Kevin Hart accepts award for comedy
Kevin Hart stepped into the spotlight Sunday night with his usual swagger to accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, occupying a stage lit up with his signature pyrotechnics.
“Can I pee?” Hart said after a heartfelt tribute from his friend comedian Dave Chappelle, before waddling offstage at the John Kennedy F. Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. He then reappeared to accept a bust of Mark Twain from David Rubenstein, the retiring chair of the Kennedy Center.
Hart, 44, is the 25th comic to receive the prize from the Kennedy Center, an honor given annually to the greatest humorists in American comedy. Hart was joined by his wife and four children, and grinned broadly even as he teared up at bitingly funny roasts and emotional tributes from friends and colleagues in the industry.
“I played arenas with Chris Rock, and I would never play an arena before I saw you do it,” Chappelle said, crediting Hart with changing the business of stand-up comedy after a career selling out arena tours and even a football stadium in his hometown, Philadelphia. “You made me dream bigger, and you're younger than me — it's humiliating.”
Over a roughly 25-year career — it was noted that he had been doing comedy since the inception of the Mark Twain Prize in the late 1990s — Hart has sold millions of tickets. He has built a loyal fan base through movies, TV series and many live events — some enhanced by fireworks — including eight comedy specials on relatable narratives, physical comedy and goofy reenactments. But even when he rags on the cast of characters who file in and out of his life, he is usually the punchline of his own jokes.
His peers also lauded him Sunday for his work ethic, which includes appearing and casting friends in a slate of Hollywood movies, like the “Jumanji” sequels, dramedies such as “Fatherhood” and “Night School,” and a number of comedic action films.
“I didn't start out doing what I started to do to get the awards,” Hart said. “I fell in love with the idea of comedy. It made me say, `Oh, my God, I fell in love with something I can do for the rest of my life.'”