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Steve Harvey was once largely known as one of the Original Kings of Comedy. But with a top-rated syndicated radio show, Harvey, who is also seen daily (three to four times in some regions) as the new host of the long-running game show 'Family Feud,' and nightly on BET's new Centric channel via 'The Steve Harvey Project' featuring the best of him and his radio cohorts (which is comprised of Shirley Strawberry, Carla Ferrell and Nephew Tommy), is increasingly becoming the King of All Media. In just a few weeks, the 53-year old married father of seven will turn 54. And by the time the Welch, West Virginia native's birthday rolls around, Harvey will most likely hit the New York Times Bestseller's list with his brew of no-holds-barred relationship advice found in this week's publishing of his second tome, 'Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep and Understand a Man' (Amistad/HarperCollinsPublishers)
The Essence magazine columnist's first attempt at doling out valuable vittles about love was no fluke – 'Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man' was an overnight hit and spent 60 weeks on the coveted list. According to the book's publisher, more than two million copies are in print.
Powerhouse movie producer Will Packer ('Stomp The Yard,' 'Obsessed') has snapped up the rights for the beloved book to become a motion picture.
During an exclusive interview with BlackVoices.com recently, the philanthropist born as Broderick Steven Harvey talked candidly about a range of topics seldom spoken about before -- like his humble beginnings dropping out of Kent Stage University, working at the Ford Motor Company; his first failed marriage; breaking into comedy; being homeless; the best lessons learned; launching the Kings of comedy; his third marriage to the beautiful Marjorie Bridges-Harvey; keeping the bloggers busy; being considered a 'relationship expert'; not being a movie star and the state of black radio.Watch the video below to get to know Steve Harvey like never before.
Popular Black Comedians
Famous, Black & Funny
Being funny comes as a natural gift for man – but only the really talented (and really daring) ones have answered the call to make the masses laugh with their comedy. The wild and crazy Tracy Morgan, the much heralded Whoopi Goldberg, the brassy Mo'Nique and the late, great Richard Pryor are just a few of the black, famous and funny people who made us laugh over the last 50 years. There are many more. And they all have stories behind the funny. Check out who they are and what they've done.
Famous, Black & Funny
Martin Lawrence
Started Out: Making an appearance on the national talent show 'Star Search,' which ultimately led to a gig on 'What's Happening Now!' Big Break: Hosting the groundbreaking comedy series 'Def Comedy Jam.' Hometown: Landover, Md. Also Was Seen: In the films 'Do the Right Thing,' 'House Party,' 'Boomerang,' 'Bad Boys,' 'Thin Line Between Love & Hate' and 'Big Momma's House.' In addition, he starred and executive-produced his own Fox sitcom 'Martin' for five seasons. Factoid: In 1989, Lawrence was engaged to 'Saved by the Bell' actress Lark Voorhies.
Famous, Black & Funny
Steve Harvey
Started Out: Began doing stand-up in the mid-1980s and was a finalist in the second annual Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search in 1989. Big Break: Hosting the nationally syndicated TV series 'Showtime at the Apollo.' Hometown: Welch, W. Va. Also Was Seen: On the series 'Me and the Boys' and his eponymous sitcom. Also appeared in the movies 'Love Don't Cost A Thing,' 'The Original Kings of Comedy' and 'The Fighting Temptations.' Factoid: Born in 1957, Harvey (real name: Broderick Steven Harvey) made his literary debut with the New York Times best-selling relationship/advice book 'Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man,' in 2009.
Famous, Black & Funny
Wanda Sykes
Started Out: Began her stand-up career at a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, D.C. Big Break: Played multiple roles on Chris Rock's Emmy Award-winning HBO show. Hometown: Portsmouth, Va. Also Was Seen: In the movies 'Monster-in-Law' and 'Pooty Tang' and on the TV shows 'Wanda At Large,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'The New Adventures of Old Christine.' Factoid: During a Las Vegas gay rights rally in November 2008, Sykes proclaimed she was "proud to be gay."
Famous, Black & Funny
Jamie Foxx
Started Out: Acting on a dare (from a girlfriend) and competing in an open-mic contest at a comedy club in 1989. Big Break: Playing the comely date-challenged Wanda on 'In Living Color' Hometown: Linden, Texas Also Was Seen: In the films 'Booty Call,' 'The Players Club,' 'Any Given Sunday,' 'Miami Vice,' 'Ali' and 'Ray,' for which he won an Academy Award for best actor in 2005. Also fronted his eponymous sitcom. Factoid: As of 2009, Foxx (real name: Eric Marlon Bishop) has released three music albums: 1994's 'Peep This,' 2005's 'Unpredictable' and 2008's 'Intuition.'
