IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson - Be a Dumb Genius with Kevin Hart

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

Comedian and actor Kevin Hart talks about why he put down the basketball shoes and picked up the mic to pursue a long running career in comedy and entertainment. He opens up about his fatherhood journey and the crucial lessons he learned from his mother and a fateful run in with his own father. Have a question you want answered? Write to us at imopod.com.Use code imo at https://incogni.com/imo to get an exclusive 60% off.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up and moved to Los Angeles. And at no point during that process, did you get any kind of professional development? Dumb genius. I moved to Los Angeles without a plan. No acting classes. I moved to Los Angeles. With 25,000, I had about $25,000 left of the development deal. I owed about 60 grand to the IRS because I didn't pay taxes.

So I'm technically in debt. I moved to Hollywood. And I remember, I remember moving and walking down, walking down like Sunset Boulevard. And I was like, okay. Here we go. This is it. What now? This episode is brought to you by Chase Home Lending.

Hey, little girl. Hi, Craig Robinson. How are you? You know what? I'm doing, I'm doing pretty good, you know? Everything is in one piece, I believe. I feel healthy. Good.

How you feeling? I feel great. Well, our next guest, you know, his latest stand-up, which cracked me. I mean, tears rolling down my faces talking about us getting old, you know? And the funny thing is he's still so young. I know. It's true. It's like, you know, we got to say hello.

We're talking about Kevin Hart, who is here with us today, got to say hello. And it's like, yeah, he's all in shape. He looks like he's about... I know, right. Talking about not being able to run and pulling stuff and whatnot. Like, what you're pulling? You know? Maybe he's stretching more now.

You know, we love all of our guests. But, you know, I haven't met Kevin Hart. And I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to Kevin. I mean, we've met on some photo line or something. We're just like, hey, how you doing? But... Yeah. Yeah, so I'm excited.

Yeah. Well, let me... Let me get his introduction going. Kevin Hart has made a name for himself as the hardest working comedian, entrepreneur, producer, and actor. He is a global box office powerhouse and has earned both Emmy and Grammy nominations. His authentic approach to sharing life's everyday moments like we talked about with humor and Anne Hart has earned him a devoted global audience and social media fan base.

Yes, indeed. Without further ado, let's bring out the former varsity basketball player. Kevin Hurt. You knew I did my research. Beautiful introduction. This is great. This ball has got to stay together. You know how that is.

This is so great. So how are you talking about feeling old? What do you mean? Really. I'm getting older. What do you mean? It happens. You don't look it.

What you look and feel are two different things. I didn't say, look. Okay, the perception is amazing. I expected you to come in here and look. And like do a cartwizzle or something like that or twisted ankle or something. No, it's a lot going on under the hood. I'm in pain. I am in pain.

The maintenance to keep this up is extremely high. I find that men, though, just don't stretch. It's true. I can't touch my toes. See, now that's the thing. I've been talking to Barack about this, right? I have no ego about it. You see how fast I said it.

But you can't touch my toes. You could be able to do it. I mean, you could if you were doing yin yoga once a week, you could touch your toes. I challenge you. Well, I don't want the challenge. Okay? I didn't ask for this challenge. Like, you just gave me a challenge.

Challenge accepted. Yeah, Kevin, I challenge you to do the yin and touch your toes. I don't want to touch my toes at this point. So you know how some people become famous. Mm-hmm. And what? And become bullies. Yes.

They just bully you into doing stuff like, yo. Yes. A bully? She just comes busting in. No, he didn't work. No, what you just did is the clear definition of bully. Exactly. If we're just going to be honest about it, that is exactly what bullying is right here.

And then act like she's not. No, she said it and slammed her hand. I'm challenge accepted. Wait a minute. I never asked for the challenge. This is. This is unwarranted. I will try it, though.

My flexibility is in dire need of help. But that's why you ripped up here. What did you tear? Yeah. I tore my abductor. That's, like, see, in yoga, that abductor is stretched out. It would be prepared for that type of thing. It would be prepared for any kind of run.

You decided now I'm going to race you. Yeah, yeah. You'll see when I get up. The problem here is like, I jump up. Yeah. See, I needed a minute to just like let this leg get out. Get a little dizzy. You jump up too fast.

You know, that's starting to happen. Equilibrium. unbalanced. Right? You know, that's how people fall and break a hip. Does that ever happen? That, oh, all the time. Where you get a quiet dizzy spell or you don't want to alert anybody, but you're like, oh, this is it. This is this is this is this is a stroke. This is about to happen. Oh, this is. And the higher up you go, you know, it's just like you just keep going and your blood is like we can't go that fast. I think that I have to do a better job of alerting people when these things happen. Like I've had things that I deem to be scares. Like, you know, if you, if you're eating and you swallow too fast and something gets stuck in. chest. This is a heart attack. One thousand percent is happening right now, and I'm just quiet about it. I gave one of my girlfriends the Heimlich at dinner. What? Why did we just hear about this? Yeah. Well, a friend of mine was

visiting me, and it was funny because Malia was, well, that's right. We're back to bullying. We're back to bullying. No, it's just full circle. But we're the same age, and you know, you start having, you know, swallowing problems. Things just, just. Stop, you know. Yeah. So how about chewing your food more? But she had chewed her food, but she had told me that she had this esophageal issue where things will get stuck, right? So I knew that about her.

