C E LE B R ITY
HART TO HART
US actor and comedian Kevin Hart coming to terms with a changing world.
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hey say every comedian needs a solid, varied slab of life experiences to be able in to reference in the name of writing good material; so in the case of Kevin Hart, he’s got plenty to help extend a career on stage that has already netted him the best part of £30million in career earnings. “I know they say money isn’t everything, but it’s sure as hell better than having no money… and I’ve been there,” he laughs. “The way I look at what I’ve earned from comedy, is basically it’s a fee I charge for people to laugh at how crap my life has been. And there’s a part of me that’s been undercharging!” Hart’s ascent to the top of the global comedy scene – segueing into the movie and record industries in the
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process – has certainly leant on a colourful upbringing. Included in that was his father’s cocaine addiction, visits to prisons where his elder inevitably ended up, the realities of being a single-parent child (raised by his mother, Nancy), and the pressures of dealing with a school life that, while rewarding – he went on to work at the University of Pennsylvania – was unconventional. “It’s perhaps a cliché to say that comedy saw me through those tough times, but I really think it did,” he says. ‘I think human nature sees us make one of a number of responses – that could be to laugh our way out of it, to become aggressive or angry, as has been a route for many successful sportspeople,
BY VIOLET WILDER
or to climb back into our shells. I wasn’t going to do the last one, so it was either comedy or basketball… and at 5ft 4” I wasn’t really in line for that one.” Hart scoffs, but fleeting appearances in celebrity basketball games actually revealed a latent talent that belied his stocky build. In stature, he couldn’t be further away from Dwayne Johnson, who he starred alongside in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle; yet proof that size isn’t everything came in the 40-year-old becoming the first comedian to partner with a major footwear and apparel company on
