March 20, 2007 @ 7:10 pm

Steve Harvey: He's So Sincere (Part One)

Shauna Barbosa

AJ Jamal can tell you a lot about blazing paths in the comedy industry. The hard-working comedian has appeared on Comedy Central, The Arsenio Hall Show, In Living Color and Def Comedy. He's currently working on his own TV network, Swirl TV. And he'll tell you it's the biggest thing since toilet paper. Having built up his resume since 1989, Jamal made some friends along the way, one of whom he credits for giving him his start in stand-up: the King of morning radio, Steve Harvey. No more than 20 houses apart in their hometown of Cleveland, AJ Jamal and Steve Harvey became best friends, bonded together by a couple disastrous start-up businesses, and their shared love for laughter. Jamal had a couple things to say about Harvey, then and now. VIBE: When did you first meet Steve Harvey?
I know he played basketball for a church; he was a superstar basketball player. That's where I probably met him. Then we ended up at Kent State together, and that's when we really started hanging out. Once we graduated, he was working at Lincoln Electric and I was working at IBM over in engineering. He called me one day and said he had to get out of there -- and [then] we started our own [carpet-cleaning] business. It was the most hilarious thing in the world. Really, we had no clue; we went out and bought some raggedy equipment, wall-to-wall carpet, and went to Sears and got some uniforms. How did the carpet business work out?
Well, looked like UPS guys in our uniforms. None of the equipment worked right. We started getting jobs and we were tearing up people's houses and leaving water on their carpet. One time we left almost an inch of water in somebody's house because our machine wouldn't suck the water up - we didn't know you had to suck it up. We're like, "I thought that came with the machine!" When the lady called us and asked us what we were going to do with the water, Steve said, "Open the window—let it dry." After four days she called back and said, "It stinks. It smells like mildew." Steve was like, "Open some more windows." And that was it?
We almost got lawsuits, so I told Steve, "You can have the carpet cleaning business. I'm going to try the comedy thing." Steve would tell me how the carpet cleaning business was just too hard. I told him quit it and do comedy. Just do it.
And so, I put Steve on his first show. I said, "But you gotta know how to do five minutes of comedy. You need to go out there and make sure you capture the audience. When Steve comes out, he's on stage for 40 minutes! I'm backstage yelling at him, 'You gotta get off! I mean, you can't do the whole show. You have to get off." That was his first time on stage; I ain't never seen a comic do that. What was Steve like growing up?
Steve's always been a very good person. I hear a lot of people say things about him. If anybody talks bad about him, you don't really know Steve. I'm really proud of Steve because he's done a lot of stuff to get to where he is. I'll always love him like a brother; Steve does whatever he can to be successful. And I admire that. Did Steve write your jokes early in your career?
Yeah, he used to. What he did was, let's say I write a joke and I don't see all the funny in it. He would make it funny and he would write some of the funnies for it and we would do that with each other. He can take a joke and make it even funnier. Now they call it "punch up." Steve was getting 10 bucks for each joke he wrote for you? I'd have to hustle to pay him 10 bucks a joke, but we would play Pac-man and I'd take him out on the machine. I was supposed to play him ten dollars but we would play Pac-man and he owed me. Tell Steve I owe him about $70 if he wants me to pay him for his jokes. We played Pac-man and I thought I paid $70 worth of Pac-man fees because that's all we did. And Steve, I need my key back to my house in Cleveland. Steve has come along way since wall-to-wall carpeting. What are your thoughts of him now?
I'm very proud of Steve and what he's done. He's accomplished a lot and people don't realize to get where you're at, there's just certain ways you have to do. I hope he gets on TV again. I thought he'd probably be doing film now or either making his own films or something like that. You turn on a microphone in front of him and he starts talking. He's just saying what's on his mind, that's what he's always done. Even though he is a natural at radio, that big-lipped boy should be doing films. What about Steve makes him so appealing? I think because he's honest and he tells you what's on your mind, some people don't like that. And he's always been a family person - he's always been about his family. Steve is real; his personality comes off like that. He's not going to hold nothing back. I'll color stuff up if I want to tell somebody they have bad breath. But Steve would say, "Your breath stinks. You need a tic-tac or something." Period. Me, I'd offer them some gum.

Article tags: Steve, Harvey, He's, So, Sincere, Part, One 

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