Now, we're there with Malia and two of her friends. They're in their 20s, right? But they're still babies, right? She stands up, finished eating. She stands up and coughs. And I think she coughed up something and it got stuck in her throat. And she was like, and I said, are you okay? And she said, now the three children, they just pushed away from the table.

And laughed. They started laughing. No, they didn't laugh. They were like, huh, uh, uh. That's what I would have. It was girls. They started moving away. They were moving away.

And I got up and I said, I went behind her and I just pull up. Like, I had never done the hind foot before and it dislodged it. Did they pop out of her mom? Right away? It just popped up right away. One good. Got her. And I was looking at the kids and I was like, what were you all doing?

You know? I mean, my question, and they were like, you're right. You're like, we were useless. They realized that that was a mother moment. That's actually a story. Yeah. That's one that you got to pull out at some dinners. Like, that's not a casual story.

We're just hearing about this, by the way, Kevin. That's a big one. We talked about it. No, we did not. No, we didn't. But in our family orbit, we talked about it. How good is your life to throw out a casual hero story? of, yeah, I saved the life.

She's trying to make up for the bullies. It only gave one. But I only say that because that's kind of stuff that happens when we get older. And the reason why I would like, I knew she wasn't faking, because she told me that it happened to her before, where something got caught in her throat and she was home alone. And it didn't pop out of her mouth? It didn't pop out, but it dislodged and then she could swallow it again.

Oh, no. She, she re-a-it? It could have happened again. She gave her re- A re-eat? A re-can't. You can't re-eat. You can't do a re-eat. You can't do a re-eat over the problem piece. You got to get that out. Well, she's alive, but it's a hazard of aging. You know, the stuff happens to us. Right. And the definitions form, the words, you know, I think that's the funniest thing that I found about getting older is that you have a word and reason for everything. Yeah, yeah. Because right now I'm losing mobility in my elbow. So what they said to me is,

Like, you just, you look for so much information. Yeah, so apparently I don't have the same recoil that I did. So I have to basically extend my elbow, but over-extend to get the full variation of use. But other than that, I'm fine. Yeah, other than that, I'm okay. But when it rains, it tightens up. Like, it's that. You turn into that person.

And what did you say? You can't eat anything. No, you get to the point where you put lemon in water. It's like, ooh, shy. That lemon's going to mess up my system. I cracked up because I feel that way. You're much more regular, the order you get. You know, and sometimes it's like not now.

It's too much. Not now. Yeah, I'm not eating if I have a drive ahead of me. You know, you wind up thinking about that. 20 minutes to get there? I'll wait. I'll eat when we get there. I'll eat once we're there.

I don't think I've eaten today. Listen, that is so true. I mean, oh, I got a flight. Let me not drinking anything and I'm not eating. You say we're going over somebody's house? No, I'm a, I'm a wait. I'm going to wait until after we, because I don't know these people,

and I don't want to, I don't want to eat over there. And don't give me anything. No cheese. Yeah, please, please. No cheese. I'm sorry, what's in that? Walnuts. Yeah, I can't.

I can't. I'm going to push this back and just wait. Do you just have dry lettuce that I can, I'll just, I'll just nibble on that. Don't put any. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, so I'm just. Please. Please. Please don't. No, none of that. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. See, we got young people here. You all don't even know.

With your strong digestive systems. It's coming for you all. They literally eat like a tank. There's nothing. They don't worry about anything. Spicy food. Oh, my God. Put it on. Add more spicy. Really? And you just look and go, oh, Jesus, I would never make it to the car. Respectfully, you know, the language, I'll curb my language. But it's like, having no fear for consequence when you eat is an unbelievable asset. It's unbelievable. Childlike.

Eating an ass bomb, for lack of a better word. Like, it's going to blow. It's going to blow. You're not afraid of when that's going to detonate. But they can still control it sort of. They can hold their, they're like, they're like, what are the seagulls? The birds that can just hold on for so long. Like, I've never seen anything like it.

And fly a continent, fly over oceans. I'm envious. Very envious. Oh, well, we're supposed to be talking about you. Yes, I'm ready. By the way, that was a great conversation of relatability just now. Yeah, you got that. Right?

No, when you stand up, right? Dizzy? Yeah. All that. Oh, you don't eat either? Yeah. I haven't eaten a day either. Oh, my goodness.

That's good to know that we're all in the same part. We're all in the same vote. But please, before we talk about me, I just want to say congrats, guys. This is amazing. Thank you for having me. Amazing team that you have. Amazing energy here.

And excited. So excited to get in all things, of course, Kevin, and be a open book of dialogue, information. That's great. Conversation. And to help out with that, we have a special guest in studio. Yes.

My little nugget. Your eldest daughter? My oldest. Are you the oldest, Kevin? Are you the, the, the oldest or the... I am, yeah, the oldest. Grown job.

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that's my... Look, I spent two... My first mistake. Two minutes with her. She is your... She is your greatest treasure. I could tell that in two minutes.

