a comedy club because regardless, I would never take advantage of my following by taking your money for tickets and giving you a half ass show.
Guest:right i go to new york to do that where the rooms are set up for that yeah it's just a showcase show exactly you know oh kevin hart's here i didn't know that exactly that's what i would do so i don't i don't take advantage and do that i would never do that it's still a show it's still a good show but it's a preparation for what becomes my arenas and what becomes my next special that's going to air now how many of you bring one opener to the arenas
Guest:To the arenas, I took my friends that started with me.
Guest:Naeem Lin, the guy named William Horton and Joey Wells.
Guest:I got a host and two features.
Guest:No intermission.
Guest:We go straight through.
Marc:These are guys you started with in Philly?
Guest:Naeem and William Horton I started with in Philadelphia.
Guest:Joey Wells is a writing partner of mine that I need on the road because we're doing scripts and stuff like that.
Guest:So him and another writing partner go travel.
Guest:But he's a comedian as well.
Guest:He's a great host, so I just want him to let him host.
Marc:So that's nice.
Guest:Those guys must be appreciative.
Guest:It's you keep a good team around you and you don't change it.
Guest:You don't worry about anything negative coming into your circle.
Guest:You know, when you start to bring other elements in is when dumb shit happens.
Guest:I trust and know everybody.
Guest:We've got four years successful touring from theaters to arenas, you know.
Guest:So those are your guys.
Guest:Why break something or why fix something that's not broke?
Guest:Right.
Marc:And now how the production company come about.
Marc:I mean, what are you actively doing with that?
Guest:Well, production company came from me saying, wow, I got a lot of money now.
Guest:I can sit on this money and eventually go broke, or I can learn how to make my money make money for me.
Guest:How do I own?
Guest:How do I get into the business of owning my product?
Marc:Do you produce anybody else?
Guest:Not yet.
Guest:We are.
Guest:I'm going to produce theirs.
Guest:Each of those guys will travel with me.
Guest:I'm just going to do a special for them.
Guest:And it's not for a financial return.
Guest:I'm just going to do it for them because as I stop touring and take off for however long I take off to do movies and stuff, I want those guys to still be able to work and have an outlet where they can go and do comedy clubs and build on their own brain.
Marc:So now you've been able to realize a dream.
Marc:Did you buy your mom a house?
Guest:Oh, my mom, well, you know, my mom passed away five years ago.
Guest:Nothing bad.
Guest:Five years ago.
Guest:So, no, but what I got from my mom was something better, and that's the knowledge of how to live from being raised right.
Guest:And what about your old man?
Guest:my dad is happy my dad is very happy you buy him a house i ain't buying my dad no damn house he'll fuck it off uh but he's taken care of you know he doesn't have a worry in the world you know whatever he needs he can have and you got a relationship with him yeah and i have a relationship with him you know uh and your brother my brother's very taken care of you know uh sponsor my brother he's a professional pool player uh-huh uh he travels for free he's set up he needs nothing like
Guest:My thing is making everybody around me happy.
Guest:My kids are set up for life.
Guest:How old are your kids?
Guest:Six and four.
Guest:They're done.
Guest:They need nothing.
Guest:Their college is taken care of.
Guest:Their accounts are taken care of.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If I'm going today, they're fine.
Guest:For the whole run.
Guest:They're fine.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:That's an amazing feeling.
Guest:You have two routes to choose, man.
Guest:You can either fuck it off again.
Guest:I did my fucking off.
Guest:That money I got, I don't know where that money went from the deals and everything.
Guest:And I learned.
Guest:I was in debt.
Guest:I had a tax debt of $500,000 at one point.
Guest:And you got a wife still or no?
Guest:Divorce, but friends.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not a bad divorce.
Guest:Really?
Guest:A good divorce to where we talk and we see each other every day.
Guest:So, you know, I went away and she went her way.
Guest:But because we got beautiful kids, we have to maintain a friendship.
Guest:And we do.
Guest:And she's happy.
Guest:everything that i went through mark has put me in position to be where i am now that debt i thank god i owed that money in taxes and i had to work so hard to pay all that money back and i didn't know that you had a tax thing oh my god it was from the first deal from the deals yeah like nobody told me i had business managers but i was i was fucking the money off so bad so for me it wasn't there like when you first make your money you don't know about all that you have no idea you made it right
Guest:Oh, did I make it right ever?
Guest:Ask me, will I ever have a tax problem again?
Guest:No, never.
Guest:Listen, any check I get, I take 55% and put it to the side.
Guest:I don't even look at it because I know that it's over there.
Guest:And when it's time to cut those checks, they get them.
Guest:I don't care about the amount.
Marc:And then you get a little something back and you're like, oh, that's great.
Guest:I had this left over, but I don't play those games anymore.
Guest:My life is more serious and I have so much more to lose now.
Guest:That's why I'm so much responsible.
Marc:So tell me about the movie that's coming out.
Marc:You got a movie coming out soon, right?
Guest:Movie coming out too.
Guest:I have one called Think Like a Man that comes out April 20th.
Guest:Another one called Five Year Engagement that comes out April 16th, I believe.
