Muse

I up and moved to Los Angeles.

And at no point during that process did you get any kind of professional development. Dumb genius. Dumb genius.

I moved to Los Angeles without a plan. No acting classes.

I moved to Los Angeles with $25,000. I had about $25,000 left. Left of the development deal. I owed about $60,000 to the IRS because I didn't pay taxes. So I'm technically in debt. I moved to Hollywood and I remember, I remember moving and walking down, walking down like Sunset Boulevard and I was like, okay, here we go. This is it. What now?

This episode is brought to you by Chase Home Lending.

Hey, little girl.

Hi, Craig Robinson.

How are you?

You know what? I'm doing pretty good, you know? Everything is in one piece, I believe. I feel healthy.

Good.

How are you feeling?

I feel great.

Well, our next guest, you know, his latest stand-up, which cracked me. I mean, tears are rolling down my face. He's talking about us getting old, you know?

And the funny thing is, he's still so young. I know. And he's talking about getting old. It's true.

No, it's like, you know, we got to say hello. We're talking about Kevin Hart, who is here with us today. Got to say hello. And it's like, yeah, he's all in shape. He looks like he's about. He looks like he's 15 still. I know, right. Talking about not being able to run and pulling stuff and whatnot. It's like, what you pulling? You know? Maybe he's stretching more now. We'll find out.

You know, we love all of our guests. But, you know, I haven't met Kevin Hart.

And I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to Kevin. I mean, we've met on some photo line or something. We're just like, hey, how you doing? But yeah, so I'm excited.

Yeah, well, let me get his introduction going. Kevin Hart has made a name for himself as the hardest working comedian, entrepreneur, producer, and actor. He is a global box office powerhouse and has earned both Emmy and Grammy nominations. His authentic approach to sharing life's everyday moments, like we talked about, with humor and heart, has earned him a devoted global audience and social media fan base. Yes, indeed. Without further ado, let's bring out the former varsity basketball player, Kevin Hart. I was waiting for you. You knew I did my research. Beautiful. Beautiful introduction.

Beautiful introduction. This is great.

Those ballers got to stay together. You know how that is.

This is so great.

So, how are you talking about feeling old? I mean, really.

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

You don't look it.

What you look and feel are two different things. I didn't say look. Okay, the perception is amazing.

I expected you to come in here and look.

And do a cartwheel or something like that or twisted ankle or something. No, it's a lot going on under the hood. I'm in pain I am in pain The maintenance To keep this up Is extremely high

I find that men though Just don't stretch

It's true I can't touch my toes

See Now that's the thing I've been talking to Barack About this Right

I have no ego about it You see how fast I said it I can't touch my toes

But you can You could be able to do it I mean you could If you were doing yin yoga Once a week You could touch your toes I challenge you Well I don't want the challenge I didn't ask for this challenge

You just gave me a challenge I challenge you to do the in And touch your toes I don't want to touch my toes at this point

So you know how Some people become famous

And what?

And become bullies They just bully you into doing stuff A bully?

A bully?

She just comes busting in

It didn't work

No, what you just did is the clear definition of bullying If we're just going to be honest about it That is exactly what bullying is right there And then act like she's not No, she said it and slammed her hand Challenge accepted Wait a minute I never asked for the challenge This is unwarranted I will try it though My flexibility is in dire need of help

But that's why you ripped up your What did you tear?

I tore my abductor

See, in yoga, that abductor is stretched out.

It would be prepared for that type of thing. It would be prepared for any kind of run.

You decided, now I'm going to race you. You'll see when I get up. The problem here is I jump up. See, I needed a minute to just let this leg get out. Get a little dizzy, you jump up too fast. That's starting to happen. Yes, that's starting to happen. Right? Equalism is unbalanced. You know, that's how people fall and break a hip.

Does that ever happen? Oh, all the time. When you get a quiet, dizzy spell and you don't want to alert anybody, but you're like, oh, this is it. This is it. This is it. This is for sure a stroke. Oh, this is going to happen.

And the higher up you go, you know, it's just like you just keep going and your blood is like, we can't go that fast.

I think that I have to do a better job of alerting people when these things happen. Like, I've had things that I deem to be scares. Like, you know, if you're eating and you swallow too fast and something gets stuck in your chest. This is a heart attack. 1,000% is happening right now, and I'm just quiet about it.

I gave one of my girlfriends the Heimlich at dinner. What? Why are we just hearing about this? Yeah, well, a friend of mine was visiting me, and it was funny because Malia was...

Yeah, that's right. We're back to bullying. We're back to bullying. No, this is full circle.

But we're the same age, And, you know, you start having, you know, swallowing problems. Things just stop, you know. How about chewing your food more? But she had chewed her food, but she had told me that she had this esophageal issue where things will get stuck, right? So I knew that about her. Now, we're there with Malia and two of her friends. They're in their 20s, right? But they're still babies, right? She stands up, finished eating. She stands up and coughs. And I think she coughed up something and it got stuck in her throat. And she was like, and I said, are you okay? And she said, now the three children, they just pushed away from the table. And laughed and started laughing. No, they didn't laugh. They were like, huh, huh.