That is my... I am unbelievably proud of the woman that she has become and is becoming. But I can say, as a father, your rewards come in a proof of concept. Right? Like, I mean, and parenting, all you do is give your best

and you hope that your efforts didn't fall on deaf ears. Really? And half the time, aren't you thinking, oh, God, I don't know what I'm doing? I just, I don't, but you don't, right? You're figuring out as you go on. We just act like we know what we're doing. You're figuring it out. But I think for me, the biggest reward has been seeing her actively put

the things that I've, like, beaten her head over the years to use. and she's just a responsible driven person. Like she truly is a little mold of the world of what her parents have put in front of her. And I think that's just, it's a plus. She's the best example in the world for her brothers and sisters, right? Oh, that's great. This episode of IMO is brought to you by United Airlines. You know, I fly a lot, both with my family and for work.

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Intercode IMO to get 70% off your first box. Ollie, feed the obsession. Can you talk more about your mom? Oh, my goodness. Because, look, she's badass, you know? Single mother, I want to know where she got it from. You know? That's a good question.

I mean, no disrespect to this amazing woman that I'm sitting across from at the table, but I'll argue anybody down and say pound for pound. the best woman to walk to earth. Yep. Right. Who? My mom. I thought you're talking about her.

Well, I know what she would do with. And then he's going to argue with it too. That's what a brother does. My big brother. He's like, who? Her? No, not even. Not even.

My mom. Oh, your mother. Okay. You know what's crazy? It's like I got a, as I got older, I got a different version of my mom. Yeah. So the bad version of my mom,

I never got to see because my mom flipped her life and went in the direction of spiritual, you know, God-fearing and energy towards self-improvement. And from the age like four on, there was no relationship with my dad. I never saw another man with my mom. All I saw was my mom go to work, come home, tend to me, my brother, and whatever my needs or our needs were.

I never saw anything else. So the commitment to doing whatever had to be done was bar nut. We didn't have money, but we also never saw that we didn't have money. We didn't have a life or lifestyle that allowed us to do the most or have the most. but we had the things that we needed. It wasn't until my mom passed away that me and my brother got to see how much my mom did

and what she prepared for. I remember she passed away and there was insurance and money that was given to me and my brother and accounts that was set up and she had college funds just in case

and like literally without having having this crazy salary or making money coming in. She didn't have a financial advisor. Nothing. My mom was a she was hungry for information. She felt that it was free. And she said that you can obtain as much

of it as you can keep. So she was in college. I mean, for the duration of her adulthood, chasing masters after masters after masters. Always just further extending the opportunity to educate and to do.

So in my younger years, it was like she does too much and it's annoying. And like, it's always something. You always want me to read. You always want me to look up something. You always want me to study these things. And like, I'm not a good student. I don't want to do this. I don't want to finish or complete these things.

I don't want to prepare or study. But when the adulthood kicked in, something happened in those lessons, all of them. a sudden it was second nature. If I could tell my mom anything, if I could have a conversation with Nancy, it would just be you were right.

And I think like parents... How were you when she passed? I get a little... Look, it gets me. Just give me a little. We cannot talk about our parents. No, I get to. Sorry. Yeah, no. No need to apologize.

With Nancy, yes. That's my one. regret. I never got to say you were right. And that's what... How were you when she passed? Man, 26.

Yeah. 26, 27. Yeah. And it's not like my... My tear isn't like a... No, I know. It's not an angry... It's like...

Yeah, it's... The appreciation for the energy. Yes. And love in real time... that a parent is giving. As a child, you overlook it. You don't value it at the level that you should. So it's not until kids get older.

It's not until kids get older that you go, damn, right? Like, I actually had the, I had the makeup around me. I had it. I had the machine around me. And because it wasn't glamorous, because it wasn't the bells, the whistles, the cars, the big houses, the front yards, it was like, oh, man, well, look at us, we're struggling, we're poor, with this or that.

Yeah. I also had the flip side of this as well, right? So, like, my dad was the opposite. Yes. And it's not glamorous. It's actually really bad. Like, my dad's, my dad was, like, there was some, a lot of shit with my dad.

Yeah. But if I didn't see it firsthand, And I didn't see my dad battle with addiction, with, you know, the law. I mean. Say he checked all the boxes. Name it. Name it. Name it.

My dad, man. I mean, arguably the humor, the ability to have dark humor, light, humor. It's my dad. Like, an example of my dad, like, I remember my mom's sister had passed away. and we're going to the funeral. And, you know, this is my mom's side, right? But, you know, a couple people had passed. Like, this is like another sister of my mom's, like her mom, her dad.

Like, you know, the funerals are, they're happening. They're coming. Right, yeah. They're coming fast. My dad is there. We get there, we're like standing with the family. And my dad goes, they drop it like flies. They're like, too soon.

Dad. Too soon. You look around. I mean, come on, now. Okay. Is that with a sense of you? By the way, by the way, the worst health. My dad had, my dad had the worst cancer, like, lung cancer.

