We gotta do a countdown check the mic.
Everything good, Kevin Set one, Sex, five, ten nine.
Kevin Hart, You listen. Before I do these out of context conversations, I like to set my intention. So my intention for this combo is to properly shine the light on the historic career of Kevin Hart, the entertainer, the mogul. I want to put who you are and what you have done in its proper context for people.
I love it.
Okay. Now, you once said in an interview, you said life is a book, and you determine how it ends. What would you title this chapter of your life.
Understanding? I would say understanding forty five years old, and I understand the purpose, I understand the value, I understand.
The real reward.
So I think, yeah, this is about this is about clarity. This is about having a bigger and better vision based off of my now understanding.
Twenty years ago, when you was twenty five, how would you define success?
What did it look like to you success at twenty five?
Well, just when you were twenty five, Yeah, what did success look like to you?
Success at twenty five was.
No free weekends because you were booked, whether it was comedy clubs or colleges, the stand up calendar was full. The only thought was comedy, right, and I think you know the opportunities for acting that came and sprinkled in here and there. It was cool moments, but the stand up and being a headliner in state end up, nothing was bigger and better than that. So how do I get a full calendar?
How has achieving the success you've achieved reshaped your definition of what you thought success was twenty years ago?
I mean it's completely different. You know the success success is like.
It's layered because you think it's financial, and then after that you think it's material once you get financial, and then it makes a weird shift where it turns into like happy, right, And what level of success do you have to reach for you to understand that happy is always it should always be the first thing. And how do you get that? How do you get to that?
The success is like it's a journey. It's a journey that you embark on and go through all this stuff to get there and go, I was I was this then? Like I was I was happy and I was vibrant and that was fun. And as you obtain more your workload, your stress, you want your need, Like everything starts to come into play a little differently, So it boils down to how do you get to the role of happy and understanding the value of a circle, your friends, your family,
et cetera. Like that's that's where your thought process starts to drive more towards as you get older. So the biggest thing is happiness. Man, at the end of the day, like, are.
You doing what you love?
Do you do you absolutely find joy and that thing that you're dedicating yourself to on a day to day basis, And does it make you better? Does it bring the best out of you? Does it bring the worst out of you? Like you gotta you gotta start to do that. So my joy now comes in helping and creating opportunities to see other people get to the place or.
To help position of the people.
Correctly to do the thing that they want to do, or to find the happiness and a thing that they are thriving towards.
That's my new that's my new happy.
Have you have you always been happy through through every stage of this business and this career of yours? Have you always been happy because you always present very happy? Yeah?
I'm not a I'm not an unhappy person, right like, I'm I'm a good person, good energy behind me, But my patience isn't you know, my patient. My patience isn't as long as it should be. My patience is extremely thin, because you know, the the more work you take on, the more you're dealing with it on day to day.
So I think I've definitely been spread thin. And in being spread thin, you because of your your your training, you got one track that you're on in the the only thing is this everything else in the way that kind of has to be pushed to the side. So my happiness at one point was coming on just trying to achieve the goals. And I think during that time I probably overlooked a lot of things that were real
definitions of true joy and true happiness. But because I had the tunnel vision, I was focused on this thing. So I don't think I don't think I've never not been happy. I think that i've I think I've definitely been absent minded at times.
I don't think people realize that you always haven't had success, right like when you think about twenty years ago, you got a shot in the industry, you had to sitcom on ABC, the Big House, major motion picture Soul Plane, And it was once said that you already had those deals when you came to LA, and no one had ever heard of a comedian who came to LA and his first year in LA had all of that. People never heard of that before you are since you. So
my question is, how did you achieve all of that? keV?
I mean, that's nuts. It's just it's insane to assume that somebody came and was given anything, like I think for those people to really follow my career and then no, like I don't. I don't think there's bigger definitions of hardship and work and success and takeaway. Right, So, early stages of my career, doing the comedy festival, just for last comedy festival, Oh my god, went there, killed it. Holy shit, this is this is it. This is where everything's going to come. Getting a deal at that point
in time was a big deal. I think there was like two hundred thousand dollars. I got a dealtval Well. I got a deal coming out of the festival because basically I met with studios, Networks, et cetera, and they said we're gonna do a development deal with you.
People forgot about those.
Development deals don't exist. No more talent development deals. This is when comedians and the prime of their career got opportunities coming out of these comedy festivals. And the Just for Last Festival was like the biggest, the new faces.
It's like a showcase.
Yes, so agents, studios, et cetera were all there.
I get this deal.
I believe it might have been with NBC, NBC or ABC at the time, and you know, this is it. I got the money, life change. I can do some stuff for my family. Whatever money goes, nothing comes out of the deal. Nothing. Well that was short lived. Later I get the opportunity to develop a series, create a series. This is the Big House. And the opportunity came for
me learning how people were developing, writing and pitching. So I was like, I can go back and the same people I met with with my deal, I can start pitching too. I want to pitch shows or pitch ideas and doing that, we pitched a Big House. Big House gets picked up. Finally I got a sitcom. This is gonna be great. We shoot, we shoot the Big House, We shoot the pilot. Pilot gets picked up. Time for me to go to New York do the upfronts announce it.
Before I take the stage to announce my show is going to be on ABC and this is the biggest thing ever. They pulled me back and they said they're deciding not to pick up your show. Wow, get right there. Uh are you serious? I'm here like I flew the cast in we all this is exciting time. Yeah, no, we're not. They're not gonna do it. Can't stand over there that fast. It's over.
I gotta go home. I'm on a plane.
No show. I get a call probably six months later, we're gonna pick it up mid season. Oh my god, the joy. Finally it came around. They air one episode, maybe maybe two episodes, not even that many, maybe three, I don't know, maybe two or three. Pulled it, canceled it. No sitcom. Okay shit, I'm back back on the grid, back on the grind.
