By Jean Nash Wells

 
If ever there was a man on the move it’s funny man, Steve Harvey. The star of WBLS radio in the all - important morning drive time spot, Harvey is a whirling dervish keeping up with his various commitments. We caught up with him minutes after he finished his radio show, in between conference calls, and before he had to rush off to sign another licensing deal, which was just an hour before he headed to JFK to catch a flight to Los Angeles to tape the BET Gospel Awards. Whew! But in those moments we shared, Steve Harvey took time to reflect on life, his career, and his walk with God.

 I was surprised at how calm and soft-spoken he was, after just coming off a particularly upbeat and funny show. “I’m really kind of an introvert,” he said. “But, people expect me to be funny all the time.

Harvey knew at the age of 10 that he wanted to be a comedian. “I was always funny, but it was a dry wit and always under my breath, so just a few people could hear it,” he remembers. “I was funny in a quiet way.”

Born in West Virginia, he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, one of five children in a stable family. “My Dad had very little education, but he worked hard and took care of us until the day he died.”

Steve’s dream of being a television star was always on the back burner. He dropped out of Kent State University and finally in his early twenties, seemed to have settled into the job of door-to-door insurance salesman, writing jokes for another comedian on the side. Then it happened. He was called on stage at a local comedy club and won the amateur night contest. The next day he had business card printed that said, ‘Steve Harvey, Comedian’ with his phone number. The day after that he quit his job. “Steve Harvey, Comedian” was on his way. He traveled throughout the U.S. playing small clubs and venues. The big break came, he said, when he was chosen to be the host of Showtime at the Apollo. “That was a really great time for me, working for InnerCity Broadcasting. And the people of Harlem were great. They showed me that it was okay for me to be country, crazy, off the top of my head. ‘Just keep it clean, man and we’re gonna ride with you,’ and that’s what I did.” He was the host of Showtime from 1994 until 2000.

 Chuck Sutton, producer of Showtime at the time, arranged for Harvey to appear at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He was spotted there by executives at ABC and asked to work with them on a show for ABC primetime called "Me and the Boys," in which he played a widowed father of three boys. “I came home with a check for $50,000 in my pocket and a holding deal to go to L.A. and do this show.” Although the show was a hit, it was cancelled after the first year. Next came the Steve Harvey Show (1996-2002) on the WB Network. A favorite among African Americans, the show garnered five NAACP Image Awards. Harvey’s star continued to rise, taking him to movies, other TV shows and the lucrative touring comedy concert Kings of Comedy with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac. The concert was filmed as a documentary by Spike Lee and as “The Original Kings of Comedy,” played to packed theatres across the country. The film, which cost $3 million to make, grossed over $40 million.

After stints at radio stations in Chicago and L.A. Harvey inked a deal that partnered his own Steve Harvey Radio Network with Premiere Radio Network, and InnerCity Broadcasting. The syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show is aired in about 14 markets with new stations in major markets coming soon.

And it’s a hit in New York, increasing its ratings 50 percent since it began airing in September, according the Arbitron radio survey. With the conservative and liberal bombastic talk radio shows and the so-called urban radio environment in which African Americans refer to themselves in the most derogatory and demeaning terms, Harvey is a refreshing voice.

Beginning at 6’oclock every morning, he makes a plea to his listeners to “put God in your life. Trust me,” he says, “God is real.”

The audacity to boldly proclaim that God is real and offer the advice to his audience that “prayer changes things,” in a drive time urban music radio show! I wanted to know how and why.

Mr. Harvey doesn’t hesitate. My mother died a saved woman. She believed in Jesus Christ, heaven and hell that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior, and she taught me that. I start my show in the morning with honoring God. I play a Gospel song and I try to encourage people who are listening to me. All I am is a reminder to everybody to think about God today. I know we play music with all kinda stuff in it… I know that, and that’s cool. But the truth of the matter is nothing happens to us that is good without our heavenly Father. You can’t think that you’re waking up because an alarm clock went off. That alarm goes off in a lot of houses in the morning and people aren’t alive to turn it off. All I’m here to do from 6:00 to 6:12 in the morning is to remind people that the reason your eyes open up, the reason you’re able to walk, talk, rhyme or reason is because of God. And if I can do that in the morning first thing, you automatically have begun your day better than you have been doing. My morning show is to start your day in the right direction. Keep God on your mind, man, ’cause you’re gonna need Him. To honor my mother and father and to honor God,” Harvey said, “I start my show the way I do.”

And God has been good to Steve Harvey. He’s virtually an entertainment conglomerate. Among his endeavors are a radio network, a men’s clothing line, an online Hip Hop magazine, Steve Harvey Ringtones and of course his standup live performances. His Steve Harvey Collection takes advantage of his flair for fashion with suits, shirts, ties and accessories. “Every man should own a suit,” he said. He’s even encouraging the Hip Hop crowd to understand that. In addition, to his “fashion foreward” line, he also has what he calls “The Boardroom Collection” which is a little on the conservative side. “There are some situations where you can’t go to work wearing a blue suit with pink pinstripes.” The Steve Harvey Collection is available in popular men’s stores throughout the U.S.

The online Hip Hop Times Magazine focuses on the business of Hip Hop. “We’re not interested in how many cars somebody has, or the number of watches. We want to teach young people about the business of Hip Hop. Hip Hop has created more African American millionaires than any other music genre.”

I like Hip Hop, but lyrically, lets just be a little more conscious. I’ve got freedom of speech, but Black people can’t afford the freedom that white folks can. In the struggle that we’ve been in and the struggle that we’re still in, we’ve got to be a little more conscious about what we say to our young people. So all I ask the Hip Hop dudes to do is ‘raise up the level of your lyrics. Don’t call women b%#%es and hos. Just start with that.’”

Harvey is excited about his upcoming stand-up comedy film, the first since The Original Kings of Comedy.” The film, “Don’t Trip…He Ain’t Thru with Me Yet,” features his onstage performance at Bishop T. D. Jakes’ Manpower Conference in Atlanta and will open in theatres on March 17. Visit steveharvey.com to see a preview.

To sum it all up, Steve Harvey defines the words “soul brother.” He’s a man of the times, grounded in who he is and where he’s from. He has a sincere desire to see his people move forward, which is reflected in his many community service activities, such as the work he does through the Steve and Mary L. Harvey Foundation, the Hoodie Awards and the Principal of the Day program through which he visits urban schools and gives sound advice to young people. Steve takes seriously his position as a public figure speaking to generations and proclaims the importance of education, parental responsibility and reaching out to our brothers and sisters who need help. He is culturally and spiritually grounded in his approach to life.

It’s apropos that we end this snapshot of Steve Harvey, Comedian, with the words with which he often ends his morning show: “If you ain’t got God, you ain’t got nuthin! You can take that to the bank. God is big, man. Prayer changes things. Trust me. Trust me…”