Took his lung out. He battled with every level of C-O-P-D. I mean, you name it. Like, my dad was supposed to be going years ago, years ago, but he would show up. He's there. He kept to survive. I don't know how y'all not kicking this stuff. I mean, you can.

can't say this. I beat it. That's it. I beat that. He's wearing it like badges of mom. That one didn't get me. Cancer. They had cancer. They had it tried it. Had me in there with the chemo. I thought he kissed my ass. I got out of there. I beat it. Y'all didn't knock that? I mean, it was bad. So you've got your mom as this shining example on the one side and your dad as a different kind of example on the other side. The worst of it. So what people talk about a lot today is raising young men to be good men. Yeah. My dad was very adamant about the stance of men. So bullying and things like that when I was a kid.

Like, yo, they're messing with me or they're getting messed. I don't like that. They're picking on me down the street. My dad was the, come on. What are we going? We're going down the street. You're going to go down there, and whoever it was, you're going to handle your situation, I'm going to stand there.

And when to lose, it doesn't matter. What matters to me is that you understand that you're not supposed to allow these things to happen. Whether I'm there or not, you have to respect yourself enough to want to see the best for yourself. So, you know, I can go to several street fights when I was younger. By the way, this is a different time of parenting.

A much different time where some of these things, are frowned upon, but I can say the character that was built because of the things that my dad made necessary. And it was so far out of the loop of what should be done. Everything my dad did, I was standing and argue. I think it was wrong.

I can say, I think it was wrong. It was dangerous. No, looking back at it, my dad threw me off a cliff in the lake. I was scared to jump. He grabbed me. threw me off. It's like, nope, nope, that wasn't a good move. I'm in the late treading. He yelled down, see, you fine.

No, I'm not. You're just scared to shit. I'm not comfortable in here. But his approach, the shock factor that it came with, it gave me a level of comfort with, like, things that will be, will be. Like, it is what it is.

I don't care. Like, my dad, we're in a car. The car break down. All right, leave apart. We're going to walk. Walk where? Home? We're in another state dad.

We're going to walk home. We're going to walk. We're in a boat. Boat break down. It's okay. We wait for somebody to come by, flag him down, get on their boat, take us in. Who do we know out here?

We just wait. There you go, hey. That's that one go by. They ain't stopping. Get the next one. Whatever. Things that were bad were never that bad to him. So my, my, my,

I have such a simplistic, like, stance to problems. Like, I don't talk about the problem. problem. Like, there's got to be a solution. When did you come to appreciate the wisdom that you were getting from your father? I mean, what you got from your mother was evident. Yeah. Right. But, you know, and I'm sure there's some tension to his approach, who he was, what he wasn't, who he wasn't to your mother. There were a lot of reasons to not, not see his wisdom. when did it start to, when did this clarity?

When I realized that my dad wasn't afraid to be honest about any of his flaws. My dad was very accountable. Yeah, I did it. Yeah, I wasn't there. No, your mother should have done what she'd done. I was a piece of shit. I did this. I did that.

I was on drugs, Kev. I wasn't in the right frame of mind. this story defines. I don't know if I told you this story. We're going to hear it now. You're going to hear it. I also didn't know about the cliff. Heaven's sitting there going, oh, Jesus.

This is going to mess you up, though, have about grandpa. Here we go. It's not going to mess you up, but it's like a real moment. So my dad, through like, his craziest bout with drugs, my dad disappeared from him. And how old were you when this took place? I was 14, 15. Okay, so he's, dad's gone. Important time.

Yes. Like, this is the time where my brother was military coming home because my brother was having problems. And it's just me and my mom. Right? Like, me and my mom, my mom's figuring it out, my mom's got me in every extracurricular activity. She's doing anything to keep me off the streets.

My brother was an example of what can happen if you're on the streets. I'm not going to let that happen with you. I got the iron fist. It's about two years since I've seen my life. dad. Oh, right? Yeah. We don't know. We don't know. You don't know if it's alive, dead or what?

Well, you hear, because at the time he was battling with drugs, so you hear stories about your dad's been up on X, Y, and Z. That's what the addicts are. Like, my brother was hearing things. I'm on a train subway, public transportation in Philadelphia, and I'm sitting on a train. And, no way. That my dad? way on the train.

Yeah. Dad? 15 years old, I'm coming home from school. Doors open on the train. My dad looks at me dead in the eye. He looks bad, horrible. My dad ran off the train. About seven months after,

me and my brother finding, checks him in the rehab. My brother found out where he was. His reason for getting in the rehab and doing everything because he was so hurt at what he looked like when I saw him at his worse. And he said he would rather go through life

when I'll see him again than me seeing him at his worse. So his road to getting back was such a crazy road to experience because it was just it was unapologetic and authentic and real. So whether and frowning upon the years that I missed

or the moments that my dad wasn't there, I kind of like, I relished in the fact that like, oh, he's changing. He's aware and he wants to be better and do the right thing. And when he got on the other side of it, he said, look, I can't change anything

of what I've done with you or your brother. I can say, sorry. But now y'all got grandkids. Like, I got grandkids. I can be the best version of myself to them because they don't know.

everything. Give me the opportunity to create that with them. And seeing him seeing him repair his years of bad father by great-grandparent energy, oh shit, this is full circle. I'll take that. I'll take it every day at a week. And that's bigger than an apology to me. Yes. As much bigger, you don't need to say anything to me. Right. Right. I've dealt with it. I'm okay. We're okay. I still love you in my dad.

