Kevin Hart: Somebody's Gotta Say It
Tall-in-talent comedy king reigns over his own laugh-out-loud kingdom
Kevin Hart has been at Resorts World Las Vegas before. He recorded his 2023 comedy special Kevin Hart: Reality Check at Resorts World Theatre, where he shared his opinions on body modification, LeBron James, the metaverse and the advantages of walking onstage with a Louisville Slugger. His name is in lights on Resorts World’s giant tower-side video display, and if enthusiastic audiences can summarize their experience in one phrase Hart repeats during the show its “Somebody’s gotta say it.”
Somebody’s gotta say “We’re entertaining the crazy too much” and “the crazy are only going to get crazier.” Somebody’s gotta say “Crazy sneaks up on you. Look at Will Smith, that just happened.” Somebody’s gotta say something about a relative calling them to announce that they think they might be a dog.
Sometimes, Hart says, he feels like he lives in the crazy. That’s because, being at the epicenter of the Kevin Hart Nation, he most certainly does. Hart produces, directs and stars in movies and streaming series at a pace that would exhaust entertainment industry A-listers half his 45 years of age. He oversees his own comedy platform, LOL Network, his own Hartbeat production company with a focus on box offices and Hartbeat Ventures, which supplies capital to promising media, technology and lifestyle companies.
Hart, in short, has energy to burn and multiple outlets to direct it in. Standup is his foundation though. He’ll be at Resorts World Theatre Friday, bring his current “Acting My Age Tour” to Edmonton, Alberta for a June 13 appearance at Great Outdoors Comedy Festival, then return to Resorts World for a Sunday evening gig. Hart can’t stop, won’t stop.
That might be in part due to his having a hard time getting his comedy career off the ground in his native Philadelphia. Hart moved to New York City and honed his craft at Massachusetts venues. A guest appearance in Judd Apatow’s early-career television series Undeclared in 2002 led to a succession of film roles with increasing visibility: Scary Movie 3, Soul Plane, The 40-Year Old Virgin.
Hart underook his first major comedy tour and released his first stand-up special, I’m a Grown Little Man, in 2009. His career exploded after that, with Hart seemingly taking on every project he could manage. Think Like a Man was a major hit in 2012, begetting a Vegas-based sequel. His Real Husbands of Hollywood satire of reality shows was successful enough to be renewed for several seasons, and in 2018 his Hartbeat Productions released its first feature film, Night School.
It’s almost as exhausting trying to keep up with Kevin Hart’s activities as it must be to live like Kevin Hart. He has the energy, the motivation and the ideas to keep his empire growing, so he does. The growth provides enough motivation for Hart to shrug off criticism leveled at him by other comics during promotional interviews. The second season of his latest streaming series Die Hart is streaming on Prime Video, he’s reconnecting with audiences at Resorts World, and he has that Louisville Slugger in case someone really, really doesn’t like what he’s gotta say.
Kevin Hart at Resorts World: Aug 29-Sept. 1
A version of this story was published in the July 7 edition of Las Vegas Magazine
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