Hart’s Grown-Up Performance Inspires

Tackling everything from bad jokes, fatherhood, his diminutive height and double dating, Kevin Hart’s “I’m a Grown Little Man” is a stand-up performance that shows his evolution as a comic.

He’s come a long way since his appearance in “Drillbit Taylor.”

While it’s not as funny as some of his other work, his ability to characterize other people, their problems and his overall candor towards his own make this performance a memorable one. Only one person can discuss being an African-American sitting on the back of the bus while on a white water rafting trip, dumb babies and domestic violence with the kind of flair Hart can. Using voices and facial expressions to help develop his comedy, Hart will originally remind many of Dave Chappelle, but by the end of the show, you’ll be convinced not only of his talent, but of his originality as well.

Through the 72-minute performance, Hart jumps around topics quite often, but rather than have a disassociated or awkward feel to it, “I’m a Grown Little Man” ends up feeling streamlined and cohesive. Like a good comedian, he makes jokes that he comes back to throughout the show, but you never see it coming the first time out. Making fun of his young son’s head movements a few times throughout the show, Hart is able to make the wrong things funny and make it feel oh so right. He does this later with domestic violence as well, telling a story of a time he was dating a tall woman who he had to punch in the ribs in the super market for getting an item he couldn’t reach and embarrassing him.

“She should have lifted me up, so I could reach it myself,” he said in defense of his actions, getting a huge laugh from the audience.

Jokes like this, which put him out on the line, exposing himself as a normal person, with insecurities like everyone else, before doing the things no one else would do to get a laugh, are Hart’s usual tactics here. They never get old. As a matter of fact, at times, you’ll get his formula early on and wait for the big finish. By the end of the show, Hart racks up at least a half dozen of these types of jokes, going through a myriad of topics and ideas, making him as multi-faceted as he is funny.

With wide eyes, imagination and stories that have to be told, Hart is able to make us forget about his quirky performances in films such as “Soul Plane” and “Scary Movie 4,” and realize that he’s the type of comedic talent that will be around for a very long time.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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