But, oh, your road to repair and how you're going about it, I can't find a level of more respect. So seeing him do that, it was when I started to really like, really peel back the layers and go, I mean, this is a man's man. This is a, you're talking about falling to the bottom. And climbing your way by. And climbing back up and finding a reason to smile every day after. finding solace and then the blessings of your son be coming

and you being able to see it. Whether, whether the, like, who's to say who deserved to or who didn't. Like, my mom didn't get to see any of it. Yeah. My dad was able to be on my, my dad was on jets with me. And here's a house, dad. Here's a car. Get what you need.

What do you want? My dad was able to reap the benefits of his son becoming because somehow he managed to make it through. I don't know why it plays out the way that it does, but I think everything happens for a reason. But I love the fact that my dad got a world of blessings after his world determined. And in some ways, you got extra blessings from that.

I won't touch drugs because of my dad. Yeah. And I've only met heaven. I haven't met your other kids, but I suspect that it's, affected you in the way you parents. 1,000% 1,000% they've never spent the night like

over their grandpops house. Well, yeah. And I was, hey, look, you're not going over grandpastage. Dad, can we? Like, can we go? Like, can we go? Can we say a grandpa?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. You're not going over there. You're going to sleep over here. He can sleep over here. He's going to come over here. And sleep over here. We're going to have grandpop come.

My dad would ask some time. Send the kids down there. Absolutely not. Absolutely not, Dad. You know what? And we all have, though, if you're black and, you know, didn't grow up rich, we all have, that wasn't my father. But there were cousins and uncles and, you know. You're not going over there.

Yeah. And it's a, the other thing you got from all that was the power of forgiveness. A thousand percent. Right? because there's so many young men, so many grown men, who are walking around with the pain from that loss without any clarity, without any context, without any reconciliation.

And they are living with those holes. 1,000%. And you, your father, help you close those. It's weird because my brother, my brother struggles with that. Okay. My brother can't let go of the times of all. He's very, like, stubborn in the idea of repair.

You do something wrong to my brother. My brother is, well, then for life. Yeah. You and I got a problem for life. Every time I see you, I'm going to tell you that me and you are no good. Like, you know, I told him one day, I was like, do you know the, do you know the amount of energy that it takes to keep a grudge. Really? To be that. Do you know

like every day to wake up and go, no, no, that niggins ain't me wrong. I'm so, the fact that they think I'm that guy? Like, that it takes so much and he can't. I've never been the, I'm not a grudge

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It's a project with Audible And, you know, it's more of what we're doing now, right? Like the lessons and intel, information and stories of, like, my roadmap to better parenting. From start to like where I am now, it's a very, very authentic, transparent. dive into like kid one through four. And the lessons that I was able to like learn from take on, understand, improve upon and grow with after each child, right? Like, you know, from starting out and, you know, not really like being as useful as you would want to be.

Right. Like, you know, when the newborn baby's there, it's not much as a father that you can do. You're there for... You can change your diaper? I mean, it's vocal, maybe. But when I start changing the diaper, you snatched the baby because I did it wrong.

Because I did it wrong. That's not it. You got it too tight. That's why I don't... Give me the baby. Because I get me. Let me swallow. I can swallow.

No, you don't do it right. The arm ain't locked it. You're there for moral support. Looking over the shoulder only. I think it's very valuable. Especially men. I mean, I think it's really beautiful. that you are sharing your skills, tools, lessons, wisdom as a father.

Because fathers don't talk as much. Well, I think there's, you know, there's a cloud over the concept of, you know, the black father, right? And the stereotypes attach to that. You know, bad, good, whatever they may be. The only way to redefine these stereotypes is to put better example. of fatherhood out there in the world that can be received,

that can act as energy to energize this new generation of fathers. For sure. We're better gift to give to fathers than the gift of more information, right? And affirmation, right? I think sometimes we're looked over and quickly looked past.

There are a lot of good fathers. 1,000%. We had one. I'm married to one. My brother is one. You know, I'm surrounded by good fathers. And you're right, they get a bad rap, especially black fathers. Yes.

Yeah. You know. But part of it is because there's not enough guys doing what you're doing. Yes. And who have the platform to go out and say, and champion fathers. So thanks for doing that. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, heartbeat, y'all are killing it. Please. Talk about that, Joanne. I mean, all that you were doing. doing? Heartbeat is my entertainment ecosystem. Oh, I like that. Ecosystem. Okay. One of many...

Are there plants and trees? Well, there's a lot. There's a lot of trees with tons of branches that are now presenting the opportunity for so much for this next generation. I think what I'm very adamant about at this point in my career is creating opportunities for the new. For example, Funny A.F. is a comedy a comedy series that I did with Netflix

where we're finding the next voice in comedy, right? And the winner of the competition gets an hour special on Netflix. So I was able to go to Netflix and say, look, I want to do something cool, but the hour special has to come with it.

