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Brick Wall Comedy

The Original Kings of Comedy

Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and 1 more

Paramount Pictures · 2000 · 1 h 56 min

Spike Lee films four major comics commanding a packed arena crowd.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Spike Lee shoots this arena show less like a standard stand-up taping and more like a rock concert. The camera captures four distinct comic voices operating at peak capacity, feeding off a loud, active crowd. Steve Harvey bridges the sets as an exasperated emcee, steering the room with the pacing of a seasoned preacher and riffing on local Carolina Panthers scandals. D.L. Hughley rapidly roasts the front rows and points out that bungee jumping feels entirely too much like lynching. Cedric the Entertainer leans into physical mimicry, breaking down the exact body language of different types of cigarette smokers. Then Bernie Mac closes it out, wielding profanity like punctuation and threatening to violently discipline his sister’s kids—a routine that directly inspired his television career.

Filmed at the Charlotte Coliseum in North Carolina, the 115-minute feature documented what was then the highest-grossing comedy tour in history. By 2000, the lineup was already dominating network television, with Harvey, Hughley, and Cedric starring in their own successful sitcoms. Lee’s documentary approach, intercutting the stage performances with backstage card games and radio promotion, proved that stand-up could command a major theatrical box office. The movie pulled in $38 million and earned strong reviews for preserving the high-voltage atmosphere of an arena crowd that never stops moving.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Riffing on the movie 'Titanic' and Kool & the Gang

    Harvey contrasts the band playing on the sinking Titanic with how a Black funk band like Kool & the Gang would immediately pack up their equipment and leave.

  2. Front-row audience interaction regarding computer technology

    Harvey steals a coat from an audience member and playfully questions his claim that he works in computer school, contrasting his appearance with tech culture.

  3. Why Black people do not bungee jump or skydive

    Hughley explains that Black people avoid extreme peril like bungee jumping because daily life already carries enough danger, noting that bungee jumping is 'too much like lynchin''.

  4. The 'hope factor' versus the 'wish factor'

    Cedric explores cultural linguistic differences, explaining that white people hope for peaceful outcomes while Black people wish someone would test them so they can retaliate.

  5. Raising his sister's kids and coping with family stress

    Mac uses brutal, exhausted honesty to describe the difficulty of raising his sister's three young children, detailing comedic domestic run-ins.

  6. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    The grammatical versatility of the curse word 'motherfucker' closer

    Mac dissects how the profanity functions as a noun, transforms into an adjective, and can even be utilized as a split infinitive.

How it plays

Tone
Celebratory, profane, confrontational, nostalgic, and culturally observational.
On stage
Flamboyantly dressed in high-fashion tailored suits ('Mack-tastic' players' finery); Harvey acts as the smooth but crowd-challenging MC, Hughley offers accessible high-energy domestic observations, Cedric is smooth and in-tune with younger generations, and Bernie Mac brings raw, uncompromising, autobiographical edge.
Pace
Revue format with high-energy arena pacing, interspersed with Harvey's recurring short sets and documentary cutaways to the comedians backstage, on radio, and at hotels.
About
African-American culture, Race relations and differences between Black and white people, Family and Southern roots, Church life and religion, Old-school funk versus rap, Aging and sex

What the critics said

If you want lots of laughs and don't mind some profanity, The Original Kings of Comedy can deliver.

In the room: An electrified, stylishly dressed arena crowd of thousands that was deeply invested in every comedian and completely alive throughout the performances.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, catalog.afi.com, allmovie.com, archive.nytimes.com, latimes.com, rogerebert.com, washingtonpost.com, rottentomatoes.com.

Backstory

Filmed on the final two nights of Walter Latham's 1997-launched Kings of Comedy tour, which became the highest-grossing comedy tour in history and a cultural phenomenon within the Black community despite being largely ignored by mainstream media.

Details

Lineup
Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac
Released
Taped
Charlotte Coliseum
Runtime
1 h 56 min
Where
Paramount Pictures
Director
Spike Lee
Honors
2001 NAACP Image Awards - Outstanding Motion Picture nominee2001 Chicago Film Critics Association Award - Best Documentary nominee
Topics

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