Steve Harvey says he was three years into comedy, homeless and ready to quit on the day his answering machine changed everything. On The Pivot, he describes checking his messages before asking his father for a place to stay, hearing an offer from Showtime at the Apollo, and then finding a second message that paid for the trip to New York.
Clip: Viral Podcast Shorts YouTube Short from the full source linked below.
It is his memory of one week, which he places in 1991 ("This is '91"). He tells it quickly, and with the numbers he still remembers: $35, $150 and $99.
Three years in and ready to go home
Harvey says he had reached his limit. "I can't take it no more," he recalls thinking. "I'm out." His parents never knew he was homeless, he says, and he had a wife and twins to think about.
His plan was simple. He would call his dad, ask whether he could stay at his house for six months, get a job and let comedy go. "And that was the plan," he says.
Before he made that call, he checked his answering machine. He explains that people had let him keep a phone with an answering machine in an attic, because they knew he was out on the road.
The message from the Apollo
On the day he was going to give up, he says, the message was from Chuck Sutton of Showtime at the Apollo. In Harvey's retelling, Sutton had seen a tape of his, said he was "funny as all outdoors" and offered him an opening on the show that Sunday if he could get there. Harvey even keeps the casual ending of the message: "give me a call, blah, blah, blah."
The problem was everything else. It was Thursday. Harvey says he was in Pensacola, Florida, with $35 and no gas in the car. "It ain't no way I can get to New York with $35," he says.
He describes getting back in his car "broken." The one thing he wanted, he says, was to be on TV on a Sunday night in New York, and he could not even get there. "I ain't know what to do, man," he admits. He called the machine again, hoping the message said next Sunday so he could hustle up some money. It said the same thing.
A second message: $150 in Jacksonville
Then the machine told him he had another message. Harvey says it was Tom Sobel from the Comedy Caravan, who had a gig the next night at the Punchline in Jacksonville, Florida. "I got $150 for you," the message said, as Harvey tells it.
He took it. He drove from Pensacola to Jacksonville and made $150 on Friday night. As he tells it, he went over well enough that he was offered another $150 to stay a second night, replacing an act that was already booked. That was Saturday.
He still had not reached Sutton. After the second show, he says, he called again, got him on the phone and asked whether the opening was still there for the next night. The answer was yes.
A $99 ticket and a standing ovation
Harvey says he bought a ticket on Eastern Airlines for $99 and flew to New York. He did Showtime at the Apollo and, in his words, "got standing ovation."
His closing line ties the whole week together: "I've been on TV ever since, man."
The story is his account on the podcast, and the names, days and dollar amounts are as he recalls them. What makes it land is the timing. Two messages sat on one tape, on the day he planned to quit, and the smaller offer is what made the bigger one possible.
Related reading
- Steve Harvey's real name
- Steve Harvey bio
- The Rock's seven bucks story on The Pivot
- Katt Williams' first comedy contest at 16
FAQ
Was Steve Harvey homeless before Showtime at the Apollo?
By his account on The Pivot, yes. He says he was homeless three years into comedy and that his parents never knew.
How did Steve Harvey get the Showtime at the Apollo spot?
He says Chuck Sutton left a message on his answering machine after seeing a tape, offering him an opening on a Sunday show.
How did Steve Harvey pay to get to New York?
He says a second message offered $150 for a gig at the Punchline in Jacksonville. He worked two nights at $150 each, then bought a $99 Eastern Airlines ticket.
What year was this?
In the clip, he says, "This is '91."
How did his Apollo set go?
He says he got a standing ovation and has been on TV ever since.