Well, Kevin, we don't know. That's a lot to give. Well, as my partner, I need you guys to align with me because this has never been done. Are you guys, you're working with everybody? Are you working primarily with Netflix? I personally was doing,

am, not was, was doing a film deal with Netflix, unbelievable partners, unbelievable relationship that we've had over the course like the last five years, the company still does business with all, right? It's free game and opportunity for. With all?

With all. That's neat. So, Mish, how does that compare to higher ground and what you guys are... It sounds really similar. philosophy, you know, except you're Kevin Hart. You've been doing this for a while, you know, which is a wonderful brand. But yeah, we are, it's the same sort of thing. I mean, we've had a wonderful relationship with Netflix. Yeah, you've been actively producing a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know,

we moved from an exclusive deal to a first look with a goal always to be independent. Yes. Right? Because our reason for getting into storytelling was to tell. tell a broad base of stories, you know, and get it out there. So our goal is to work with everyone. So we're now at the phase after that great foundational support from Netflix to be able to go independent. You know, it's all about mentoring, too, opening doors. Ecosystem. Yeah.

You have the same thing in the operation. But in order to do that, we've got to be working with everyone, right? Because not every story belongs on every platform. And Netflix was the example of that. I mean, they do certain things, but they don't do everything. You know, so having the freedom now to go and work with everyone, you know, we've got projects with HBO. There's a project that Barack is doing with Larry David on HBO that's coming out like right around the Fourth of July. That is, you know, a sort of spoof on America.

You know, so it's a comedy. They, there is no problem with working with everyone. Well, it was great to support you in fatherhood, you know? I mean, that was really one of my favorite movies of the year that year. I mean, the, you know, the depiction of real fatherhood. I mean, you've been on, that's been a part of your brand. And I think that is beautiful. That story was so absolutely touching.

Kevin, when you started out in comedy, and we've been talking about a lot of stuff here, we haven't even touched on your genesis in comedy. Because I'm trying to figure out were you better in comedy or basketball when you were growing up. If you really want to be honest, man, I feel like I chose comedy, but basketball chose me. Right? You could who. Like, it was one of those things. I think people, people don't understand.

No, no. Nobody does. How good you have to be to play varsity basketball in high school. Nobody understands that. Usually people's career are over. before they get to varsity. Yeah, it's a tough thing that I struggle with more than anything because that's where I should be.

I should be... You carry yourself like a hoopie. I should be on the court, right? But instead, I chose the stage. Yeah, yeah. Because I had to, right? Like, the demand for laughter was so high. And I just had to put the basketball sneaks up.

I had to put them up. But when you finally got in the comedy, did you envision what you're doing with heartbeat, or did you think, all right? No. No, let me just, let me give you an honest answer. It's like, no, no, no, you're looking at a dumb genius and an accident on accident on accident.

Like, stand-up comedy was an accident. I was working at City Sports, a friend of mine, City Sports said, Kevin, you funny. You should do one of those amateur nights. The comedy club was right up the street. They said, would you do it? I said, I don't care. I'll do it.

I'll do it. We'll go. We'll all go. And it was like a joke. I did amateur night. I fell in love with it. Oh, my God, this is amazing. I won a couple competitions. Being the dumb jeans that I am, I quit my job because I got $75 from winning the

competition. I was like, I'm going to do this. I'm just going to come here every week, win this. They stopped the competition soon after. I had no job No more access to this $75. That was my plan of attack. So you weren't like writing jokes and preparing.

You just say no. I want to hear that. When did you start like treating it as a profession? When my mom laid down a hammer, my mom was like, you got a year. You got one year to figure it out your way. if you do not figure it out I'm still living with my mom. And you're how old

at this point? I'm 18. Okay. If you do not figure it out your way, you have to do my way, which is college. College, back to community college, back to school, trade, jobs, everything. Keep in mind, I'm out here with a dream. I'm like,

Mom, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to be a comedian. What? I'm going to be a comedian. I got it. To her credit, she did not, she did not, like, she did not, she didn't lessen my dream. She never was not a line. She just, she put a time on it.

And what that did, credit to her or not, it made me go, oh, my God, I got a year. I got a good serious about this. I got one year. So I put the most pressure on myself and I figured it out. So in figuring it out where the amateur night rooms were, where the comedians were, where the comedians were that were getting work, doing work. How? Who can I get access to? Who can I travel with? Who can show me

more than what I know now? And I started to figure it out. So my mom, there's the Bible story of like where she put checks in the Bible. She's asked me like, am I reading my Bible? I told the story several times and I was lying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm reading the Bible. She was like,

let me know when you read the Bible. So I'm reading the Bible. But at the time, you know, the rent was getting crazy. I was getting notices. Like they're about to kick me mom. Like right now, I'm having a hard time covering the rent. And she was like, well, read the Bible, you know, talk to God about it. Mom, this ain't, okay, I don't know,

this is not a game, all right? Like, I get it. I get the, I get the spiritual side of it. I believe, okay? But right now, they put a notice on the door. I need to, you got to help me out, Mom, this month. Until I, till I do these open mics. The next month, read your Bible. Damn it, Mom. Like, I'm getting frustrated.

