Our favourite US comedian, Kevin Hart, came to town and brought the house down at Suntec City during his first ever live gig in Singapore.
For one night only, the Kevin Hart circus rolled into town, and we were lucky enough to bag tickets and enjoy the spectacle. This hot-right-now undersized American is riding the crest of a wave; no surprises given he’s been working his ass off over the last few years. In case you’ve been hibernating and missed his meteoric rise, Hart has starred in six Hollywood comedy smashes, hit TV show ‘The Real Husbands of Hollywood’, hosted the now infamous Justin Bieber comedy roast, as well as delivered three other celebrated stand-up tours – he’s built up one helluva fanbase. How else could he have managed to sell out 45 gigs across the US in 2015, and a further 18 dates across the rest of the world on his truly epic What Now? tour? We’ve heard they hype, we’ve seen the films, heck, we’ve even bought a t-shirt. But last night, we got to see the man in person, live, for the very first time in Singapore.
As Hart took the stage, it became clear this peppy, pint-sized fella from Philly knows how to command an audience. Despite the sold-out crowd packing the Suntec Convention Centre to the rafters, it felt like an intimate gig. Over the following hour, we were taken on a whirlwind tour of Hart’s musings on relationships, family, his fears (raccoons and the dark, in case you wondered), the inanity of hypothetical conversations, ping-pong, pants, and a whole lot more. Tales of the familiar that everyone could relate to kept the audience howling all night long. He even threw in a few obligatory sex jokes, though nothing too crude; this was a show for the masses and it remained broadly family-friendly.
Hart is a master storyteller; his spiel relying on high-energy, expertly-paced delivery as opposed to razor sharp wit – he’s just not a concise, one-liner kinda guy. Though it didn’t matter and the audience hung on every word. Cleverly weaving jokes from early in the set into his patter throughout the night, by the end of the gig, the crowd was enthusiastically joining in as he delivered yet another withering impression of his fiance’s body swivel and sarcastic “Realllly?”.
Entertaining, he most certainly is. Ground-breaking, fresh material? Not entirely. Closing his act with a skit on the ludicrous nature of the ordering process at Starbucks – though funny – was nothing new. This highly-choreographed show also lacked improvisation and topical material – but maybe that really is too much to ask from a tour on this scale. Regardless, there is something innately likeable about Hart which kept us laughing along. As the curtain fell, Hart promised this would not be his last show in Singapore; we hope he keeps his word.