His last stand-up movie, Let Me Explain, featured stage effects akin to a rap or rock conert (i.e. flames shooting upwards from the stage floor) and boasted cameos by legendary rappers Method Man, Erick Sermon and Snoop.
This time around Hart opted to go the Hollywood route. A-list stars Don Cheadle and Halle Berry appear as themselves in a short, but not short enough, James Bond-like sequence which features Kevin as a cross between the British superspy and Denzel Washington's Robert McCall from The Equalizer. Unlike in his scripted movies, in which he's Ice Cube's or The Rock's bumbling sidekick, Hart is the action guy this time. No one who's followed Hart's career should be surprised. He's almost been leading up to this with his Nike commercials. Only now, Hart's the hero instead of Dwayne Wade. There's even a 007-style opening credits sequence.
The stand-up takes place in front of a live audience (of course) on a stage built inside of Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field (the Eagles' home stadium) with its 69,176-seat capacity. After rising from a hole in the stage floor, Hart hilariously opens up about a variety of aspects of his new life as an A-list comedian and family man. He covers a wide range of topics, from his usual relationship observations to being terrified of the wildlife near his home to resenting his kids' because of their terrible gift-giving skills to not knowing what to make of his son's suburban mannerisms. And of course, he again discusses his relationship with his father -- a staple of his comic routines. As usual, there are celebrities in attendance. It's not hard to spot fellow-comic Michael Blackson near the front.
In my opinion, a comedy is worth watching if it makes me laugh. And this one did. It's nowhere near as funny as his first special, 2009's I'm A Grown Little Man, named after his first tour, but it gets the job done. And it's much better than his BET series The Real Husbands of Hollywood.
With tears in his eyes, Kevin tells the crowd in his hometown (and mine) of Philly that he's made history by filling The Linc with 53,000 people for a stand-up comedy performance. That's an enormous step up from the 15,000-person crowd that watched him perform in 2011's Laugh At My Pain.
I guess the question now is: What Next?
Originally Posted 10/14/16
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