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Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · Netflix

Acting My Age

Kevin Hart

Netflix · 2025 · 66 min

Even a global superstar can't outrun middle age.

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Kevin Hart is 45 and reckoning with the fact that his body can’t keep up with his high-octane stage persona. The set pivots on the disconnect between his status as a stadium-filling superstar and the humbling realities of middle age—like taking six weeks to heal from a groin injury suffered during a footrace with younger athletes.

Filmed at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, Florida, Acting My Age is Hart’s ninth stand-up special and his fifth for Netflix. Released in late 2025, it arrived shortly after Hart received the Mark Twain Prize for American Comedy as its youngest-ever recipient.

Instead of trying to stay youthful, Hart leans directly into the indignities of his mid-forties. He paces the stage with his trademark high volume, running through routines about failing intimacy pills, panicking during a gorilla-trekking trip, and the sudden realization that ginger ale doesn’t actually contain any ginger. He also looks at his home life, detailing awkward family dinners, his nephew’s coming out, and the sheer exhaustion of raising both toddlers and teenagers at the same time.

While some critics noted that the performance relies heavily on Hart’s usual loud, barking delivery, others appreciated the slightly more grounded, self-deprecating perspective of a veteran performer finally admitting that his joints are winning the argument.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Impromptu sprint race against retired NFL running back Stevan Ridley

    Details rupturing his abdominal abductors during a middle-of-the-night foot race, resulting in an ER visit and six weeks in a wheelchair.

  2. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Gorilla trekking expedition in Rwanda with family closer

    Hart recounts navigating the wilderness with his wife and older kids and being unequipped to properly handle the encounter.

  3. Nephew coming out to the family

    Hart convenes an impromptu family gathering so his nephew can come out, which is met with immediate, unbothered acceptance and love.

  4. Using erectile dysfunction pills

    Explores the indignities of purchasing gas-station intimacy pills and middle-aged bedroom mishaps, featuring act-outs of his wife.

  5. Admiring Quincy Jones' unfiltered late-life interviews

    Reflects on wanting to reach an age where he has zero filter and can say whatever is on his mind.

  6. Michael Jordan's style and aging

    Jokes about Michael Jordan's poor dress sense and the reality of aging icons.

How it plays

Tone
Light, self-deprecating, raunchy, and candid with moments of poignancy
On stage
High-energy, physically expressive, self-deprecating, and candid with growing maturity
Pace
Fast-paced, high momentum, and lean while acknowledging physical limitations
About
aging and middle age, physical decline and injuries, family relationships, erectile dysfunction pills, celebrity encounters

What the critics said

Critics highlighted the special as a welcome return to vintage form, praising Hart's storytelling, vulnerability, and effective jokes about middle age.

In the room: Lively and engaged in a phone-free room enforced with Yondr pouches

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: a2zfilminglocation.com, allmovie.com, themoviebrowser.com, themoviedb.org, decider.com, thenationalnews.com, readysteadycut.com, intheseats.ca, imdb.com.

Backstory

Reflecting on his physical decline, aging, and recovery from a severe sprinting injury, opening the show with an overture performed by pianist Chloe Flower and an all-female classical quartet

Details

Released
Taped
2024, Knight Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami
Runtime
66 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Leslie Small
Topics
Before
Reality Check (2023)
After
The Roast of Kevin Hart (2026)

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