That's what I would have said. It was girls.

We'd have been cracking up. They were moving away. And I got up and I said, I went behind her and I just pulled up like they did. I had never done the behind it before and it dislodged it.

Did he pop out of her mouth? Right away?

It just popped up right away.

One good.

One got her. That's pretty big. And I was looking at the kids, and I was like, what were you all doing? You know? I mean, my question, and they were like, you're right. You're right. We were useless. They realized that that was a mother moment.

That's actually a story. Yeah. That's one that you got to pull out at some dinners. That's not a casual story. We're just hearing about this, by the way, Kevin. Yeah, that's a big one.

We talked about it. No, we did not. No, we didn't, but in our family orbit, we talked about it.

How good is your life to throw out a casual hero story of, yeah, I saved a life. She's trying to make up for the bully. I only gave one.

But I only say that because that's kind of stuff that happens when we get older. And the reason why I knew she wasn't faking, because she told me that it happened to her before, where something got caught in her throat and she was home alone.

And it didn't pop out of her mouth?

It didn't pop out, but it dislodged, and then she could swallow it again.

And then went back down. Oh, no. She re-eat it? It could happen again. She gave a re-eat? A re-eat. You can't re-eat. You can't do a re-eat. You can't do a re-eat over the problem piece. You got to get that out.

Well, she's alive, but it's a hazard of aging. You know? It's the things that break down. Right.

And the definitions for them, the words. You know, I think that's the funniest thing that I found about getting older Is that you have a word and reason for everything Because right now I'm losing mobility in my elbow So what they said to me is that you look for so much information Yeah, so apparently I don't have the same recoil that I did So I have to basically extend my elbow But overextend to get the full variation of use But other than that, I'm fine Yeah, other than that, I'm okay But when it rains, it tightens up Like, it's that You turn into that person

And what did you say? You can't eat anything No, you get to the point where your system You put lemon in water It's like, ooh, child That lemon's gonna mess up my system I cracked up Because I feel that way

You're much more regular The older you get

You know, and sometimes it's like Not now It's too much Not now

Yeah, I'm not eating If I have a drive ahead of me

You know, you wind up thinking about that It's 20 minutes to get there?

I'll wait I'll eat when we get there I'll eat once we're there

I don't think I've eaten a day

Listen That is so true I mean Oh I got a flight Let me I'm not drinking anything And I'm not eating You say we're going over Somebody's house No I'm gonna wait I'm gonna wait Till after we Cause I don't know these people And I don't wanna I don't wanna eat over there

And don't give me anything No cheese Yeah please No cheese I'm sorry

I'm sorry What's in that Walnuts Yeah I can't I can't. I'm going to push this back and just wait. Do you just have dry lettuce that I can... I'll just nibble on that. Don't put any sauce on it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Please don't. None of that. Thank you.

Oh, my God. See, we got young people here. You all don't even know. Have no idea. Which is strong digestive systems. It's coming for you all.

I mean, they literally eat like a tank. There's nothing. They don't worry about anything. Spicy food.

Oh, my God. Put it on. Add more spice. Really? And you just look and go, oh, Jesus. I would never make it to the car.

Respectfully, you know, the language, I'll curb my language. But it's like having no fear for consequences. when you eat is an unbelievable asset. It's childish.

It's unbelievable. Childlike.

Eating an ass bomb, for lack of a better word. Like, it's going to blow. It's going to happen.

It's going to blow. You're not afraid of when that's going to detonate. Yeah. When? But they can still control it, sort of. They can hold their... Yeah. They're like...

They're like... What are they? Seagulls. What are they? The birds that can just hold on for so long. Like, I've never seen anything like it.

And fly a continent, fly over oceans.

I'm envious, very envious.

Oh, well, we're supposed to be talking about you. Yes, I'm ready.

By the way, that was a great conversation of relatability just now.

Yeah, you got that too, right? No, when you stand up, right? Dizzy? Yeah. No, I didn't see. Oh, you don't eat either? Yeah, I haven't eaten a day either.

Oh my goodness. That's good to know that we're all in the same boat. Man, oh man, we're all in the same boat. But please, before we talk about me, I just want to say congrats, guys. This is amazing. Thank you for having me. Amazing team that you have. Amazing energy here. And excited. So excited to get in all things, of course, Kevin, and be a open book of dialogue, information, conversation.

And to help out with that, we have a special guest in studio. Yes.

My little nugget. Your eldest daughter. My oldest.

Are you the oldest, Kevin? Are you the oldest? I am. Yeah, the oldest. Grown child. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, that's my first mistake Two minutes with her She is your greatest treasure I could tell that

That's my best friend That is my I am unbelievably proud of the woman That she has become And is becoming But I can say as a father Your rewards come In a proof of concept Right, like I mean In parenting, all you do is give your best and you hope that your efforts didn't fall on deaf ears.

