Kevin Hart is back in the UK on his first tour since Irresponsible (2018) which, with zillions of tickets sold, is in the mix whenever anyone tots up the biggest comedy tours of all time. Away from jokes at a microphone, this is a career measured in dollars, opening weekends (Hart, with a handful of Jumanji movies under his belt, is also a Hollywood star) – and public controversies. The last of them saw North African gigs cancelled earlier this year after the 43-year-old suggested that ancient Egyptians were black.
All of which prompts the question: does the Philadelphia man still have what it takes to entertain a comedy crowd? On the basis of the last Kevin Hart show I saw, a lockdown-era special Zero F**ks Given, one might begin to doubt it. But Reality Check finds Hart on strong form. The former, filmed in his living room, found Hart still wrestling with fallout from the 2018 row, over historic homophobic tweets, that saw him step down from his role as Oscars host. The new show strikes a better balance between self-reflection, self-assurance and big-hitting laughs.