Famous, Black & Funny
Tracy Morgan
Started Out: Appearing on the sitcom 'Martin,' where he played 'Hustle Man.' Big Break: Morgan's claim to fame came in 1996 when he began appearing on 'Saturday Night Live.' Hometown: New York City Also Was Seen: In 'A Thin Line Between Love and Hate,' 'Martin,' 'Half Baked,' 'How High,' 'Head of State,' 'The Tracey Morgan Show,' 'Little Man,' 'First Sunday' and '30 Rock.' Factoid: Andrew Dice Clay inspired Morgan to pursue comedy.
Famous, Black & Funny
Chris Rock
Started Out: Doing stand-up comedy in 1985 in New York City's Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club. Big Break: Was a cast member of the popular sketch comedy series 'Saturday Night Live.' Hometown: New York City Also Was Seen: In the movie 'New Jack City,' where he played a crackhead informant. Factoid: Born in 1965, Rock won a Grammy for best spoken comedy album in 1999 for the project 'Bigger & Blacker.'
Famous, Black & Funny
Mo'Nique
Started Out: Appearing at the downtown Baltimore Comedy Factory Outlet. Big Break: Starred on the hit UPN sitcom 'The Parkers.' Hometown: Baltimore Also Was Seen: In 'Three Can Play That Game,' 'Hair Show' and 'Shadowboxer.' Factoid: Born in 1967, Mo'Nique (real name: Monique Imes) is the author of 'Skinny Women are Evil: Notes of a Big Girl in a Small-Minded World' and the cookbook 'Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted.'
Famous, Black & Funny
Eddie Griffith
Started Out: Griffith began his acting career the 1991 action-thriller 'The Last Boy Scout.' Big Break: In 1996, Griffith showcased his talent on a national scale when he landed the role of Eddie on the TV series 'Malcolm & Eddie.' Hometown: Kansas City, Mo. Also Was Seen: In 'Foolish,' 'Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo' and 'Undercover Brother.' Factoid: Suffered a heart attack in 1996 while taping an episode of 'Malcolm & Eddie' following a scene in which he did the salsa dance.
Famous, Black & Funny
Bill Cosby
Started Out: While in his early twenties, Cosby appeared on various well-known variety programs including 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' Big Break: In 1965, he appeared as Alexander Scott in the Emmy Award-winning flick 'I Spy.' Hometown: Philadelphia Also Was Seen: In 'Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids,' 'Uptown Saturday Night,' 'Let's Do it Again,' 'Ghost Dad,' 'The Meteor Man' and the groundbreaking NBC sitcom 'The Cosby Show.' Factoid: Beginning in 1965, Cosby scored the Grammy Award for best comedy album six years in a row.
Comments: (16)
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By: De on 12/09/2010 1:12AM
I never thought Steve was/is funny. He tries to hard to be funny, and his jokes are just plain stupid. A good joke is one that makes you laugh, of course, but also one that makes you go hmmmmmmmmmmm. I had to change the station when he was telling the "12 days of Christmas" jokes today. And that trained laughing Hyena "Shirley", I just want to slap her sometimes, and ask her "was the joke all that Shirley?" "Was it really that funny????" NOT!!
Now, that's about his jokes. I do enjoy listening to his responses to the "Strawberry Letter". I admit, he gives good advice. He should. He's been married at least three times that we know of, and his first book wasn't bad either.
Stick with the radio show, and working with a ghost writer Steve, but please, cut out the those lame ass, sad, non funny jokes.
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By: Nuf_Said on 12/07/2010 8:15PM
Good and all that we wrote another book but truth be told not every man is going to gravitate to every woman who does all the right things to get a man keep a man. You can do all the right things in the world but if he doesnt want you then he just doesnt want you.
If it's a situation where someone else has his heart even if theyre no longer together, you'll never be #1 woman in his life. Thats problem these days...alot of people have baggage they cant totally let go of no matter how hard we try.
I'll get his book out of suppor b/c I like Steve Harvey but that's my intake of these relationship books. Every individual's different. Some are just too immature or even selfish to realize a good woman til they lose her to someone else then it's too late.
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By: Nuf_Said on 12/08/2010 6:47PM
If anything Steve Harvey should write a book to straighten out these knuckle headed men who do women dirty as well as these dead beats who do their kids wrong as well. It goes both ways.
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By: Gail on 12/08/2010 7:57AM
Nuf said...
