The stand-up comedian’s personal experiences provide the jokes in his new concert movie, “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain.”
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Kevin Hart stands 5-foot-2 and frequently refers to himself as a “little guy.” In his latest concert movie, the comedian tells a scalding joke about the moment when a bodyguard decided to pick him up like a toddler and lift him over a VIP area’s velvet rope.
What Hart doesn’t mention is that he’s almost entirely coiled muscle, bouncing back and forth to the edge of the stage like a Tex Avery cartoon character. In “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain,” that isn’t just any stage; it’s a sold-out Madison Square Garden, where the number of comedians who have performed is small, and the pressure is big.
Once Hart is on, he’s hilarious; be warned, however, he takes a long time to get under way.
First, the movie drags through nearly a half-hour of filler, starting with an opening skit at a party where Hart is accosted by people accusing him of sins such as not wanting to date dark-skinned women and being a local phenomenon.
There’s a stultifying sequence about Hart’s European tour, with audience interviews and Hart’s YouTube stats. There are even graphics of Twitter raves. Twitter, whatever else you can call it, is not a cinematic medium.
The show’s theme having been exhaustively set up — people are telling lies about Kevin, and he needs to explain, right after he proves that he’s huge in Denmark — finally the comedy starts.
Hart’s comedy is personal and almost entirely apolitical. He begins with his divorce, and what seems like an admission (“Lying ruined my marriage.”) is quickly undermined (“No, that’s a lie. I cheated.”). Hart says his reliance on wild fibbing is total; one long riff involves a late-for-work explanation that draws in a mid-commute baby adoption and a mythical creature called a Deerbra. (None of the film’s language can be printed in The Post as anything other than a wall of asterisks.)
Hart blithely admits to infidelity, but the longest (and funniest) part of the show focuses on his attempts to evade female jealousy, and how to tell if a woman is crazy. In Hart’s world, the fact that the jealous crazy woman is absolutely right is largely irrelevant. His attempts at reconciling with his wife involve dropping Ecstasy; Hart reacts to the drug by trying to get intimate with a beanbag. Another, unexpectedly touching bit involves Hart’s small son, who thinks he’s Spider-Man and shoots webs at Dad.
It’s a brief movie, and perhaps all that preamble is meant to justify the ticket price. The best advice is to walk in about 25 minutes after the lights go down. You’ll still get all the laughs, and you won’t have to hear about Hart’s YouTube hits.