I'm in the world of auditioning.
Nothing's coming out of ith. Soul Playing came. Holy shit, got another opportunity, booked the audition. Tons of people audition with Soul Plan. Jessice Terrero was like, that's my guy. I want him.
Soul Plane his bootleg, biggest boot leg ever.
My success came from the bootleg and give soul playing because people started to remember me and my success came from Paper Soldiers and that underground movie and in the bootleg circuit up so the memorable, the memorable side of understanding. Oh that's the guy from Oh shit, that's the comedian from.
I just started doing comedy clubs.
So I said, all right, fuck the acting stuff.
I'm just gonna go focus on the comedy.
So I went, I just did a comedy grind like nobody's business.
It was a little Wayne Mixtape level comedy ground.
I went. I went. I remember so when I tell you, I was so adamant about the comedy clubs. Stand up any stage, any room, New York. Get the people, get the fans, Go get the emails, go back, tell them I'm coming back to the city again.
City Chicago's Cleveland.
Since then, you name it. I did that ship for about I want to say I probably put in like five years of non stop comedy club work, and over that five years gathered the audience, gathered the nice amount of emails.
This is when.
Speak speed by that because you were in these comedy clubs. Yeah, I remember this. You were you were getting everybody's.
Email email and you had a newsletter that you yes, yeah, I would, I would. I literally got Dang Cook is one of the first people to like really embrace his fans in the development of the relationship with the fans, right. Dang Cook was one of the early early people that I heard talk about this. And at this time, Dang Cook was like, boom, I mean HEU. So I'm like, I gotta get emails and I got to talk to the people. So I would do these newsletters for the
cities and I would, I would send them. I was sent them out as a blast Like MySpace had a feature at the time where you could basically like geotag I'm coming to Cincinnati, and on your midspace you can look for the people in Cincinnati. And I would personally send out messages I'm coming to the Cincinnati I'm performing, Come see me perform. I mean you're copying, pasting the same messages over and over again. Some people came, some
people didn't. But at the end of the shows, I would know who came, and I would know the result of me individually telling people to come out because I would be able to match the emails addresses help with things that I saw on the MySpace paids, So I was like, between these things, if I stay true to it, it'll work. So me and my guys, the Plastic Cupboys, we would go to the city land, go to a mall, pass out flyers, tell people about the show, get emails.
Then we would go to the show perform as people were walking out getting emails. I used to have cards and I would have cards on the table. People would fill out the cards. I would take them. So then at the end of the weekend, everybody that came, hey guys, when I come back, I'm gonna make sure you all know thanks for coming out. I built the rapport for five years maybe more. I was very consistent with that raport colleges. I was performing at showcases for colleges and
gathering that personnel. I didn't give a fuck where people were. If it was people there, I was going to go and I was going to personally make sure you knew who I was and that I knew who you were. So when I did Shacks All Star Comedy Jam that that dropped. After I did Grown Little Man and I was about to do seriously funny, I forgot the order of it. But I was doing these comedy specials, and it was for Comedy Central. It's gonna be my specials,
all right. It was like a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of a little bit of steam off of them.
The comedy club is getting a little full.
After the Shacks All Star Comedy Jam, I don't know what happened, but that shit, that shit hit harder than anything. And then I did Seriously Funny, so people were like, whoa Shacks Star Star Comedy Jam? And then I did different material, seriously funny, Okay, after seriously funny. Well that's when it was it was okay, shit, this guy's like the real deal. So it went from comedy clubs to
theaters real fast. I mean, right now, you're witnessing it with Matt Rife, Like I remember that, like Matt Rife. It's a weird thing that happened where Matt was in comedy clubs and he was doing his like little things, and the TikTok thing hit for him, and all of a sudden, Matt Rife is doing shows. It arenas Matt Rife sold out and he's It happened so fucking fast. So when that happened, I said, well, I don't want to run away from the thing that I was doing.
I got to tell people, I am now going to the theaters, right, the theaters. I'm gonna be at the theater, not the comedy club. Well, theater's selling out so fucking fast. So now I don't have to do the email ship no more.
I don't have to turn the social media too.
This when social media just started, right, this is when all of the ship look out of the time was getting past. Oh man, the tickets are selling, so we're good. I don't I don't have to do this like I once did. Twitter.
Twitter is now so now Twitter I learned.
What that is, and I'm like, oh wait, I can talk directly to my like to the people that follow me. Go back to the world of emails. I'm on Twitter. Here's my act name. Make sure y'all follow me.
I remember all of it.
So all the people that I gathered from all of these cities. Name of city during that time, Detroit name A fuck, I don't give it. Every city. I don't care if it's an A market, B market, C market. I went everywhere. Once I said follow me on Twitter, all right, well I'm out the gate. I had like three hundred some thousand followers.
I'm like, you were the first person we knew what a million followers. I was like, oh shit, you got a million followers.
I said, I gotta talk to them. So now the emails that I was sending that people were on privy to are now a person of person conversations. Now the shows are getting bigger, the theaters are getting bigger. We're adding shows. We're going from two thousand seaters to five thousand seaters. And just like that, as a headliner, I changed. I changed the way I looked at how I developed comedy. I said, I need to have a system in place that allows me to stay on the road and come
off the road. I shot two specials as The Grown Little Man that is seriously funny. The Shocks All Star thing was like a favor. I was like, Shacks said, keV, you want to do this thing. Jeff Clanning Kingo's my partner, especially, was a favor. All these things hit. I was like, all right, well, I can't fuck this up. So now I said, I'm going to go and I'll do a tour.