So one night I opened up the Bible, she had all the checks for the year. Like she had rent checks to cover me for the year in the Bible. They all fell out. And it's like the dopest thing ever, but okay, let me, let me actually read it. Could you just have given me the check? Yeah, I mean, by the way, very childish. Extremely childish, right? Extremely childish.

I'm 18. Just give me the damn checks, lady. I'm going to get kicked out. But she knew you weren't going to read the Bible. She knew. And she knew I was lying home. A month and a half of the lives. I haven't read the Bible, mom.

I'm on page 76. Matthew's talking to Peter about the stuff he did to David. I'm clearly reading it. I'm just cliff notes. I'm looking up Matthew. I'm looking at Newtown. So when I gave that year

and figuring it out, I saw like the energy that you should have to like really being prepared. for the craft. So I started treating it like a real business. It's officially patio season, and this year, Kelly and I were committed to sprucing up our outdoor space without completely blowing our budget. The idea was to make our patio feel like an extension of the house, and Wayfair made the whole process so much easier. We got new seating, a rug, some lanterns, and suddenly we're out there all the time.

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and get groceries just how you like. I did a Deaf Comedy Jam competition and I won. I won a Deaf Comedy Jam competition. When was this? This was, I mean, I want to say 1998. I was probably doing comedy for like maybe two years, maybe a little over

at the time. And this was so big. To me, I was like, I just won a deaf comedy jam competition. By the way, you were supposed to get so much. None of it happened. Everything was promised with the competition. None of it had. I never even got the jacket.

I never even got my leather jacket. You were supposed to get a deaf comedy jam jacket, which was the biggest thing to me. I'm a weirdest jacket to people know. Look, I got to be funny. You see this on my back. They never gave you my jacket. And after winning, like, you were supposed to be on a deaf comedy jam tour.

Like, I did one date and then the tour disappeared. Like, it was just, it was a very lackluster letdown. Yeah, okay? Russell, listen, Russell, he's my guy. I've told Russell this story to his face. It's like, it did happen. You owe me a jacket. I've said it several times.

If nothing else, give me my damn jacket, Russell. But things were starting to happen. I did BET Comic View. Like, they were, I started to find my way to Tee. and I ended up doing Montreal Comedy Festival. When I did the Montreal Comedy Festival was when everything changed. I did the Festival of New Faces

and the Hollywood side of the business was like, you gotta see this guy. This Kevin Hart guy, you gotta see him. And I started to then move to a place of like auditions and things here. Wow. And oh my God, now I'm like, oh. This is the thing.

Comedy gets you to the... Oh! Never thought about that. I never saw that. I can probably do movies and stuff. And I remember getting a deal. I got a deal for like $250,000. It was a development deal with, I want to say ABC.

ABC or NBC. I got a development deal. And when I got that, you know, I'm... I'm rich. Mom get you a house. I'm a rich. By the way, got to get a car. Right.

Dad, I know you want something. Don't worry, I got that. That money was gone in two weeks. Two weeks, that money was gone. But I up and moved to Los Angeles. And at no point during that process, did you get any kind of professional development? Dumb genius.

I moved to Los Angeles without a plan. No acting classes. I moved to Los Angeles. With 25,000, I had about $25,000 left of the development deal. I owed about 60 grand. to the IRS because I didn't pay taxes. So I'm technically in debt. I moved to Hollywood

and I remember moving and walking down like Sunset Boulevard and I was like, okay. Here we go. This is it. What now? So the opportunities within TV and movie they started to come.

That was when the big house and soul plane, all of this stuff happened early on and I was supposed to be made from it. And those things fail. None of it worked. So I kept getting hit with failure. But while failure was hitting me, because I was such a road warrior,

the next wave of opportunity came from Will Packer who saw me at a comedy show. And he wanted to develop Think Like a Man, which was Steve Harvey's book. And he wanted me to star. Think Like a Man was a $12 million budget. We did 90-something-something-minute, million dollars in the box office.

And that was that. Like literally, think like a man hit. I was the comedy relief. I can't think this cast enough. The cast of Think Like a Man, Romney Malcolm, Megan Good, Gabrielle, Regina, Lala.

It's a beautiful movie. It really was. Jerry. I mean, Terrence. Tim's story directed. Like this movie was set up in such a way to where I was the funny. But without the cast giving me the ammunition or the moments, none of it would work. And everybody was okay with it.

And I was able to improv. And I was able to do this thing that created like some movie magic. So this thing comes out. And then to Hollywood, this was the new guy. I mean, at this time, I've been doing comedy for 12 years. You were long overnight sensation. I'm ready. I'm like, oh, my God, this is, this is it. Like, it's going to happen.

I have not taken my foot off the gas. I've done the same thing over the course of a 30-year career. And to most, it's, oh, man, it's overnight. Yeah. No, no, not so much. Yeah. And the real hard work. that it took to get here.

