Show Name: The Kevin Hart Irresponsible Tour
Venue: Bell Center (Montreal)
Date: July 27th, 2018
Time: 8:30 pm
Introduction
This year I did not go see many shows at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. For those of you that are not familiar with the festival, it is the yearly summer festival in Montreal, where comedians from around the world come and show their stuff. Many comedians that we know and love started their careers here like Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and Howie Mandel, just to name a few. Since we decided to not go to any other show, we splurged on this one.
Tickets were not cheap at 125$ per ticket plus tax. However, we did have good seats and we do not pay for these big shows very often. So let us see if the show was worth the price of admission.
Opening Acts
First I would like to say that they make it really clear that people's phones should be turned off during the show. We had about 30 reminders to do so before Kevin Hart comes on. I can understand. The show was being filmed and he had apparently written new material specifically for the Montreal show. I guess they did not want any footage to be leaked. I did see some security people escort some people out because of this, so they were serious.
Now on to the opening acts. Like any show of this grandeur, there were some opening acts before the main attraction came on stage. The group is called The Plastic Cup Boys. On this night there were 3 comedians that came out from this comedy group. There was Joey Wells, who was essentially the first act and MC, followed by Will Spank Horton and last we saw Na'im Lynn.
Joey Wells
Of course the crowd was a little disappointed when they saw that Kevin Hart was not the guy on stage. However, Joey was able to put the audience at ease and get to his material. I have to admit, I had a good laugh. He has that charismatic smile and he did not disappoint.
Joey Wells: Hoarders
He did not do this bit but you will get an idea of who Joey Wells is.
Will Spank Horton
Will, I believe was the weakest of the 3 opening acts. It took a while for me to get into his routine. He had a few good spots but in general, I thought that he was the middle of the pack comedian. I saw some people laughing hard at some things but I guess this act did not resonate with me. Hey, it happens. Not every comedian will always be funny. I am not saying that he was not good, just not my cup of tea.
William Spank Horton: English class
Na'im Lynn
I really liked his set and he was on par with Joey Wells. There are parts where I was laughing out loud and some of the material was flat out hilarious. You see that he has been doing stand up for a while as he has his timing right and the jokes are well written and honed out. I could go an watch his stand up on Netflix or YouTube. I must admit I was not familiar with him before the show. Now I think I may look him up.
Na'im Lynn Sample Bit
Kevin Hart
Alright, now on to the main show. Of course Kevin got a huge pop when he came out. He started on a more personal note and did not stop from there. Every story was well built and executed.
I must of laughed at almost every part of his standup routine. It was awesome. What I also loved about Kevin is that he concluded his set properly. What I mean by that is that normally a lot of comedians will just finish the last joke and then awkwardly say, "Goodnight everyone!" . Kevin did it in a way that his last joke tied in with a previous joke almost 45 minutes before. That shows me someone that really takes the time to build his sets properly.
I do not know how he practices his routines as he is not exactly the small time guy anymore. You see that each story was perfectly executed and it was nice to see.
You might be telling yourself, well of course he will be good. He is a professional. Not everyone is the same. I loved George Carlin. I have all his live albums and specials. I still watch them today, but when he came to Montreal I was disappointed. He did not seem prepared and it looked like he was testing his material. So, yes even the greats have off nights but Kevin was on par tonight.
At the end of the show, after he was done, he gave some huge props to Montreal. He said that Montreal is where he truly was discovered and that he will always have a special place in his heart for this city. Is it true? May be, maybe not. It was a nice touch to a great show.
Bottomline
I truly enjoyed the show. Yes the tickets were a little expensive but the show was big and it did not disappoint.
I know that everyone has their own tastes in comedy. I will be honest, I was never a huge Kevin Hart stand up fan. I did watch his previous specials and some of them were ok. I found him annoying with his whining.
However, for whatever reason, he was not as whiny on this night. Yeah he did do his typical high pinched voice, but I felt that were were better timed than other specials. That might have been just me.
I do not think that his set would convert someone who did not like him prior, to a super fan but I think he did a good job.
All in all, this show was solid from the beginning to the end. I can say that for at least once in my life I went to see Kevin Hart in his prime.
Although we have the biggest comedy festival in the world, big comedians rarely come to Montreal. Jerry Seinfeld was disappointing when I went to see him. I missed Robin Williams as his shows were always sold out. George Carlin was disappointing when I went to see him. Kevin Hart brought the goods on this night at it was worth the price of admission.
Have you gone to see any of his shows? What do you think? let us know below.
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