My tour should always last a year and a half and I'll end my tour with the filming of a comedy special and then I'll develop another set through the course of a year and a half to maybe maybe close to two. So I had an own season offseason, but it always gave a two year gap in between stand up, so I never oversaturated myself in the market. So toil this date, there's always a two year window in between my specials. But during that off year, I'm
developing the new material. So when I come back and announce a tour, while I'm coming back with new material in the new road, and by the time I filmed the next special, It'll be two years past before the last one step repeats that repeat. So I built the process based off of hard work, understanding, and commitment, and that commitment came from the failed opportunities in Hollywood. They threw my TV show back at me, the movies that I had the opportunities to start and did not work
in a successful template of working in the business. Paper Soldiers wasn't a box office success, it wasn't a theater released, it was a straight to DVD. Soul Plain was supposed to be a box office success, got bootleg basically another straight to DVD if you ask me so, because I mean the rest part from you talking about we got two, you got something like a business, and you got thirty five. Right, So these are all of mine, These are my big opportunities.
At that time, none of this shit was huge successful. This was all These are all culture culture like cultural fucking pieces of IP that we grabbed on two and supported and loved. So because of that, the fan base got better with stand up. But I went back to stand up. I was like, I'm out this la shit. I'm sitting here waiting by the phone. I'm out. I went back and hustled stand up and was just in the grind of stand up specials until.
Will Packer came to me.
This was after laughing my pants is I want to say, I don't know, maybe my third or fourth special And Will came over and think, like a man, we're talking in two thousand and nine, I don't know, maybe third or fourth.
The reason I'm glad you're having this conversation when you think about all of these opportunities you had, I see you doing that for other black creatives. Now, so when Rush Paul had the opportunity he puts you in something names had the opportunity he put you in something. Will Packer, he puts you something, Shack, he put you in something. You're doing the same exact thing for people. Now.
You know. The realization though, man, is like the people are putting you in something because they have something to put you in. Right right, We're in a time now where it changes because the expectation of what you're supposed to do doesn't match the energy of what you're actually doing. And I think you know that line has blurred a little bit. Like Shack called me, Jeff called me. I'm like, yeah, of course, it just so happened that that was the thing.
But they were doing a thing at the same time.
It matched up.
I'm trying to create more things that can hopefully be the thing.
For someone else. Now, you don't know.
I don't have it. I don't have a strong grasp on the business to go. This is gonna launch you.
You can be a star. Get ready, here it come.
I just know, like, hey, man, I got some dope. IP I want to create some movies or mine. Some aren't, but hey, here's opportunities. Here's a blender of opportunities that I can put people in and continue it and grow within it. I mean, when you look at just what we're doing at Heartbeat in the scripted and unscripted space. It's all based off of the new version of our generation acting, comedians, writers, directors, etc. I'm saying, if I can do three to four projects a year and we
got new faces in them, I'm doing my part. If I can say, hey, man, we're gonna shoot forty comedy specials and we're gonna have those comedy specials on our fast channel and on this distribution platform, I'm not only giving them a stage, but I'm also giving them visibility. I'm doing my part, right Like, at this point, what is my part?
Where is my.
Value best served? And I feel like it's best served in creating the opportunities for others. And you know, if somebody pops off of something that I put to the table, man, I think that's the dopest story ever. To just be a part of the early stages of the next person's the next person's journey, I would be fucking beyond blessed.
How does it feel knowing that you have achieved so much success that people think you're an industry plan.
I mean, it's the biggest compliment ever, right you when you hear things like that. You just you got to give a nod to common sense versus lack thereof. You know, I had a conversation with my daughter one day and she was asking a question and like debating off of the hype emthetical of if something was real versus not, And I said, you know, everything is researchable if you really want to know it, if people really care, you really want to know things, it's very easy to go
do some research. And actually beyond easy, it's like it's dumb proof today, like Google has. It's so dumb proof that you can actually type in the dumbest version of a question and Google will correct your question and give you the right side of your question with the options for you to go find the thing that you're looking for.
So if you really give a shit, you can go and see.
I mean, the industry plant conversation is what is it? What does that mean? Like when you when you really break that down, it means.
It means that's why I want you to tell you a story, And I'm glad it's the story, Like you said, the stories out there people want to know. It means that somebody puts you in this position. Yeah, and press the button yeah, and that's the god.
So when I say, what does that mean? Like, what are we talking about? So if that's the case of success, is that easy? How many different versions of that would you see to day? And by the way, wouldn't those be the stories that were highlighting because they're all false? Like if that's the case, I mean, some things get so ridiculous that catch on.
It's just.
It's astronomically insane to process. No, I could give two ships like I mean, that's why you don't hear me address shit or fire bag of shit. It's like you got time to address and talk and come back at people when you have time. I don't. I don't have the time like I and not because yeah, not because I'm an asshole, but I'm actually I don't. I don't have the time. I don't have the time to give a rebubble that or the energy to give that any
type of outside thought. And like I said, if it's if it's something that people are really curious about or people really wanted to know, it's great researching.
I got a list of things that are taking up your time. Correct me if any of these things have changed. One people think you're in the Illuminati, because you're not just a comedian, you're a businessman. Yeah, let's just listen
to these things. Heartbeat Productions, Lol Network, We're serious, Grand Carmino Tequila, SPH Productions, which is our audience company, Fabletics Active Where, Heavenly Heart, which is a health and wellness brand named after your daughter, Harthouse, your plant based food chain. You partnered with brands like Chase Bank, Nike. I was told you invested in draft Kings and you're invested in Hydro which is a rowing machine company. There are plenty
of comedians who are just comedians. You are a businessman who are what contributed to that business actimen.