And, you know, when I sit down for too long, I'm like, okay, I got to, I'm, like, I'm working and working, but I'm, Kevin, you got to figure out the next wave of comedy. Like, what are we, what are we talking about? Where's the, where's the next comedic energy wave coming from? And what I do that I embrace, I go to a comedy club, I go to New York, and I go to the, you know, the smallest places. and in these places where I, or I'm telling my wife, I'm still here. Tell her.

Hey, honey. I'm still here. Say hi. Hey, we're on, we're on the podcast. You're on. Hi. Completely different smile when she saw you. Did you see that?

Did you see that? I did see that. Did you see that? Completely different. What are you doing? What are you doing? I got eyebrows. What are you doing?

I'm still here, baby. She saw, hey! I mean, what just happened? I'll call you where I'm done. Heaven's here too. Hey, Nico. We're all here. All right.

Love it. Bye. So, so like. See, and let me just say. I mean, took his wife's call. Oh,

no, that's that. I don't want in that one. You do not. No. I do not in that one. Do not. Well done.

Hey, hey, he got fumble. Hey, hey. You see Michelle? Hey, everybody's here. Is this, you see everybody?

We're still filming. You said you would be like, I know. I know. That's a beaten man right there. With stand-up comedy. So I go to these small places and I don't have a thought. I go on stage and I talk. I'm not afraid of silence.

I'm not afraid of the joke not working. I embrace the idea of an order to get to the good thing. hour, I got to step on stage with nothing, and I got to go, okay. Here we are. Here we go. And I got to figure it out. In real time, I got to figure it out. And as you start to figure it out, my energy starts to pick up.

Oh, I got a joke. Oh, that joke connects to this. Oh, I got to go back out. I got to get on stage again. Oh, I'm so excited to do these things to see if they work. And then after eight to nine months or ten months of preparation and doing that, over and over again, five to seven days out the week, I have a skeleton of what I want to talk about.

It's a brutal process, but I embrace it. Because without that, well, you can't celebrate the good. Heaven, we are going to take you off the hook because we have a listener question so he can lecture them. Oh, it's coming. It's coming. Here's coming. So we do this listening question where we give back to our...

Our wisdom sharing. We share some thoughts. So this one is from Carrie. I'm a parent to two amazing kids. For years, I was close to both of them. But with the teenage years and probably all the hormones, my oldest has become challenging for me to be around. I feel like she has a mean streak that's developed towards me,

and we're really not getting along these days. I love both my children, but I am closer to my youngest right now. I feel horrible because my brother was always the favorite growing up. and I'm extremely sensitive to how hurtful that can be. How do you think I could connect with my oldest? Do I just ignore what's going on or try to talk to her about it? And how do I make sure that my kids know I love them both equally? This is from Carrie in Madison, Wisconsin.

I think that, you know, when you're in that period of battle, as a parent, you create settings that are just better for your mode. I would recommend your oldest, take your oldest. oldest to breakfast. Take your oldest for a hike, a walk, you know, go to dinner, a bike ride, an activity that forces you guys to talk, that forces you to enjoy one another in a different manner than what you've been doing. Good always comes out of quality time, right? And not your version of quality time, but something that acts as a new version for the both of you, I would recommend. And I think, you know, in doing that, you get a,

get to see and remember why your parent is fun or why your parent is cool or good energy. Did you like that? You should do a book. Well, yeah. An audible book. I think that would be a great idea. You know what? This is what I'm going to do.

I want to focus on doing an audio version of parenting and information. Yeah, that's what I'm good at. I'm glad I could be of help. Thank you. Thank you for that idea. But I do. I like that advice. I think we talked about this as well. I would encourage her to make sure she is taking each child as they come. So I would just say, make sure you see the child in front of you and try to, you know, just like you did with heaven, you know? I love that. I mean, I think that's too phenomenal breakdown. So hopefully that information is taken and not frowned upon.

If not, then get Kevin's audible book. Yeah, which I just made the decision to do. Yes, thanks to Michelle Obama. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An amazing gym. And should I start negotiating a percentage now. Well, you said it without that, right? We already, yeah, you gave the idea.

Yeah, you didn't. You said it without that. First, you know, the first idea wasn't, it didn't come with a business economic. So it's weird now. So I think that we kind of just have to, it's one of those things. Yeah, we just have to leave it because it's weird. You don't want to make it weird, right? That's how I would state that.

Who, master negotiating. Fair point. Craig, do you have anything to add? I can't. I don't want to add too much. Those are both great answers. To Kevin's point, you know, sometimes you have to ask your kids what they are interested in and what they're doing to be better able to go find that new thing. Man, I can't tell you how wonderful this has been.

Thank you. Really wonderful. It was amazingly uplifting, right? Like, I just love the vulnerability, transparency. So I can only thank you guys for the time of day. And thank you most of all for bringing heaven. Yeah, she is heaven. She is heaven.

Bullied, bullied my energy. I want to pack her up. Yeah, please. It's like here. Yeah, I have a bag. Hold on. I'll be right back. I have a bag in the car.

You'd love Malia and Sasha. They've got to meet. Yeah, yeah. That would be cool. And be sure to tell Nico we said hi, too. Yeah, I'm going to do it right now because I'm a little late. She's a little bit of a little behind. My day is a little behind.

It's all right.