Really, and half the time, aren't you thinking, oh God, I don't know what I'm doing.

I mean, you don't, but you don't, right? You're figuring it out as you go on.

We just act like we know what we're doing.

You're figuring it out. But I think for me, the biggest reward has been seeing her actively put the things that I've like beat in her head over the years to use. And she's just a responsible, driven person. Like, she truly is a little mold of the world of what her parents have put in front of her. And I think that's just, it's a plus. She's the best example in the world for her brothers and sisters. Oh, that's great.

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Can you talk more about your mom? Oh, my goodness. Because, look, she's badass, you know? Single mother. I want to know where she got it from, you know?

That's a good question. I mean, no disrespect to this amazing woman that I'm sitting across from at the table, but I'll argue anybody down and say pound for pound the best woman to walk the earth.

Yep.

Right? Who? My mom. I thought you were talking about her. Well, I know what you would do. And then he's going to argue about it too.

That's what a brother does. My big brother. He's like, who? Her?

No, not even. Not even. My mom.

Oh, your mother. Okay.

You know what's crazy? It's like I got a... As I got older, I got a different version of my mom.

Yeah.

So the... The bad version of my mom, I never got to see because my mom flipped her life and went in the direction of spiritual, you know, God-fearing and energy towards self and self-improvement. And from the age like four on, there was no relationship with my dad. There was no, I never saw another man with my mom. All I saw was my mom go to work, come home, tend to me, my brother, and whatever my needs or our needs were. I never saw anything else. So the commitment to doing whatever had to be done was bar none. We didn't have money, but we also never saw that we didn't have money. we didn't have a life or lifestyle that allowed us to do the most or have the most, but we had the things that we needed. It wasn't until my mom passed away that me and my brother got to see how much my mom did and what she prepared for. Like, you know, I remember she passed away and there was insurance and, you know, money that was given to me and my brother and accounts that were set up. And she had college funds just in case. And like literally without having this crazy salary or money coming in.

She didn't have a financial advisor.

My mom, she was hungry for information. She felt that it was free. And she said that you can obtain as much of it. As you can keep So she was in college I mean for The duration of her adulthood Chasing masters after masters after masters Always just Further extending the opportunity To educate and to do So in my younger years it was like She does too much and it's annoying And like it's always something You always want me to read You always want me to like look up something You always want me to study these things And like I'm not a good student I don't want to do this I don't want to finish or complete these things I don't want to prepare or study But when The adulthood kicked in

Something happened

And those lessons All of a sudden It was second nature If I could tell my mom anything If I could have A conversation with Nancy It would just be You were right And I think like parents

How old were you when she passed?

Crazy, I get a little It gets me, so just give me a little

We cannot talk about our parents No, it gets me, sorry No need to apologize

With Nancy Yes That's my one Regret I never got to say you were right And that's what

How old were you when she passed?

Man.

26? Yeah. 26, 27. Yeah. And it's not like my tear isn't like a...

No, I know.

It's not an angry tear. It's like the appreciation for the energy.

Yes.

And love in real time that a parent is giving.

Yeah.

As a child, you overlook it. You don't value it at the level that you should. So it's not until kids get older, it's not until kids get older that you go, damn, right? Like, I actually had the, I had the makeup around me. I had it. I had the machine around me. And because it wasn't glamorous, because it wasn't the bells, the whistles, the cars, the big houses, the front yards, it was like, oh man, well, look at us. we're struggling, we're poor, we're this or that. I also have the flip side of this as well, right? So, like, my dad was the opposite. And it's not glamorous. It's actually really bad. Like, my dad was really, like, there was a lot of shit with my dad. Yeah, yeah. But if I didn't see it firsthand, and I didn't see my dad battle with addiction, with, you know, the law, I mean...

So he checked all the boxes.

He checked, name it, name it, name it. My dad, man, I mean, arguably the humor, the ability to have dark humor, light humor, it's my dad. Like, an example of my dad, like, I remember my mom's sister had passed away. And we're going to the funeral. And, you know, this is my mom's side, right? But, you know, a couple people had passed. Like, this is, like, another sister of my mom's, like, her mom, her dad. Like, you know, the funerals are, they're happening. They're coming. Right? Yeah. They're coming fast. My dad is there. We get there. and we're, like, standing with the family, and my dad goes, they dropping like flies. I said, Jesus. It's like, too soon. Dad. Too soon. He looked around. I mean, come on now.

Okay. Is that what a sense of humor came from?

By the way, by the way, the worst health. My dad had the worst cancer. Right. He took his lung out. He battled with every level of COPD. I mean, you name it. Like, my dad was supposed to be going years ago, years ago. But he would show up.

He's there counting flies. He kept surviving.