Marc:And these are your starring roles?
Guest:They're great.
Guest:April 20th, Think Like a Man is a starring role.
Guest:I'm a supporting cast in Five Year Engagement.
Marc:What are these movies about?
Guest:Thing Like a Man is based off of Steve Harvey's book, Act Like a Lady, Thing Like a Man.
Guest:It's funny as hell.
Guest:Dude, the movie's great.
Guest:Is he in it?
Guest:He's in it, but he's not in it.
Guest:He's in it as the book.
Guest:Are you the lead?
Guest:Yes, I'm one of the leads in it.
Marc:And what's your angle on that?
Marc:Is it more of an advice book?
Marc:No.
Guest:See, here's the thing.
Guest:The book is basically telling women how to think like a man and they'll do better in a relationship.
Guest:The movie is told from a male's point of view of, look, here's how we think.
Guest:This is why we do what we do in relationships.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And for the first time, you got a dramedy that's being told from a man's point of view, which hasn't been done.
Guest:So it's not a sappy romantic movie.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But you're getting the gist of why men treat women the way they treat them and what their thought process is.
Guest:And you get to see a woman's reaction.
Guest:But it's done smart.
Guest:Like, it's not done to where it's bad.
Guest:It was a great movie.
Guest:I think the budget was probably for like $10 or $11 million.
Guest:And I think it's going to do great.
Guest:You know, people are excited about it.
Guest:I don't see it doing bad at all.
Marc:What's the five-year engagement?
Guest:Five-year engagement is about a guy who basically has been engaged for five years.
Guest:I've been that guy.
Marc:More than I've been engaged for six years.
Guest:It's about the guy who continues the promise of what we're going to do and how we're going to do it, but it never happens because problems keep occurring in your life.
Guest:And when problems occur, sometimes you've got to adjust.
Guest:Some people don't know how to adjust.
Marc:Whose movie is that?
Guest:This is a Judd Apatow production.
Guest:This is with Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Nick Stoller's directing.
Guest:I'm in it.
Guest:Who else is in it, man?
Guest:There's so many people in this movie, dude.
Guest:I'll be here all day.
Guest:So that's a crossover movie?
Guest:Crossover movie.
Guest:And Laugh in My Pain, my last special, went out theatrically, which I own.
Guest:How'd that do?
Guest:Theatrical.
Marc:It's such a rare thing to see a comedy special in the movie theater.
Guest:I did it independently.
Guest:I funded it for about $750,000.
Guest:distributed independently, went just to AMC Theaters.
Guest:We put it in 200 theaters.
Guest:My movie did eight million.
Guest:Really?
Guest:200 theaters.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:Off a $700,000 investment.
Marc:Is it still out?
Guest:It's off now.
Guest:Now it's on DVD.
Guest:It's currently the number two selling DVD overall.
Guest:And the album's doing good too, right?
Guest:Crazy.
Guest:Ridiculous.
Guest:I think I'm at like 500,000 units.
Marc:Well, congratulations, Kev.
Guest:Thank you, man.
Guest:It's good to talk to you, man.
Guest:Hey, this was a great conversation.
Guest:I'm glad I came.
Marc:All right, right on.
Marc:That was Kevin Hart.
Marc:Good attitude on that guy.
Marc:I could learn a few things from him if I did learn those kind of things I could.
Marc:Hope you enjoyed that.
Marc:A couple of things I forgot to mention at the top.
Marc:The first 100 episodes of WTF are now available for pre-order on a special collector's DVD.
Marc:of MP3 files from Special Thing Records.
Marc:If you go to astrecords.com slash WTF, you can pre-order the new collector's pack.
Marc:It also has a live WTF show from Brooklyn featuring Artie Lang, Morgan Spurlock, Ira Glass.
Marc:It's the only time you'll see Ira Glass and Artie Lang on one stage, and it was really the first time that Artie had done anything since he got out of rehab.
Marc:It was a terrific show, so that's available now.
Marc:It's a two-DVD set.
Marc:from Special Thing Records with all 100 of the original WTFs and MP3 files with this special additional video of the live WTF in Brooklyn.
Marc:Available now at astrecords.com slash WTF.
Marc:Another thing I wanted to do before I go, I'm going to be doing a show.
Marc:For Public Citizen, it's going to be me, Ray Romano, Dana Gould, Wendy Liebman, Rick Overton, Eric Rivera, and Morgan Murphy.
Marc:That's Sunday, April 29th at 630 at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills.
Marc:That's 135 South Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills.
Marc:You can go to www.citizen.org for tickets.
Marc:Public Citizen is...
Marc:It's a powerful organization, and this is a benefit with me and Dana and Ray and Wendy and Rick, Eric and Morgan.
Marc:Dig it.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTF needs.
Marc:JustCoffee.coop.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:Look out.
Marc:I'm not even going to get into it.
Marc:Get on the mailing list, kick in a few shekels, check out the apps, check out the episodes, leave a comment or two if that's your bag.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Unfortunately, Boomer will no longer be appearing on the show at all until he gets his meow back.
Marc:Bye.