The Original Kings of Comedy (2000) on Netflix

R20001h 55mComedy Documentary

Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac share a stage at the Charlotte Coliseum on the tour's final nights. Race, marriage, church and getting older fill the sets.

Netflix3.7/5
IMDb6.9/106,419 votes
Rotten Tomatoes83%

Trailer

Watch the trailer on YouTube

Plot summary

Filmed before a live crowd at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the show brings four comedians to one stage over the closing nights of a tour. Steve Harvey serves as master of ceremonies, working three short sets in which he plays with the front row and recalls the church he grew up in. D.L. Hughley talks about his marriage and about the differences he sees between Black and white Americans. Cedric the Entertainer takes on being grown up, a Black president and the sports Black athletes have moved into. Bernie Mac calls himself the voice of what sits in the back of people's minds, and goes into being 42, sex and raising children. Backstage, at a hotel, on the radio and at a basketball game, the camera stays with the four between their sets.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

In a November 2022 interview on Shannon Sharpe's podcast Club Shay Shay, Cedric revealed that on the actual live tour he was the closing act and Bernie Mac went second, after D.L. Hughley. Producers and editors then decided to cut the footage so that Cedric came second and Bernie closed.
Produced on an estimated $3,000,000 budget, the concert film grossed $11,053,832 on only 847 screens in its opening weekend, averaging about $13,051 per venue and ranking as the second highest-grossing film that weekend behind only The Cell.
Bernie Mac's extended routine about the stress of raising his sister's children for her while she recovers from drugs was invented for the act: he did not actually have a sister.
The popularity of the film inspired a string of spin-offs, including The Queens of Comedy, The Original Latin Kings of Comedy, The Kims of Comedy, The Comedians of Comedy and The Killers of Comedy.