I don't know how y'all not kicking this stuff. I mean, man, you can't say this. I beat him. That's it. I beat that. He's wearing it like badges of violence.

Did I beat that? That one didn't get me. Cancer. Cancer.

They tried it. Had me in there with the chemo. I thought I'd kiss my ass. I got out of there. I beat it. Y'all didn't knock that? I mean, it was bad.

So you've got your mom as this shining example on the one side and your dad as a different kind of example on the other side.

The worst of it, yes.

So what people talk about a lot today is raising young men to be good men.

Yeah. My dad was very...

adamant about the stance of man. So bullying and things like that when I was a kid, like, yo, they messing with me or they're getting messed or I don't like that. They're picking on me down the street. My dad was the, come on, where we going? We're going down the street. You're going to go down there and whoever it was, you're going to handle your situation. I'm to stand there. And win or lose, it doesn't matter. What matters to me is that you understand that you're not supposed to allow these things to happen. Whether I'm there or not, you have to respect yourself enough to want to see the best for yourself. So, you know, I can go to several street fights when I was younger. And by the way, this is a different time of parenting. A much different time where some of these things are frowned upon. But I can say the character that was built because of the things that my dad made necessary. And it was so out of the, so far out of the loop of what should be done. Everything my dad did I was standing and arguing. I think it was wrong. I can say I think it was wrong. It was dangerous. No, looking back at it, my dad threw me off a cliff in the lake. I was scared to jump. He grabbed me, threw me off. It's like, nope, nope, that wasn't a good move. I landed, I'm in the lake treading. He yelled down, see, you fine. No, I'm not. No, I'm not, man. You just scared the shit out of me Like I'm not comfortable in here But his His approach The shock factor That it came with It gave me a level of comfort With like Things that will be Will be Like it is what it is I I don't care like My dad we in a car The car break down Alright leave the park We gonna walk Walk where? Home

We're in another state dad

We gonna walk home We gonna walk We in a boat Boat break down Alright it's okay We wait for somebody to come by Flag them down Get on their boat Take us in Who do we know out here We just wait There you go Hey Let that one go by They ain't stopping Get the next one Whatever Things that were bad Were never that bad to him So My My I have such a simplistic Like Stance to problems Like I don't talk about the problem Like there's gotta be a solution

When did you Come to appreciate The wisdom that you were getting from your father. I mean, what you got from your mother was evident. Yeah. Right. But, you know, and I'm sure there's some tension to his approach, who he was, what he wasn't, who he wasn't to your mother. There were a lot of reasons to not see his wisdom. When did it start to, when did this clarity?

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

Yeah

Nah your mother should have done what she done I was a piece of shit I did this I did that I was on drugs Kev I wasn't in the right frame of mind This story defines Kev I don't know if I told you this story

We gonna hear it now You gonna hear it He also didn't know about the cliff

Heaven's sitting there going Jesus This is going to mess you up, though, about Grandpa. Here we go. It's not going to mess you up, but it's like a real moment. So my dad, through like his craziest bout with drugs, my dad disappeared from him. And how old were you when this took place? I was 14, 15. Okay, so... Okay, so he's... Dad's gone.

Important time.

Yes. Like, this is the time when my brother was military, coming home, because my brother was having problems. And it's just me and my mom, right? Like me and my mom, my mom's figuring it out. My mom's got me in every extracurricular activity. She's doing anything to keep me off the streets. My brother was an example of what can happen if you're on the streets. I'm not going to let that happen with you. I got the iron fist. It's about two years since I've seen my dad. Oh, yeah.

So you don't know. We don't know. You don't know if he's alive or dead or what?

Well, you hear, because at the time he was battling with drugs, So you hear stories about your dad's been up on X, Y, and Z. That's where the addicts are. Like my brother was hearing things. I'm on a train, subway, public transportation in Philadelphia. And I'm sitting on a train. And. No way. Is that my dad? No way. On a train. Yeah. Dad? 15 years old. I'm coming home from school. Doors open on the train My dad looks at me dead in the eye He looks bad, horrible My dad ran off the train About Seven months after

Me and my brother finding, checks him into rehab. My brother found out where he was. His reason for getting into rehab and doing everything because he was so hurt at what he looked like when I saw him at his worst. And he said he would rather go through life without seeing me again than me seeing him at his worst. So his road to getting back was such a crazy road to experience because it was just, it was unapologetic and authentic and real. So rather than frowning upon the years that I missed or the moments that my dad wasn't there, I kind of like, I relished in the fact that like, oh, he's changing. He's aware and he wants to be better and do the right thing. And when he got on the other side of it, He said, look, I can't change anything Of what I've done with you Or your brother, I can say, sorry But now y'all got grandkids, like I got grandkids I can be The best version Of myself to them, because they don't know Everything, give me the opportunity To create that with them And seeing him Seeing him repair His years of bad father By great Grandparent energy Oh shit, this is full circle You're like, I'll take that I'll take it every day of the week And that's bigger than an apology to me It's much bigger, you don't need to say anything to me I've dealt with it I'm okay We're okay, I still love you, you're my dad But oh, your road to repair And how you're going about it I can't find A level of more respect So seeing him do that It was when I started to really like, really peel back the layers and go, I mean, this is a man's man. This is a, you're talking about falling to the bottom

