The Roast of Kevin Hart<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n
\t\tCan you tell me a joke of yours that didn\u2019t make it onto the roast?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tOne that I was saying all week that I wound up dropping was: Kevin, your dad sold crack, and you literally sell everything except crack. From his comedy to his tequila to his chain of vegan fast food restaurants, Kevin is always looking for new ways to make people throw up.<\/p>\n
\t\tWhat was the hardest you laughed at last night?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRemind me of some of the moments. I literally just woke up a little hungover from the after parties.<\/p>\n
\t\tAt least inside the room, Sheryl Underwood crushed.\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI remember at some point flapping on the floor when she was on \u2014 that\u2019s how hard I was falling out of my chair. She had one of the best sets of the night. She\u2019s a pro. I\u2019ve worked with Sheryl my entire career. She used to walk onstage with her purse in her hand. We worked such dumps together, she didn\u2019t trust the staff or the other comics with her purse in the back. She is the real deal.<\/p>\n
\t\tWhere does this roast rank in terms of crossing the line?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThere were definitely some lines crossed. The jokes were super edgy \u2014 when Tom Brady came out and started talking about Kevin\u2019s personal life right out of the gate, I thought, \u201cThis truly is a revenge roast.\u201d That\u2019s actually how I first approached Tom about it. We were at a party in Las Vegas, and I said, \u201cTom, we\u2019ve got another one percolating.\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m never coming back. Why would I come?\u201d I said, \u201cRevenge.\u201d He goes, \u201cWho you got?\u201d His head tilted like a puppy waiting for a treat. I whispered, \u201cKevin Hart.\u201d And his next question was, \u201cWhen?\u201d He needed a reason to come back. Those jokes were super edgy, and I could feel the tension in the room. Even though it was funny, there was a realness to it.<\/p>\n
\t\tWhich topics were actually off limits? People made references to his kids being off limits, but was his affair considered off limits?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPeople always ask what\u2019s off limits, what\u2019s not off limits. Kevin never once said to me, \u201cPlease don\u2019t do this, please don\u2019t do that.\u201d For me, there\u2019s a sportsmanship to it \u2014 I want to scratch the skin, but I don\u2019t want to break it. Nothing was off limits. I don\u2019t think there was a single topic from Kevin\u2019s life that didn\u2019t get brought up. It\u2019s really just a question of how overt you want to be. Do you want to be subtle, or do you want to smash them over the head with a dollhouse? I don\u2019t know how anyone could look at the roast and call it watered down.<\/p>\n
\t\tThere are always some non-comedians on the dais who may not be as prepared to take the heat. Do you give people advice on how to handle it?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI always say, \u201cIf you\u2019re having fun, everybody will have fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tJeff Ross, Pete Davidson, Draymond Green, Lizzo, Tony Hinchcliffe and Sheryl Underwood at \u201cThe Roast of Kevin Hart\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKEVIN KWAN\/NETFLIX<\/p>\n
\t\tThe show is very tightly produced. There are, of course, writers and rehearsals. How do you balance that with the element of surprise?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI have to give a lot of credit to my partner Casey Patterson, who is really good at not just convincing big stars like Teyana Taylor and Usher to do these roasts, but also keeping it from the guest of honor so that when they come out, it\u2019s an authentic surprise. She\u2019ll put fake names on dressing room signs, the scripts don\u2019t circulate to the entire staff, the crew doesn\u2019t read the comics\u2019 material. I don\u2019t know what Chelsea [Handler]\u2019s speech is going to be, and she doesn\u2019t know mine. Kevin doesn\u2019t really know what\u2019s coming from anybody. That keeps it real. You are genuinely messing with somebody live on television. There\u2019s a lot that goes into that side of it, and I\u2019m always surprised.<\/p>\n
\t\tThere were a lot of times where people would skip a joke they had on the teleprompter. What goes into the decision to edit yourself in real time?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m careful not to let that happen, because I hate going, \u201cSkip it.\u201d It looks so written. But sometimes in a live show it\u2019s inevitable that people want to improvise. Or maybe the joke is too similar to a joke that was made earlier in the night and it doesn\u2019t seem funny anymore. Or, sometimes the non-comics get cold feet on a certain joke.<\/p>\n
\n\tHonestly, the most important job on that entire show is probably the teleprompter operators. That is a high-wire act. You\u2019ve got all sorts of deliveries \u2014 some people are mumbling, some are rushing \u2014 and those operators stay right with us the whole time. It\u2019s remarkable.<\/p>\n
\t\tWhy was Tiffany Haddish on the dais but not even referenced in the roast?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI invited Tiffany. She\u2019s a good friend of mine. She\u2019s co-starred with Kevin a couple of times. We just wanted to populate the dais with his friends and make him feel comfortable. I wanted him to feel like Frank Sinatra surrounded by the Rat Pack.<\/p>\n
\t\tNo one really went after Regina Hall. Was she a last-minute addition, or was she off limits?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tNo, nothing was off limits. She came in like the day before, so people weren\u2019t thinking about roasting her leading up to it. She essentially got a free pass, I guess, which is a pretty strategic move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tDo you think the political climate influences the type of comedy we see on screen? It was pretty edgy last night, and I wonder if we would have seen this type of roast with this lineup of comics a handful of years ago.\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI think comedy is just bigger. Netflix takes it global in a way nobody could have predicted. There isn\u2019t a country in the world where I can\u2019t go without someone saying, \u201cHey, I saw you on the Tom Brady roast.\u201d The art form has become truly international, and I think the roasts reflect that.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut they reflect more than just comedy \u2014 it\u2019s the political climate and our sensibilities around what\u2019s funny. Last night there were jokes about very provocative subjects, handled by professionals. It was a real testament to free speech, because people were saying whatever they wanted. That wasn\u2019t just the conservative white guys \u2014 that was the liberals too. And sometimes you can\u2019t even tell who\u2019s who, and that\u2019s when jokes have the most impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tIs it difficult to get somebody like Tom Brady in the hot seat again? Will you be able to get another \u201cGOAT\u201d in a couple of years?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI think so. Kevin doing it opens it up to almost anybody who is at the top of their game and wants to show the world they\u2019re a good sport. It humanized even Kevin, whom we feel like we know everything about. It made him show some vulnerability by laughing at himself. A lot of celebrities could use that kind of injection of laughter into their career.<\/p>\n
\t\tWho do you want to roast next?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tA pop star or a rock star would be great. A rapper would be great. I could see Drake getting roasted and being a great one. One of my all-time favorite ideas is Stevie Wonder. I always say \u201cThe Roast of Stevie Wonder: You\u2019ve got to hear it to believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wouldn\u2019t be a roast without the Roastmaster General. Jeff Ross came out guns blazing at Netflix\u2019s live…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":790445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,91525,50,322816,52],"class_list":["post-790444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-jeff-ross","tag-news","tag-the-roast-of-kevin-hart","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116560120050273978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}