Early stages of growth Jeff Clan again, Jeff Clan again. I want to say, is an asset that sparked my entrepreneur side of thinking and just from him saying or suggesting, hey man, instead of us going this way, why don't we do this ourselves? So taking the money from tour and using that money to fund I stand up Special and then taking my stand up Special and distributing it through a AMC. And when we did that the big win. It just made me understand investment and return right or
all out the return on your investment. We took seven hundred and fifty grand shot our comedy special, released it theatrically. It did like nine million theatrically. Theaters take their cut. After the theaters take their cut, we get back. I pie. I walked away with like close to two and a half three million dollars. Right, Oh shit, seven point fifty turned into three.
That's investing. So like, how does that work?
How do you grow businesses in a manner where you can invest and then ultimately see a return. Well, you got to have businesses, You have to have ideas. More importantly, you got to own shit. I started to understand the importance of owning shit. I realized that how many people that do the same thing that I do that don't own shit. There's no shot to any of them. But once we're done, right, once we once we say good night, and we're done doing the job that we've chosen to
do forever, you got to look back. And when you look back, what do you see? Early on, I saw that studios had these amazing catalogs. These catalogs are so dope, they're great, And the value of these catalogs for studios is significant because it's the talent attached to them. Allow some studios to leverage that talent that IP to go out get more money so that they can go out shoot develop more IP of the same ultimately to build that catalog so that that catalog is a definition of
representation of their value. Their value continues to grow and jump based off of star power and work for hires that are fined with receiving the dollar at the early stage but not being a part of it at the back. All right, So how do I fix that or be different in that regard? Well, I'm gonna own the one thing that I can at the early stage that I control.
I own.
I own my live entertainment business for myself. If I decide to do comedy, I own this entity of comedy. That entity shoots a comedy special, I'm gonna own it, and then I'm gonna license it, step repeat, Okay, Well I can do this with other IP. I got to create the companies Heartbeat, laugh out Loud, Okay, the studios are partners, but make sure that we own a piece of the company with the studio.
Well, we can't do that.
Why not have we ever asked? Have we ever asked for an unconventional deal. If we do ask for that unconventional deal, let's see what the return is. Let's see if they jump up and say okay, because you're a good partner. We actually had some good partnerships in the early stages that weren't afraid to take those jumps. Lionsgate was a great partner with laugh out Loud. We did
great business. Lionsgate then allowed me to buy lef out Loud back and full when they didn't want it, I took laugh out Loud merged it with Heartbeat.
All right, I got one big entity. Now wow, So now let me.
Start to push things under the machine. I want to push and shovel anything I do under the machine. It all has to come through Heartbeat, and through that, Let's see how much I can own versus what I can so. Now, any deal, any unconventional deal, it has to come through my pipeline and the relationships of others. Now, respect the pipeline. So let me hire the people. Let me get the right team, right execs, right presidents, right coos, CFOs, heads
of SVP's EPs. Well, now I got the money to pay them, because I'm taking the money from all his lives entertainment, and I'm just going to bring it over here. So until I get a return, I'm a funding machine, because that's an investment. I'm investing in this personnel, I'm investing in these works for hire. I'm investing in the idea of this company.
When you were in these comedy clubs, did you ever think stand up comedy would lead you to these opportunities that have created all these other companies and got you at a network of four hundred and fifty million dollars.
No, but that's the fucked up part, right like you, stand up comedy is the gateway into everything, and entertainment, entertainment in general, is the gateway into everything. And you don't have to do it right. You don't have to knock it out the park and fucking walk away with the biggest bang, with the biggest win. The closer you get is best and better for the people that are
gonna come and do the same things behind you. So there were a lot of peoples that didn't necessarily do it right, but they cracked the door enough for me to go through that door and get a little further than what they did. Understand that the likeness that I had can bring the value of private equity partners or investors or companies or bandwidth. I bring value to different operations, so in return, you're giving me something for my value.
So stand up comedy was the asset and still is the asset that acts as the gold nugget to fucking greatness because the meetings that you're able to obtain, the rooms that you're now able to be in, is all based off of Man, that got so funny and so cool. So don't downplay the fun an early thing. The early thing is the most valuable thing. Oh man, I want you to go see that guy. He was funny and shit. Then after the show it was nice. You gotta meet Doug.
Doug works over at Amazon. He does X, Y and Z. I don't know if there's a partnership here, man, but you should meet him. A lot of people don't have time. I don't mean no fucking weird weird ass dude named Doug. I'm good. Well why not? Doug just so happens to be in front of content and creative. So meeting Doug, you done put yourself in a situation to get some knowledge and information, and you tell Doug I'm gonna come back, we should meet again, speak.
To that more. Does your humility play a role in how far you've been able to go?
Absolutely? I did not. I did not put myself on a on this crazy pedestal of expectation of how you should perceive me. Right, I think really having an even kill and understanding of like level set at all times. Like businesses, business partnerships are partnerships, opportunities opportunity And if you shake your hand, it's two sides to a handshake. So if you shake my hand and I'm shakier's back, that means that we should both get something from whatever
we're deciding to do together. It shouldn't just be about me, so it shouldn't just be about you. And I think to date, my relationships with my studio partners, the representations of that, you know, I've never tried to kill them. I've never came in and front loaded any of my deals. And this is my partner's are universal to Netflix, Apple, Amazon, I mean I can go warners, I can go down the list of them all.
What do you need for this.
To be a win for you? All right? So I'm gonna do this on my side. I'll take this and I'll play with you on the back half. So in success, we all have success. And as a partner throughout the years, well, my work has been consistent because they value me as a guy that's coming to the table at all times with the best interests of this and myself. I've never been to give me all mine now and y'all figure
it out. If you lose, I should lose too. And that's that's that's a real like, that's a real thought that I have in any in any aspect right. And the best partnerships that I have, like in Fabletics, Fathletics, and I decided to do business because I was with Nike and I get with great partners. We developed the sneakers together, we were doing great activations. I mean some of the best relationships came out of Nike of just
personnel and understanding that business. I had an opportunity of Fathletics to help grow a brand and be responsible for men's They said, Kevin, we don't want you to come in and just like do it and just be a phase. We want you to develop it with us.