and climbing back up

and finding a reason to smile every day after finding solace and then the blessings of your son becoming and you being able to see it. Whether the, like, who's to say who deserved to or who didn't? And like, my mom didn't get to see any of it. My dad was able to be on my, my dad was on jets with me. And here's a house, dad. Here's a car. Get what you need. What do you want? My dad was able to reap the benefits of his son becoming because somehow he managed to make it through. I don't know why it plays out the way that it does, but I think everything happens for a reason. For sure. But I love the fact that my dad got a world of blessings after his world of term.

And in some ways, you got extra blessings from that.

Well, I won't touch drugs because of my dad.

Yeah. And I've only met heaven. I haven't met your other kids. But I suspect that it's affected you in the way you parent.

1,000%.

Yeah.

1,000%. You might They've never spent They've never spent the The night like Over their grandpop's house

Well yeah

And I was like hey look

It's like

You're not going over Grandpop's stage Dad can we Even when we're kids Like Dad can we go Come and stay with grandpop Absolutely not Absolutely not You're not going over there He can sleep over here He can sleep over here He's going to come over here And sleep over here We're going to have grandpop Come and my dad With ass all the time Send the kids down here Let me tell you Absolutely not Absolutely not dad

You know what, and we all have, if you're black and, you know, didn't grow up rich, we all have, that wasn't my father, but there were cousins and uncles and, you know.

Yeah, you're not going over there.

Yeah, and it's a, the other thing you got from all that was the power of forgiveness.

A thousand percent.

Right, because there's so many young men, so many grown men who are walking around with the pain from that loss without any clarity, without any context, without any reconciliation. And they are living with those holes. A thousand percent. And you, your father helped you close those.

It's weird because my brother, my brother struggles with that. My brother can't let go Of the times of old He's very like Stubborn in The idea of repair You do something wrong to my brother My brother is well then for life You and I got a problem For life Every time I see you I'm gonna tell you That me and you

are no good. You know, I told him one day, I was like, that takes a lot of energy. Do you know the, do you know the amount of energy that it takes to keep a grudge? Really? Like, to, do you know, like, every day, to wake up and go, no, no, no, that nigga made me wrong. I'm so, the fact that they think I'm that guy,

like,

that, it takes so much. And he, he, he can't. I've never been the, I'm not a grudge person.

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Yes, yes.

Can you talk a little bit about your project with Audible?

It's a project with Audible. And, you know, it's more of what we're doing now, right? Like the lessons and intel, information and stories of like my roadmap to better parenting from start to like where I am now. It's a very, very authentic, transparent dive into like kid one through four and the lessons that I was able to like learn from, take on, understand, improve upon and grow with after each child. From starting out And not really Being as useful as you would want to be When a newborn baby's there There's not much as a father That you can do You're there for I mean it's vocal, maybe But when I start changing the diaper You snatched the baby because I did it wrong That's not it You got it too tight Give me the baby Let me swaddle I can swallow. No, you don't do it right. The arm ain't locked. You're there for moral support. Looking over the shoulder only. And that's it. I think it's

very valuable. Especially men. 1000%. I mean, I think it's really beautiful that you are sharing your skills, tools, lessons, wisdom as a father because fathers don't talk as much.

Well, I think there's a cloud over the concept of you know, the Black father, right? And the stereotypes attached to that, you know, bad, good, whatever they may be, the only way to redefine these stereotypes is to put better examples of fatherhood out there in the world that can be received, that can act as energy to energize this new generation of fathers.

For sure.

Right? What better gift to give to fathers than the gift of more information, right? And- And affirmation, right? I think sometimes we're looked over and quickly looked past.

There are a lot of good fathers.

1,000%.

We had one. I am married to one. My brother is one. You know, I'm surrounded by good fathers. And you're right, they get a bad rap, especially black fathers.

Yes, yeah.

You know.

But part of it is because there's not enough guys doing what you're doing. Yes. And who have the platform to go out and say, and champion fathers. So thanks for doing that. Thank you. First and foremost. Thank you.

Well, Heartbeat, y'all are killing it. Please.

Talk about that joint.

I mean, all that you were doing.

Heartbeat is my entertainment ecosystem.

Oh, I like that. Ecosystem. Ecosystem. Okay. Are there plants and trees? Well, there's a lot.

