From The Comic's Comic

July 2021

Comedy doesn’t have a Human Resources department, so leave it to Piffany to dole out honors and/or discipline accordingly. Piffany’s Employee of the Month for July 2021 is Kevin Hart. Congrats Kev!

Kevin Hart turned 42 in July and left no doubt in the minds of me (and probably you, too, if you gave it much thought) in terms of who’s the boss, who’s currently hustling the hardest, making things happen, and therefore also this month’s Comedy MVP.

Hart came into July with a hit movie on Netflix, Fatherhood, produced by his HartBeat Productions and starring the comedian. Netflix claimed 74 million views for Fatherhood in the film’s first 28 days on the platform since June 18. Hart also executive produced a documentary on Dick Gregory that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before getting released July 4 via Showtime.

Also in July, Hart got his comedy entourage onscreen in two different vehicles, so to speak: Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew premiered on the MotorTrend app, and three of his Plastic Cup Boyz released half-hour stand-up specials as a Netflix collection thanks to Hart. That’s not to mention his ongoing satellite radio podcasts Hart conducts with the Plastic Cup Boyz which air on Hart’s own SiriusXM station, LOL Radio. Or even the episode of “Comedy Gold Minds” and Hart’s other LOL shows that recorded fresh shows last week as part of Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival!

Oh, you might also not know Hart’s an EP on Dave, the FX series starring Lil Dicky, which started its second season this summer and is garnering all sorts of praise from comedians. Or that his LOL Studios also put comedians in the driver’s seat for a gimmicky webseries called Lyft Comics?

But wait, there’s more.

This month Hart got BET+ to green-light six new episodes of his Real Husbands of Hollywood mockumentary series, starring Hart alongside Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, JB Smoove, Nelly, Nick Cannon, Robin Thicke, Cynthia McWilliams and Jackie Long.

And I haven’t even gotten to Hart’s TWO new series on Peacock, which you’ve undoubtedly seen or heard about it in the past week. Social media was abuzz this past week about Olympic Highlights, the Peacock series Hart’s co-hosting with Snoop Dogg, thanks mostly to Snoop’s flair for not giving any effs about it while describing the Olympic events he’s watching. Such as immediately comparing an equestrian event to Crip-walking. But that’s mostly thanks to Hart for convincing Snoop to do the deal in the first place! Hart’s other Peacock series, a talk show called Hart to Heart, premiered yesterday with its first three episodes. I’m a little bummed that the premiere episode featured Hart persuading Miley Cyrus to drink wine (since Cyrus has spoken publicly about her struggles with sobriety), but I suppose that’s what happens when you proclaim proudly in the first minutes of your talk show that you’re not going to do any prep work for the interviews. “I’m taking a risk!” Hart said. Indeed.

Lest you think I’m finished recounting Hart’s exploits for the summer, let it also be known that he just wrapped another Netflix movie (True Story, co-starring Wesley Snipes), comes into August ready to host a second season of Celebrity Game Face for E!, shows up all the time on your screens in his Capital One ads, and also is up for an Emmy Award. He received a nomination for Outstanding Actor In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series – 2021 for his Quibi (now Roku Originals) series, Die Hart.

Congrats once again, Kevin Hart, on being the most this summer!

ALSO RECEIVING VOTES THIS MONTH FOR EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: Ashley Nicole Black, nominated twice this year for Emmy’s in Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (in both The Amber Ruffin Show and A Black Lady Sketch Show), as well as writing for the second season of Ted Lasso; Amber Ruffin, for hosting The Amber Ruffin Show and reporting from the Tokyo Olympics for NBC/Peacock; Nikki Glaser, for hosting FBOY Island on HBO Max; Tim Robinson for getting comedy nerds all abuzz with the second season of his Netflix sketch comedy series, I Think You Should Leave; Dave Chappelle, for being Dave Chappelle; and Bo Burnham, for his Netflix special getting a special one-night-only release on the big screen in cineplexes and also for Inside’s songs continuing to rocket through TikToks and other social media platforms.