We want you to be a real partner. We want you to be creative.
So I had an opportunity to go and create a man's line with a brand that didn't have it yet, be responsible for elevating, amplifying. I'm the business now that didn't exist that does well, I'm gonna do that because if I do it right, all of my partnerships that I do Afterwards, I now got a resume with a receipt. A receipt says Kevin Hart can do this for a company, for a brand, for a entity. Kevin Hart did this.
So I took that ran with that. And now when you talk about the other partnerships that have come to the table, well, here's what I am as an incubator, Here's what I am as an amplifier. And the words that I'm able to use now, I didn't know these fucking words.
You know, how much do sales shoot up when you're putting juice skin coys and not in the fabletics?
H you know, it's crazy? Like that was such a genuine, authentic moment. So they had just they had just sent me, uh like we got we we have new product and always get stuff first. And Kyle was joking around like the sleepover man, you know we gonna be late. I didn't know what to expect, so I still had the box. I had the box with me with the fact that lot of stuff. So just in genuine authentic moment during that loud stream, I'm like, I got you a gift, Kai, and I didn't have a gift.
I just gave you one of my sweatsuits, me the same size.
You want me to believe that you had Drew Sky size.
That's the second one, me and Kai.
That first one.
I just gave Kai the gift like as a sweatsuit. So Kai, we put along. We're just playing around. It was my sweatsuit coming back. I go, oh shit, that's dope as fuck.
Man.
It's dope because it's just good energy and it's a real reaction.
I'm gonna come back.
I'm gonna do the same thing because the Kai and the juice give it all. Well, it's really about me and powering them. I went to their world. I didn't change that world to fit me. I want nothing to do with your world.
I want to fucking be.
A part of your world by showing how dope you are. So I didn't come there as Kevin Hart to start. Let's talk about all my shit I got going on. I came in and said, well, what does it mean when you do all this shit?
What we do?
Now?
What?
What I gotta do? Money train, hype train? What?
What?
The business has ignored the fact that these guys are the new business?
What it fits you though? Because your brand is fun, his brand is fun. It's easy.
It's an easy, seamless fit. But what I'm trying my best to do is show show the business, the studio business, that the opportunities for them that we should be thinking about exists where they're already succeeding. You.
Don't try to break and create a new model.
Try to figure out what they want to do and say, okay, well how can I help you? How going to be.
Accessible for you and to you?
So for Kyle Drewski just because of the love the sweatsuits and all this is funny. Well, I didn't ask Kyle what you make from this and how you get your money?
I want none of it, dude.
I liked it. I came and fucked with y'all. Did you have some success?
Right?
More people came agree with your ship, Jusky. I love that people know how funny you are. Man, you too, I'm gonna fuck with y'all more, We're gonna figure it out.
You was EP and the show for Juski before this.
Yeah, I'm trying to develop the Juice shovel Juski for a minute.
Still are still are like Juicy.
I think Jew is a star. I think Kai is a star. I think you know when you look at Mr Beese and what he's doing, like you're looking at people that are creative minds and have figured out another route to economic success. They have They have found a way to say I'm going here, and I'm going here. Mister Beaese's whole business is not just content but product commerce.
Like, are you fucking kidding me?
You're talking about a talent that has figured out how to bring commerce to his audience through a platform. That guy's doing the right. Guess what I'm gonna do. Guess what I'm gonna do. Hey Jimmy, I need to talk to you. I don't want to control. I want to know and I want to learn, but more poorly, I want to partner.
How do we sit? How do we talk?
Hey Kyle, Hey Juice, how do we sit? How do we talk? Collaboration is the best form of success. You can't collaborate. It's a it's a real lonely world, man, And that whole fathletics thing and just me doing started off as just a fucking real, easy, genuine thing because I had it juice skin Kai came back.
Hey man, we're going to throw these on again.
Got you?
keV is love. It's nothing forced.
It was a it was a thing that worked because of the authenticity and the brand.
Of course was happy.
But as a guy that controls the brand and operates on this behalf, people associate me with the product seamlessly, so it's never forced.
Yeah, I want to I want to talk to you about fatherhood. Right as a father, I'm sure your family motivates you to keep working and do more, but you also want to prioritize being present. So how often do you face the conflict of choosing between work and family and how do you maintain the balance?
I got a lot better. I've got a lot better, man.
You know.
I think the engine in the early stages is an engine dedicated to I'm doing all this so that they don't have to, right Like, I'm thousand miles per hour because I want to have this or that they can have this or that we can do this. But then you start to realize that that time can't get that time back, and you start to miss real shit, real shit the matters. Kids get older, they drop some shit on you about what they wish you were at that you wasn't, but it's okay, and you want to make
those changes. So I think because I've had such an open relationship with my kids, a comfortable one where we can talk and be transparent, I've been able to adjust in real time and make things better. So I think today I'm way more present than what I was in two thousand and nine, two thousand and eight, twenty twelve.
You know, I'm a good dad, Like I'm I'm, I'm there, and I make sure I'm there cause you I'm breaking the ground in what fatherhood looks like from my family, like me and my brother, our dad wasn't theirs, so it was it was cool, but it was hit and miss in and out. So me and my brother prioritize how active we are with those kids, like it takes the village. Like literally, my brother is the best asset
that I have outside of my wife. Like, hey man, I gotta go on a road and I'm gonna be going for set time.