There's a lot of trees with tons of branches that are now presenting the opportunity for so much for this next generation. I think what I'm very adamant about at this point in my career is creating opportunities for the new. For example, Funny AF is a comedy series that I did with Netflix where we're finding the next voice in comedy, right? And the winner of the competition gets an hour special on Netflix. So I was able to go to Netflix and say, look, I want to do something cool, but the hour special has to come with it. Well, Kevin, we don't know. That's a lot to give. Well, as my partner, I need you guys to align with me because this has never been done.

Are you guys, you're working with everybody? Are you working primarily with Netflix?

I personally was doing, am, not was, was doing a film deal with Netflix. Unbelievable partners, unbelievable relationship that we've had over the course of like the last five years. The company still does business with all, right? It's free game and opportunity for. With all? With all.

That's neat. So, Mish, how does that compare to Higher Ground and what you guys are? It sounds really similar.

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

Yeah, you've been actively producing a lot. You guys are doing amazing.

But, you know, we moved from an exclusive deal to a first look with a goal always to be independent. Yes. Right. Because our reason for getting into storytelling was to tell a broad base of stories, you know, and get it out there. So our goal is to work with everyone. So we're now at the phase after that great foundational support from Netflix to be able to go independent. You know, it's all about mentoring.

too. Opening doors. Ecosystem. Yeah. You have the same thing in the operation. But in order to do

that, we've got to be working with everyone, right? Because not every story belongs on every platform. And Netflix was an example of that. I mean, they do certain things, but they don't do everything, you know? So having the freedom now to go and work with everyone, you know, we've got projects with HBO. There's a project that Barack is doing with Larry David on HBO that's coming out like right around the 4th of July that is, you know, a sort of spoof on America. You know, so it's a comedy.

There is no problem with working with everyone.

Well, it was great to support you in fatherhood, you know? I mean, that was really one of my favorite movies of the year that year. I mean, you know, the depiction of real fatherhood. I mean, you've been on, that's been a part of your brand. And I think that is beautiful. That story was so absolutely touching.

Kevin, when you started out in comedy, and we've been talking about a lot of stuff here. We haven't even touched on your genesis in comedy. Because I'm trying to figure out, were you better in comedy or basketball when you were growing up?

I mean, if you really want to be honest, man, I feel like I chose comedy, but basketball chose me. Right? You could hoop. You could hoop. It was one of those things.

I think people don't understand. No, nobody does. How good you have to be to play varsity basketball in high school. Nobody understands that. Usually people's careers are over before they get to varsity.

Yeah, it's a tough thing that I struggle with more than anything because that's where I should be.

I should be. You carry yourself like a hoop.

I should be on the court, right? But instead, I chose the stage. Yeah, yeah. Because I had to, right? Like, the demand for laughter was, it was so...

high. And I just had to put the basketball sneaks up.

I had to put them up. But when you finally got in the comedy, did you envision what you're doing with Heartbeat or did you think, all right. No.

No, let me just, let me give you an honest answer. Absolutely not. No, hell no. You're looking at a dumb genius and accident on accident on accident. Like stand-up comedy, It was an accident. I was working at City Sports. A friend of mine at City Sports said, Kev, you funny? You should do one of those amateur nights. The comedy club was right up the street. They said, would you do it? I said, I don't care. I'll do it. They said, if you do it, we'll go. We'll all go. And it was like a joke. I did amateur night. I fell in love with it. Oh, my God. This is amazing. I won a couple competitions. Being the dumb genius that I am, I quit my job because I got $75 from winning the competition. I was like, I'm going to do this. See you later. I'm just going to come here every week. win this. They stopped the competition soon after. I had no job. No, no more access to this $75. That was, that was my plan of attack. So you weren't like writing jokes and preparing.

No. You just, I want to hear that. When did you start like treating it as a profession?

When my mom laid down a hammer, my mom was like, you got a year. You got one year to figure it out your way. And if you do not figure it out, I'm still living with my mom. And you're how old at this point? I'm 18. Okay. If you do not figure it out your way, you have to do my way, which is college, back to community college, back to school, trade, job, everything. Keep in mind, I'm out here with a dream. I'm like, mom, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to be a comedian. What? I'm going to be a comedian. I got it. And to her credit, she did not, she did not like, she did not, she didn't lessen my dream. She never was not aligned. She just, she put a time on it. And what that did, credit to her or not, it made me go, oh my God. I got a year