I understand what you're saying, but people are getting it twisted. The book is only a guide. Nothing is in stone. Nothing is perfect. The book is not a step by step instruction. It's just a guide.
Also, he does deal with the knuckleheads. But the reason he even wrote a book in the first place is because he would get hundreds of phone calls, emails, and the Strawberry Letters that would come in, mostly from women, women with relationship issues (women with low self esteem) etc.
So that's why he addressed the women more so than the men. But he does speak on the men, and you have to understand, there aren't too many men who don't mind another man telling him what to do and not do in his relationships and in his home.
So he focuses on the woman to act right, or get their acts together, or fix and do you, and in turn, the men either act right or lose a good woman.
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By: MissT on 12/08/2010 4:16PM
Isn't that the truth. Now those are the books that need to be written. Everyone has something to say to women and give us advice, but no one is talking to these men-children. They are the ones who need to be preached to and help accountable for their foul behaviors.
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By: Caregiver 1 on 12/08/2010 4:44PM
@nuffsaid, it is most likely that you are a woman with the comment that you made. I am a man with nothing against the gender, but I do take issue with a wide spread mentality and attitude within the gender like yours. You wrote "...write a book to straighten out these knuckle headed men who do women dirty as well as these dead beats who do their kids wrong as well." You have the entire source of the problem misplaced and confused. No man to date has been able to birth a child. And it is extremely rare for a non-married man to successfully influence his pregnant, non-married female sex partner to comply with his desires on what to do about the pregnancy if it means to terminate the pregnancy. So from the very beginnings of the process he has been an unwilling participant. And before you spew some estrogen laden tirade about "him knowing what could happen with sex", understand that regardless to the use of birth control or not, the decision to carry a pregnancy to term is a decision made exclusively by the woman in most cases. Also, the decision is frequently made unilaterally long after the two have left the bedroom, showered and gone their separate ways. In other words, the woman has taken the consentual "recreational sex" that they both agreed to and decided to convert it into a "procreational sex" act with no input from any of the parties most affected by her decision. Namely the fetus and the man. Next she expects the man to suddenly and miraculously agree that the pregnancy is a good idea that he will support it with his time, love and money. When he refuses to buy in to the process, he gets labeled a "deadbeat". (Oh, by the way, the percentage of financially deadbeat parents is overwhelmingly female). So you women then berate the men you selected and forced into co-parentage as an inferior specimen of the male gender. When will women ever accept and acknowledge any responsibility for this growing problem? No child wants to be placed at the increased risk of alcoholism, poverty, imprisonment,shortened life span, drug abuse, gang involvement, lowered acheivement levels etc. that go with the womans decision. So that is two votes to one against carrying the child to term based on the circumstances. But she still won't listen. Women will say that the child they are carrying will be the next Obama, when statistics and history support that she is carrying the next future felon. What women say, is that they would commit some unforgivable sin if they abort but ignore that the sex that resulted in pregnancy was the initial sin and that there is no prioritization of sin that would cause the abortion to trump the premarital sex that caused the pregnancy. It is really a self-serving decision that allows some women to proclaim their victimship and wear the fictious baby badge of honor. If you really want deep religious food for thought, consider that the bible states that the earth is the realm where evil has power and does create and cause chaos for the descendants of the Creator and what is more chaotic in the lives of the two co-parents that the daily and future care of a child that only one parent wants to be involved with? What situation causes the most people to turn away from their dreams and resort to a lessor "plan B" instead of following a more promising path? Steve Harvey can only tell you how to date or impress a man like him, and most men with his history don't end up as a multi-millionaire. It is dangerous when we extoll the virtues of the exception and hold it up as evidence of what will likely happen in our case. Nuffsaid, if you really want to give good advice, tell women not to have the baby in the first place, because that would automatically cut the number of "deadbeats" of both genders. Is that too logical and sensible for you? Peace
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By: miamac on 12/09/2010 10:25AM
I agree with Steve that God has really strengthened and stretched him. As he always says, "God isn't done with me yet." This should minimize if not eliminate those persons quick to judge. I'm proud of Steve and others like him for carving their place in the business world.
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By: nomoxcuses on 12/08/2010 8:07PM
We have definitely entered a New World Order. Steve Harvey, funny? Relationship expert? Give me a break. Steve Harvey giving advice to women on how to get a man is about as ridiculous as telling a cop how to catch a crook! Women enjoy purchasing items that make them worse off then they began. A 50 yr old man happily married to a 30 something yr old woman-go figure. Get your money Steve!
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