Go and make sure the kids are good.
Pop in with them for like four days, give them some activities, some stuff to do. I know they got classes, blah blah blah. You're you're. We have a very nice rapport of how we operate, and the kids love it. They they see the efforts. They respect it. I think they also see how I kill myself to get back to them, you know what I mean, Like I'm I'm out on tour buses, I'm back and forth, back and forth, laying two days. All right, I leave one day, come
back to night. Like it's it's a lot, but it's worth it.
What is what is losing? Both your parents taught you about parently, it's very.
Important to to understand, like this ship is a gift. This this this game of life is a luxury and you you don't have to be a part of that luxury loan.
Scary thing about death is the next day.
Life still goes on right, Like you lose people that you love, but the next day you still have to operate. You still have to figure out this thing. You still have to pay the bill, you still have to do the work. You still have to figure out. You still have to raise the kids. You still have to like it doesn't stop because of your moment of mourn. So what I what I definitely have been an example of
is strength. You know, when my mom and my dad passed, I think my kids seeing how I handled both of it from a realistic standpoint, is it's something that was a value to them, right because rather than feeling the death at the saddest level, I celebrated the life at the highest and that was a I think that was a thing that that they both kind of my two older kids, my younger ones were a little my dad passed away, it was sad, but my two older ones kind of like understood my way of thinking and my
reason for why. And you know, I was like, It's okay to be sad, but I'm making a conscious choice in this moment to just think about the celebration, the life that they lived, what they did, the great things, And it was more about the storytelling on that side of it than it was about the crime.
How did you have to adjust your last stand up? Because I told you I saw you with the garden when you it was what became reality check, And I told you, I feel like that was your best at right, and you had a lot of you know material in there about your father being sick. But by the time the special came out, passed had passed. So how did you have to adjust?
I mean I went your you put it in the past tense, right, like, you know, when my dad was I think one of the biggest memories was my dad would or you know, I mean, it's crazy that my dad's not here because these thoughts like that I'm having are all based from my dad. Like everything. I kind of just put it in in the past moment and the set became more of a dedication to my father than than what it was in the in the beginning stages. But my dad passed away in the middle of that tour,
know that tour, so I had to finish that set. Actually, you know, it's crazy. Where were we at he just passed away? He had just passed away. We were doing the Uh I was doing the set when I'm thinking about it, like, I'm like, yeah, my dad, and it hit me on stage. Damn, that's the first time I felt that, Okay, that's it's in there. At some point it's gonna come out. Like I've just told you. My way of handling it was celebrating the life or whatever.
And during that set, that's why I felt like a little I felt the thing, that emotional thing and talking about him as if he were still here and knowing that he wasn't. And at the end of that show, I told the audience my dad passed away. Wow. And that's where it hit me.
I little.
I had to get off stage at I mean, grief is okay. And I'm not saying you don't have it when you shouldn't have it. I'm saying it hit me in that moment. And to date, I don't think that I've I still probably haven't grieved correctly over my mom like I think I I accepted it. I knew what it was because I knew it was coming. But I've never had like a thing like a spiral fallout of thing.
You know, they say staying busy is a response to trauma. So you stay busy so you don't have to the the boy dealing with what you probably should be dealing with.
So that's kids, I'm probably dealing with a lot.
Yeah I don't know that.
Yeah I'm not going to fight that because I don't know that. But if there was something to deal with, it could step from that. But I'm also addicted to work, like that's a work as a drug for me.
Yeah, I remember you tweeting back in twenty thirteen, you said, if you are afraid of failure, you don't deserve to be successful. I think he was quoting Charles Barkley or somebody. When I hear you say you're addicted to work, and we watch it, we watch you, Are you afraid to fail?
No? No, because I fail all the time.
But at this point, I mean, what what is failure?
Like?
Like, right now I can go belly up the money, the money could go away whatever, Like I'm never not going to be okay.
I know how to get to the money.
My confidence on my ability to get to the money, I'm.
Going to be okay.
Like there's like in the beginning stages of life, the hood, et cetera, like there's a there's a real fear of uh, I don't know where I ain't gonna be able to fuck you, I don't know, Like there's there's a real fear there because you're at the bottom right when you've been when you've been to the top, And is it really a fair at that point, like, Okay, you're saying I had it all and I lost it, so now my journey is getting some of it back.
Like, it's not a fear, that's it's a moment.
And in business and entrepreneurship, things don't always go the way you want. So if an investment didn't work and I over committed, or if this went belly up and I didn't have like, it's that stuff is very much possible. I think for me, the lack of success or moment where unsuccess like presents itself, that's dope because there's so
much information in that. There's so much information you gained from the thing that didn't work, the thing that flopped, the thing that fucking was supposed to Like, there's information value in that. So it's about how you It's about how you take it. I don't. I don't take it. I don't take it with it like a negative grain
of salt. I'm I'm pretty well with receiving that. I just think I need to be committed to something me to make my life feel like it has a driving source of energy that won't die.
Like I like this because it keeps you from being petty. But you're still a cancer KIV. Yeah, I'm a cancer is a cancer. We're all busy people. We still find he's different. If you find a little time to be petty with the people that throw shots, that you different. You don't never what's the most pettiest thing you've thought about doing.
I've done it, just people would never know, like like people would never know it like I don't. It's like, you know, people like the public here, Okay, this is something I said. I was talking to somebody man, And you know, it's really not hard if you have if you have real problems with people, and your problems are like serious, it's not hard to ever get to a person and really like address the problem.
Right.
The problems that people have of me, they aren't my problems. So the idea of being petty or going back and forth, it's so beneath me because I don't have the problem, and I feel like if I engage, it makes it look like I got a problem. I don't.