I got one year

So I put the most pressure on myself And I figured it out So in figuring out where the amateur night rooms were Where the comedians were That were getting work, doing work Who can I get access to Who can I travel with Who can show me more than what I know now And I started to figure it out So my mom There's the bible story Where she put checks in the bible She's asked me am I reading my bible I told this story several times And I was lying Yeah yeah yeah I'm reading the Bible She was like Let me know when you read the Bible I was like mom I'm reading the Bible But at the time You know the rent It was getting crazy I was getting notices Like they're about to kick me out mom Like right now I'm having a hard time Covering the rent And she was like Well read the Bible You know Talk to God about it Mom this ain't Okay I don't know This is not a game Alright Like I get it I get the spiritual side of it Look I believe Okay But right now They put a notice on the door I need to You gotta help me out mom This month Until I Until I do these open mics The next month Read your Bible Damn it mom Like I'm getting frustrated So one night I opened up the Bible She had all the checks For the year Like she had rent checks To cover me for the year Wow In the Bible They all fell out And It's like the dopest thing ever But okay Yeah Let me Let me Let me actually read it Could you just have Given me the checks mom Yeah I mean like By the way No Very childish You shouldn't have. Extremely childish. Right? Extremely childish. I'm 18. Just give me the damn checks, lady. I'm going to get kicked out. But she knew you weren't going to read the Bible. She knew. And she knew I was lying the whole time. A month and a half of lies. I haven't read the Bible, mom. I'm on page 76. Matthew's talking to Peter about the stuff he did to David. I'm clearly reading it. I'm just cliff-noting. I'm looking up Matthew. I'm like, clip notes from the Bible. So when I gave that year and figuring it out, I saw, like, the energy that you should have to, like, really being prepared for the craft. So I started treating it like a real business.

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I did a Def Comedy Jam competition and I won. I won a Def Comedy Jam competition.

When was this?

This was, I mean, I want to say 1998. I was probably doing comedy for like maybe two years, maybe a little over at the time. And this was so big. To me, I was like, I just won a Def Comedy Jam competition. By the way, you were supposed to get so much. None of it happened. Everything was promised with the competition. None of it happened. I never even got the jacket. I never even got my leather jacket. You were supposed to get a Def Comedy Jam jacket, which was the biggest thing to me. I'm wearing this jacket so people know. Look, I gotta be funny You see what's on my back They never gave me my jacket And after winning You were supposed to be on a Def Comedy Jam tour I did one date And then the tour disappeared It was a very lackluster letdown Russell, listen He's my guy, I've told Russell this story It did happen You owe me a jacket, I've said it several times If nothing else, give me my damn jacket, Russell But things were starting to happen I did BET Comic View. I started to find my way to TV and I ended up doing Montreal Comedy Festival. When I did the Montreal Comedy Festival was when everything changed. I did the Festival of New Faces and the Hollywood side of the business was like, you got to see this guy, this Kevin Hart guy. You got to see him. And I started to then move to a place of like auditions and things here. And oh my God, But now, now I'm like, oh, this is comedy gets you to the, oh, I've never thought about that. I can probably do movies and stuff. And I remember getting a deal. I got a deal for like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was a development deal with, I want to say, ABC, ABC or NBC. I got a development deal. And when I got that, you know, I'm I got it. I'm rich. Mom, I'm getting you a house. I'm going to hold you down. Everybody gets a house. By the way, got to get a car, right? I'm going to hold. Dad, I know you want some. Don't worry. I got that. That money was gone in two weeks. Okay? Two weeks, that money was gone. But I up and moved to Los Angeles.

And at no point during that process did you get any kind of professional development. Dumb genius. Dumb genius.

I moved to Los Angeles without a plan. No acting classes, no nothing. I moved to Los Angeles. With $25,000 I had about $25,000 left I owed about $60,000 to the IRS Because I didn't pay taxes So I'm technically in debt I moved to Hollywood And I remember I remember moving and walking Down Like Sunset Boulevard And I was like okay This is it What now So the opportunities within TV and movie they started to come that was when The Big House and Soul Plane all this stuff happened early on and I was supposed to be made from it and those things failed none of it worked so I kept I kept I kept getting hit with failure but while failure was hitting me because I was such a road warrior the next wave of opportunity came from Will Packer who saw me at a comedy show and he wanted to develop Think Like a Man which was Steve Harvey's book. And he wanted me to star. Think Like a Man was a $12 million budget. We did 90-something million dollars in the box office. And that was that. Like, literally, Think Like a Man hit. I was the comedy relief. I can't thank this cast enough. The cast of Think Like a Man. Romney Malco, Megan Good, Gabrielle, Regina, Lala. It's a beautiful movie. Gary Owens, Jerry, I mean, Terrence, Tim's story directed. Like this movie was set up in such a way to where I was the funny. But without the cast giving me the ammunition or the moments, none of it would work. And everybody was okay with it. And I was able to improv, and I was able to do this thing that created, like, some movie magic. So this thing comes out, and then to Hollywood, this is the new guy. I mean, at this time, I've been doing comedy for 12 years. You were a long overnight sensation. I'm ready. I'm like, oh, my God, this is it. Like, it's going to happen. I have not taken my foot off the gas. I've done the same thing over the course of a 30 year career and to most it's oh man it's overnight yeah no not so much the real grind and the real hard work that it took to get here and you know when I sit down for too long I'm like okay I gotta like I'm working and working but I'm Kevin you gotta figure out the next wave of comedy like what do we what are we talking about? Where's the next

