Redheaded Reviews: I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart was what could be called an "oops baby". He was born in Philadelphia and had an older brother Kenneth and many half brothers that his dad had with the women he slept around with while with his mom and after the two divorced. His parents argued a lot and his mom could be found chasing his dad with a knife. His dad was also a thief and would wind up on crack doing things worthy of being chased about with a knife.

HIs mom worked hard and believed in education. She went easy on Kenneth and he wound up getting a hold of some drugs to sell until she flushed them and beat him about the head to let him know that wasn't acceptable. He was just trying to find a way to make money for the household. He would try again by stealing a woman's purse and she'd turn him into the police. The judge gave him the option of jail or the military and he chose the military.

To save Kevin she made him a rigid schedule of school and then after school activities such as swimming and then basketball. But if there was time between the activities and when she got home she paid an older woman in the neighborhood to watch over him. This afforded him some freedom as he got to play around in her basement pretending to clean it while he actually looked at old Playboys and made a fort. This would continue into high school when he would invite girls to come hang out in the backyard where he was raking leaves or some such and instead was fooling around with them. While he loved basketball he hated swimming and never really tried to win at it. Academically he wasn't very good. He just hated to memorize facts and spit them out for a test. He blew the SAT off and found himself without a hope for a four-year college.

His mom got him into a community college but nothing had really changed for him. He still hated school and he didn't try there either. When he dropped out he did so with a job already lined up selling shoes at a sports store. His mom wasn't happy but he told her this was until he could figure out what he wanted to do with his life. She let him stay with her as long as he was working on figuring that out. The rule had been: go to college or leave my house. But she saw that he was working on a plan for his life and she trusted him. And one day it came to him. He was going to work for Nike as a sales rep.

Then while working there he would make his co-workers laugh or the customers laugh and one day one of his co-workers said he should try stand up. It had never occurred to him. So he did. He went to Laff House on an amateur night and he was given five minutes to do his material and he ran through it in like three and a half and had to improvise the next minute and a half. But he got laughs from the stage and he was hooked. He came back two more times and then they decided to hold a cash contest for best comedian and he won. He also won the next five times the held it. Now he really knew what he wanted to do with his life and it wasn't selling shoes. Soon he had to make a decision: go to gigs booked by Tue Rae Gordon the Laff House host who was willing to help him out or keep selling shoes and give up on comedy. He gave his notice to the store. His mother was another matter.

It was at the community college that he met Torrei the on again off again love that would last twelve years. It was one of those romances that are as hot outside of the bed fighting as it is inside of the bed. We've all had a crazy romance and this one was Kevin's. It was just one that became so comfortable that it became hard to let go. Also, children would be involved which made it harder. She didn't understand why he had to go out all the time and go to New York when he wasn't even going on stage. She didn't get his networking or his studying of other comics. She thought he was up there sleeping with other women. And as things became strained between them and they broke things off and on they both slept with other people making their relationship very tempestuous.

Kevin's career was going well and at age twenty-three he looked to be going to make it big but the movie that he agreed to make was Soul Plane which came off the heels of his TV show getting canceled. He was box office poison. It would take many years for him to be able to rebuild his career. But he believed in himself and he had a plan: become too big for Hollywood to ignore. His mom taught him to work hard with her tight schedules and his dad taught him to shrug things off (once his dad was hit by a man with an ax and just acted like it was nothing). He holds to being nice to people and that the fun guy always wins in the end. This is a great book sneakily filled with life lessons that you can learn taken from his life. It's hilarious and insightful and inspirational. I've been a fan for years and it was wonderful to catch a look at the man who has made me laugh so hard and smile so much.

Quotes

Acceptance is a drug as powerful as crack.

-Kevin Hart (I’m Not Making This Up: Life Lessons p 117)

In most action movies, one person rises out of humble beginnings to discover that they have been chosen by destiny to save the world. But that’s not how it works in real life. You rise out of your humble beginnings to become part of a community, and it is only together and as equals that we will save the earth.