All Well, things get taken out of context too, though, because even when you think about Cat Williams on Club Sha, a lot of people thought you threw shots at him first, and he was replying.
Back there's I think there's probably one moment where I've actually talked about Kat publicly, and this was when Timmy and this was like we were we were promoting night School and Tiffany was affected by some of the things he said, and it was more of a like support for her in that moment and like some shots at him.
Do you regret that?
Yeah? I shouldn't even God, I should never address him at all. I don't have to, Like why what will it do for me? What will I gain?
There's no gain.
So I look at everything from a business and economic standpoint, like if I'm investing in something, well, what is my return? What's the return on my investment? What's the return on my time? Was the return on my energy? Was the return on my investment? So that investment of self words dialogue brings me what what? What? What? And if I can't answer that question, or if people around me can't answer that question, then it doesn't get an in an inklet of energy. So it has nothing to do with
people feeling like they're above, people feeling like they're better. Oh, it has to do with a strong understanding of you and like yourself level of awareness, like I'm i can check all these boxes, but to some they want to take it or misconstrued or twist it as it's not. It's not my problem, it doesn't become my problem.
Is that a part of acting my age, acting my agees is so dope and you can have I know you said fifteen, you have more of you want you can do'n like twenty thirty.
I want make sure you get your shit.
Oh great, I'll say.
The better side of acting my age and the understanding of what this special is is like, it's so dope to understand what the idea of old age is. It should be older, older, should be wiser, it should mean like fucking wisdom. It's life lived. The older you get your representation of life lived. And if you're lucky enough to make it to fifty sixty seventy, that means you were one of the few fortunate people and not only made it to the other side of life, but got
to see other lives make it there as well. Grandkids, kids, have kids, homes, families, whatever it is, neighborhoods change, fucking the inclusion of the merge between. If you're a person that got to witness and was around and I remember when man, what's better? I just worked with Samuel Jackson and dopes thinking about Samuel Jackson when we do a fight night as every day, Sam had a story about the shit that happened during that time because he was there.
He was there. Oh man, right here, y'all see this right here. This wasn't this spot. This used to be raise and what they would do here? You just sitting listen the joy that Sam found and telling us the moments of life that he lived that none of us could fucking relate to because.
None of us were around.
Sam was the one lucky, the one lucky individual from this time that can still talk about it. Some other people might not be here, other friends from that time may be there, may not. But he was so happy at telling the stories. That's joy. That's fucking great. So the age forty five, I'm embracing the concept of getting older and being the thing that you're becoming instead of
running away from it. Everybody's running this way. Everybody's trying to get younger, pulling the skin back and taking this all for doing that.
But what does aging look like in a realm where the goal is to remain relevant? That's why everybody's doing this skin stuff, the tucks and whatever else the Olympic.
Like I don't I don't know what other people are going through, So I would never speak on.
Another person's behalf. I would say that.
If more, if we saw more people celebrate the cool shit about ages ages, I think that aging would be highlighted differently, right, I think the conversations attached to it or one side that you hear, we only hear one side of it. And when you're talking about saying relevant, it's it's it's all subjective. You just said you had L L L here.
Right.
Elle's dropping the album been doing it for forty years.
Is he dropping the album to be relevant or is he dropping an album because he's like, hey man, I'm mis rapping. I'm about to just rap. Yeah, I want to rap and just rap. Show my fuckers I still can rap.
Oh, Lebron Lebron twenty one years in?
Is he playing because he's trying to be still relevant? Or does he just love the game of basketball? Like what, it's subjective as as to how you want to view it, you know what I mean? Like, there was a there was a time where before all the ship had happened, when I was in Uh, I was in Montreal and Bill Cosby was performing, sitting on the stool performance. It's like, you still love comedy, granted, like I said, it's before all the shit. It's like if you love something and you just want.
To be old and do the thing you love cool, It's I think it's subjective as to how you view it, and I think you can find so much joy and happy and being what you are, doing what you love and getting older while doing it and embracing the younger environment of people that are doing it.
Well, absolutely embracing the younger generation. Like I have nothing but love for this dope ass new wave of comedic talent that we're witnessing today.
Like there's no competition.
You home to me, like there's no competition, Like when when I see the Drew Skis, the KUIs, the the Desi Banks, the b Simons, the just hilarious, uh, the pretty v fuck Man, Carlos eighty five, all these guys and there's so many to name. Matt Rife, who.
I just talked about as well.
I mean, I can I can go down a crazy list. Uh, Mulaney who's doing great, Ryan Davis another funny one like there's so many funny people out out there, and the world of stand up comedy has gotten so big Andrew crushing. It's dope as fuck to watch people crush. It's dope as fuck to watch people find success, and guess what, it does nothing to mine.
It doesn't hinder.
My level of success in any way, shape or form. And I think like people have a hard time realizing that. Right you don't ever see me Chris and Dave fight. Let's see his are you right? Me and Chris and Dave are actually so fucking close. Chris wal call me and go, keV you going on tour and I'll go, ah, not yet. He's like, don't lie, bitch, because I'm about to put these dates up and don't you announce it? And then we know, Chris, I would never. Okay, I got you,
see what you're saying. Chris will always make sure it's this, Dave, what you're doing. I'm working on some shit. I ain't got nothing yet, but I will. All right, I'm gonna go up around this time. We make sure we communicate, We we coexist because we're not against one another, like we want to see each other flourish.
That's why it should be people at the topic, collaborating, people at the bottom of compete.
It's and by the way, when we go and we're down here with the younger generation, it should be nothing but embracing.
You said you wanted Kay to play you in a movie. Ye, Are you were any of your son's pissed off about that? No?
