I’ve been interviewing actors and directors for years, but it wasn’t until just over a year ago that I went on my first-ever press junket — for a talking-zebra movie called Racing Stripes (2005; my review). And possibly the first person to be interviewed in “the God room” (Peter Jackson’s name for the room where all the religious-media reporters congregate) was comedian Steve Harvey. I had first come across his work when he was one of the four stand-up comics profiled in Spike Lee’s The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), and given the profane nature of his humour, I was intrigued when Harvey began to talk about his religious beliefs; you can read Phil Boatwright’s transcript of that round-table interview here.
In that interview, Harvey talked about his desire to clean up his act; and now it looks like he’s made a significant step in that direction with Don’t Trip … He Ain’t Through with Me Yet, a comedy concert film recorded before a gathering of church folk assembled by Bishop T.D. Jakes. Reports the Asbury Park Press:
For two decades, comedian Steve Harvey had been known for delivering foul-mouthed, hilarious dialogues on life, including many in the smash comedy concert film “The Original Kings of Comedy.”
But he was ready to switch gears, become closer to God and do away with his otherwise un-Christian-like devices.
He decided he wanted to become a better man.
So last summer in Atlanta, he stepped onstage in front of 16,000 churchgoing folks at the Bishop T.D. Jakes annual MegaFest conference.
“You can’t be any more scared than that. I’ve had some traumatic stuff in my life, but I’ve never been more nervous, more jittery, more anxious about anything. It was tough,” says Harvey, who can be heard in select markets on his weekday “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” or online at www.steveharvey.com.
“I was thinking, ‘This could go bad for me. This could just not work.’ A lot of these jokes, I’d never done anywhere before. I’d just wrote the stuff for that night. But it was church stuff. It was stuff I knew. Then I took some jokes about subjects I want to get into, but keep it clean and not offend these people.”
He originally filmed the 74-minute comedy concert with hopes of putting it out on DVD. But his show went over so well, it’s getting a studio release and is set to open in select markets today. . . .
The reviews, as sometimes happens, are divided on the film’s merits. The Park Press itself says the film is too short, it’s so good, and the New York Times is more positive than not, saying:
Anyone who thinks that Christian America’s sense of humor maxes out at “Father Knows Best” reruns needs to hear Mr. Harvey on Michael Jackson, whom he dismantles far more effectively than Jay Leno ever did. They need to hear him make fun of churchgoers themselves — the ones who can’t control their bratty children, the ones who get up in midservice to go to the bathroom, the ones who feel compelled to “testify” about perfectly ordinary events. And, more to the point, those who think they have the Christian crowd pegged ought to hear Mr. Harvey’s audiences roar with laughter at all this.
However, the Star-Ledger is not impressed: “He manages to avoid using four-letter words, but this feat would be more impressive if his kinder, gentler jokes were as funny and real as his blue work.”
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