comedic energy wave coming from? And what I do that I embrace? I go to a comedy club. I go to New York and I go to the smallest places. And in these places where I... Hold on, I'm telling my wife I'm still here. Tell her. I'm still here. Say hi. Hey, we're on the podcast. You're on. Hi. completely different smile when she saw you did you see that did you see that I did see that did you see that completely different she was salty for a minute what are you doing I got eyebrows what are you doing I'm still here babe she saw hey I mean what just happened I'll call you when I'm done Hev is here too hey Nico we're all here alright love you bye so like see oh you got some points yeah bro I mean took his wife's call Oh no, that's that I don't want to end that one You do not I do not end that one Do not, well done Hey, hey, see I fumbled Hey, hey, hey You see Michelle? Hey Everybody's here You see everybody? We're still filming You said you would be there I know, I know what you see I know Yeah, that's a beaten man right there With stand-up comedy So I go to these small places And I don't have a thought I go on stage and I talk I'm not afraid Of silence I'm not afraid of the joke Not working I embrace the idea Of in order To get to the good thing I gotta step on stage With nothing And I gotta go Okay, here we are And I gotta figure it out In real time I gotta figure it out And as you start to figure it out, my energy starts to pick up. Oh, I got a joke. Oh, that joke connects to this. Oh, I got to go back out. I got to get on stage again. Oh, I'm so excited to do these things to see if they work. And then after eight to nine months or 10 months of preparation.

and doing that over and over again, five to seven days out the week, I have a skeleton of what I want to talk about. It's a brutal process, but I embrace it. Because without that, well, you can't celebrate the good.

Heaven, we are going to take you off the hook because we have a listener question so he can lecture them.

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

Yeah, here it comes. So we do this question where we give back to our...

This is our wisdom sharing.

We share some thoughts. So this one is from Carrie.

I'm a parent to two amazing kids. For years, I was close to both of them, but with the teenage years and probably all the hormones, my oldest has become challenging for me to be around. I feel like she has a mean streak that's developed towards me and we're really not getting along these days. I love both my children, but I'm closer to my youngest right now. I feel horrible because my brother was always the favorite growing up and I'm extremely sensitive to how hurtful that can be. How do you think I could connect with my oldest? Do I just ignore what's going on or try to talk to her about it? And how do I make sure that my kids know I love them both equally? This is from Carrie in Madison, Wisconsin.

I think that, you know, when you're in that period of battle, as a parent, you create settings that are just better for your mode. I would recommend your oldest Take your oldest to breakfast Take your oldest for a hike, a walk Go to dinner, a bike ride An activity that forces you guys to talk That forces you to enjoy one another In a different manner than what you've been doing Good always comes out of quality time And not your version of quality time But something that acts as a new version for the both of you I would I would recommend. And I think, you know, in doing that, you get to see and remember why your parent is fun or why your parent is cool or a good energy. Did you like that? You should do a book.

Well, yeah. I think that'd be a great idea. You know what? This is this is what I'm going to do.

I want to focus on doing an audio version. I think you should. Of parenting and information. I discovered that here today.

I'm glad I could be of help. Thank you. Thank you for that idea. But I do. I like that advice. I think we talked about this as well. I would encourage her to make sure she is taking each child as they come. So I would just say, make sure you see the child in front of you and try to, you know, just like you did with heaven, you know?

I love that. I mean, I think that's a phenomenal breakdown. So hopefully that information is taken and not frowned upon.

If not, then get Kevin's Audible book. Yeah, yeah.

Which I just made the decision to do. Yes, thanks to Michelle Obama. Yeah, yeah. An amazing gem.

I start negotiating a percentage now.

Well, you said it without that. Right? We already, yeah. That's a good one. You gave the idea. Yeah, you didn't. You said it without that. The first, you know, the first idea wasn't, it didn't come with a business economics. So it's weird now. So I think that we kind of just have to, it's one of those things, yeah, we just have to leave it because it's weird. You don't want to make it weird, right? That's how I would state that. Ooh, master negotiating right there.

Fair point. Craig, do you have anything to add? I can't.

I don't want to add too much. Those are both great answers. To Kevin's point, you know, sometimes you have to ask your kids what they are interested in and what they're doing to be better able to go find that new thing. Man, I can't tell you how wonderful this has been.

Thank you.

Really wonderful.

Thank you. It was amazingly uplifting, right? Like, I just love the vulnerability, the transparency. So I can only thank you guys for the time of day. Like, this was very, very much worth it.

And thank you most of all for bringing heaven.

Yeah, she is heaven. Bullied my interview.

I want to pack her up.

Please.

It's like here.

Yeah, I have her bag. Hold on. I'll be right back. I have her bag in the car.

You'd love Malia and Sasha. They've got to meet.

Yeah.

That would be cool.

And be sure to tell Nico we said hi, too.

Yeah, I'm going to do it right now. Because I'm probably late. She's waiting. A little late. My day's a little behind. It's all right.

We'll be right back.