Actor and comedian Kevin Hart stepped up to the stage to deliver one hour of stand-up comedy for Auburn students Wednesday night.
The 30-year-old comedian burst into the national spotlight in the early 2000s with his roles in Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Soul Plane (2004).
Despite his recent success in film, Hart said his first love was stand-up comedy.
"I'm an established actor, but I'm a comedian," Hart said. "That's what pushed me into that world. If you take stand-up comedy away, I'm not even in acting. I wouldn't be in any movies. I can say no matter what I'm a comedian at heart."
Tickets were still available at the door as students filed into the Student Activities Center. After a brief opening set from supporting comedian Na'im Lyan, Hart entered the stage to a multitude of applause and cheers.
Hart shared stories about his two children, his wife and his extended family. Hart displayed his ability to find humor in anything as he told stories about his dad's struggles with cocaine addiction, or "booger sugar" as Hart called it, and the casual way Hart's father broke the
news about his cancer diagnosis.
"Oh damn, look at that girl," Hart said while imitating his father. "Oh yeah, I have cancer."
Hart said he modeled his stand-up style after one of his childhood heroes.
"Bill Cosby is one person I can say I patterned my stand-up comedy after," Hart said. "Bill Cosby told nothing but stories about his family and about his life. He painted pictures for an audience. He made it easy not only for an audience to relate to him but you felt like you knew him. I'm the same type of comedian, maybe a little dirtier. I cuss a
little bit more than Bill Cosby did. But with the exception of that I love letting you guys in my world. This is who I am, it's not a character."
Throughout all of his stories, Hart utilized every object on stage, such as the microphone and the microphone stand. Hart even used the barstool to demonstrate an unfortunate incident that occurred when he was asked to be a pallbearer at a relative's funeral.
Marquita Montgomery, freshman in biomedical sciences, said Hart's showmanship enhanced his performance.
"He was so funny," Montgomery said. "I was about to fall out of my chair. He was great."
Garret Ruark, junior in architecture, said he loved Hart's
performance, despite the poor sound quality inside the Student Activities Center.
"The acoustics in that room are very bad," Ruark said. "It would be nice to get an upgrade to a real theatre. Sometimes I really had to focus to hear what he was saying. That didn't stop me from enjoying the show though." Hart will appear in "Death at a Funeral," which releases Friday.
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