No, although my son, my son is in uh this next fathletic spot that it did, he's showing his acting chops. I'm put him in a fat letic spot. I told Kyle that because everybody says like Ky and I have the same energy, and you know, Kyle wants to Kyle wants to act. He's saying like, at some point he wants to get into it. And I love that. I love that he's already looking at bigger pictures. I love that he's making his money. I love that he has his thing, and you know, I'm gonna figure out ways
to do that thing with him. And you know, even even when I talk about comics, right like the Plastic coupleoys, when I talk about Spank, I talk about Naim, I want to talk about Joey, Like these guys have been headlining for a long time and being established in comedy. That's a very hard thing. It's a very hard thing to be established in stand up comedy like this is you're talking about uh a contractor like mentality at work. It's you know, you gotta eat what you killed. So
without audiences, you got no got no revenue. You got to figure out where to go and where to hustle up to get the money. We're talking about a bunch of people who have figured it out. I applauded that at the highest level.
Speaking of eating right, it's fight night. Was the strange doing that sex scene with Trog and was baby Boy in any inspiration behind it? No, it was what I did you study Tyres and baby Boy when he did that?
No, they really they really didn't sex scene. They really like Tyrense and t really did a sex scene. Like they had a lot of ship to do in that scene. The story of that scene told so much. You had flashbacks that she had to go through. It was a lot.
There was a lot that went into that. I mean, tease my sister.
So I minimalized it to where you know, we don't we don't have to get that active and we don't have to do that much and I think you know. And in any project, it's all about the story that you're trying to tell. And if men Taraji had to tell a different side of a story for the purpose of the the IP and and to set up the future thing that's gonna happen, Okay, yeah, you can go there. But the relationship between Viv and Chicken Man is one of her being this down ass chick and has rolled
with him and will ride with him for anything. Our sexual relationship isn't the highlight. It isn't stronger than you saying I got him and I know he got me. So how do we how do we make sure we told that line?
And that's also within.
The creative I haven't had to do anything crazy like that and any project that I've done to date, And if you don't have to, you don't. You don't need to, right It's like, once again, I'm the creator. I'm on the side with the writers and the stuff, and they.
Do have something in there. If they're seeing keV this.
When you got to eat eat ass, why you don't have to Anyways?
I love the Chicken Man character. Is it fair to label the Chicken Man character a bad guy? Or is he just a product of his environment.
He's not only a product of his environment. He's a he's a definition of a real entrepreneur. And sometimes as an entrepreneur, your vision as a visionary can't be seen by everybody is everybody doesn't do what you do. So Chicken Man can be seen as a guy that makes bad decisions. But the people that are part of all
of his decisions know it's hard. They know they know his won they know it's real, his real initiative and what he's willing to do to get there, and why some can be a part of it and some can't, And why some can know this and some can't. Like if you know him, you're gonna love him.
If you don't know me.
You hear about him, you're intrigued to know what it is and why he's been Like, I found a lot of similarities with Chicken Man, which is why I wanted to do it.
The road to greatness is the road that everybody can't be on.
And a lot of people got left behind on Chicken Man's road, and those that fucking stayed and made it through the storm, they all saw the value at the end of it.
Did Terrence, how will try to explain any of his math to you.
I told Terrence, I love them, but I'm not I'm not your customer. I love it.
I love terror.
I think there's one of the most talented people to ever goddamn touch that acting stage like he is a bad mother when it comes to action and cut Terrence will do whatever it is that you needed to be done.
Uh stand character. Yeah, we know why he was wearing.
To win everybody else. Yeah, but you know when he when he starts to talk about the stuff, he's really into that ship like that's his that's his ship. But you have to You just gotta be honest with people right out the gate. And I'm I'm not just customer. I'm not going to retain this.
So what are you say. I'm not trying to tell you nothing. I'm just trying to explain it.
He said, Kevin, you're still gonna listen. I just had to sit there and then when he got done, I was like, yeah, I see what I'm saying.
Last question, do you think you were born already destined to be who you are today or was this version of you molded and crafted along this amazing journey.
You molded crafted?
I would love to to.
Sit the fairy tale and.
Do the traditional live absolutely Scott's I think.
I think I'm beyond blessed to have the support and family that I had in coming up, the mother that I had, and the support came from like me not knowing. A lot of people, a lot of people come down on that younger child that don't know. I don't know, man, school ain't for me.
What you gonna do.
A lot of people call it that guy or that girl loser, or you know, you ain't doing it right. You ain't taking life serious, you ain't thinking everybody has. Everybody has a different legenda when it comes to time and when things click versus when they don't. If you take my mom's level of support away from me not knowing, I would have never discovered the thing that I fell in love with. Like I didn't go to school with the purposely say I'm stopping because I'm about to start comedy.
I discovered it. It was it was an accident, it wasn't on purpose. In conversation, care you should do it, should try to amate you to night. Okay, the discovery I fell in love with the new idea of the thing that I could do I love this thing. I love this feeling. Now that I'm excited, all of the energy and effort that I have it can go into something that I actually am excited about. Without that excitement, without that light bulb, A lot of people struggle with
the first step. It wasn't until I got my light bulb. I hit the ground running. And then after that and seeing your result of hard work pay off, well, you attach that same effort and energy because you know what it feels like to put one hundred percent into something and then see it work. So what I am and who I am today and where I'm at absolutely not. But now that I am here, I do feel like it's my job to be as best of an example as I can be for the next generation to do more and surpass right.
Like.
This shouldn't be it for who's to.
Come and what's to come next. I'm just a version of new I was able to do. Like, here's what I was able to do. But when I'm fucking fifty five, god willing in sixty, I would love to see the next version in position to do more or prepared to do more.
Well, you're making it easier for the next generation.
Kevi, I appreciate you man.
Keep growing my brother.
Great talk, great great dialogue.
Yea