Steve Harvey
A sharp-suited deacon who is exhausted by modern life.
5 specials · 1992–2008
Start with The Original Kings of Comedy, the breakout (2000 · 1 h 56 min · Paramount Pictures)
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Steve Harvey uses silence as a physical tool. He will set up a premise about marriage or church, deliver the punchline, and then just stop. He stands there in a massive suit, drops his shoulders, and stares at the crowd with weary disbelief. The silence stretches. He lets the audience laugh at the tension he built simply by refusing to speak. When he finally does open his mouth, the rhythm belongs to a midwestern pulpit.
Specials
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Steve Harvey abandons clean comedy for an unrated return to form.
Google Play · 1 h 46 min
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The Original Kings of Comedy (soundtrack) with D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer & 1 more
The 2000 arena tour that proved stand-up could sell out coliseums.
MCA Records · Album
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The Original Kings of Comedy with D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer & 1 more
Spike Lee films four major comics commanding a packed arena crowd.
Paramount Pictures · 1 h 56 min
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A short, profane set recorded right before the massive arena tours.
HBO · 30 min
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Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam — Season 1, Episode 3 with Rodney Winfield & Bernie Mac
Bernie Mac stares down a hostile crowd in a 1992 showcase.
HBO
On stage
He spent his standup years as an arena headliner before shifting entirely into a daytime advice figure and television host. The Original Kings of Comedy tour captured him at his peak, specifically in his role as the emcee. He paced the room, managed the energy, and acted as the audience’s exasperated stand-in. A younger generation encounters him solely as the man reacting to absurd answers on game shows, but those slow-burn reactions are the exact facial expressions he built his stage act around decades earlier.
His material is rigid. It relies heavily on strict boundaries between how men operate and how women operate, or how things used to be versus how they are now. The jokes are often secondary to the performance. He does not rewrite the rules of comedy, but he commits to a bit with his entire body. He will drag out a simple observation about a bad outfit or a foolish argument until the sheer repetition forces a laugh.
He spent years hosting Showtime at the Apollo, a job that requires a performer to survive entirely on crowd control. That combative, commanding instinct never left his act.
Turning points
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Late 1980s
Early Years of Homelessness
Harvey experienced three years of homelessness, living out of his car and washing at gas stations before winning a national comedy search in 1990.
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1997–2000
The Kings of Comedy Tour
Harvey teamed with Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac, and D.L. Hughley for the highest-grossing comedy tour in history, captured in Spike Lee's landmark film The Original Kings of Comedy.
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Retirement From Standup Comedy
Harvey ended his 27-year standup career on August 2, 2012, with a two-hour live pay-per-view special at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
At a glance
- Born
- , Welch, West Virginia
- On stage
- since 1985
- Style
- standup comedy
- Breakout
- The Original Kings of Comedy
- Topics
- Elsewhere
- Website, Wikipedia
Fans also like
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Cedric the Entertainer
Co-starred with Harvey on the record-breaking Kings of Comedy tour and in Spike Lee's concert film The Original Kings of Comedy.
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Bernie Mac
Shared the stage with Harvey as one of the four headline acts on the historic Kings of Comedy tour.
Also on screen
- Me and the Boys
- 1996–2002
- The Steve Harvey Show
- The Fighting Temptations
- Love Don't Cost a Thing
- You Got Served
A clip to start with
Steve Harvey on Firing White People Vs. Firing Black People