Steve Harvey's "Sponsor-Driven" Personality Is Why He Won't Return To Standup

"It keeps getting closer and closer to where you can’t open your mouth negatively."

BYChantilly Post
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Steve Harvey has gone from being a stand-up comedian to a talk-show host with five unscripted series and he still has even more milestones to reach. "I'm gonna have the biggest television production company in Hollywood. I'm gonna be producing more hits than any production company in the industry," he tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Although his solo stand-up days are over, the 61-year-old has definitely thought about returning, but says the political climate we are in makes it very hard to 'laugh' about anything. “That’s the one hesitancy I have with going back to stand-up,” he explains. “I’m a sponsor-driven business, and they keep moving the line of political correctness. It keeps getting closer and closer to where you can’t open your mouth negatively. Throw away freedom of speech. That’s out the window now.”

He adds: 'The Ku Klux Klan and the skinheads can get a permit to walk down the street to bash Jews, gays, blacks, immigrants, anybody. But if I tell a joke, Procter & Gamble pulls. Once Procter & Gamble pulls, Mercedes gotta pull. Then Kool-Aid. That's an ugly place to be in. But you can get a permit and put a hood on your head to walk down the street. Really? Regardless as to what our president said, there's not good people on both sides."

Read his full interview here.


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