A & E

He may be riding high, with a Comedy Central special and television series on tap, not to mention a role in the new movie drama "Not Easily Broken." But comedian Kevin Hart prefers not to think about how well he's doing.

"I still haven't accepted the fact that I'm succeeding and that I'm successful and that I enjoy it and love it," says Hart, who performs today through Sunday at the Pittsburgh Improv. "I think the minute I take time to sit and realize what I'm doing is when things could change. I would much rather stay motivated and push myself as much as possible."

Onstage, the 5-foot-5-inch Hart is a motor-mouthed beta male who ridicules his own reluctance to confront guys bigger than him.

These confrontations weren't always hypothetical. In 1998, he got hit in the face with a chicken wing while performing stand-up in Atlantic City.

"I tried to stand up for myself," he says. "I said, 'Look, man, you don't throw things at people.' The guy stood up. He was very big, and I said, 'You know what, guys? That's my time.'"

It wasn't his best day, obviously. Hart must have wondered whether he should have stuck with selling athletic shoes in his native Philadelphia.

"You ask yourself, 'Wow, is that what I have to look forward to?'" he says. "You suck it up and you bear down and you get through it, or you can sit there and be a baby about it."

The 2004 ABC sitcom "The Big House" was loosely based on his family life in the City of Brotherly Love. An appearance at the Montreal Comedy Festival eventually led to roles in "Scary Movie 3," "Scary Movie 4," "Fool's Gold," "Paper Soldiers" and "Along Came Polly."

In the 2004 lowbrow comedy "Soul Plane," he starred as a passenger who sued the airline after getting stuck in a toilet seat. His character, Nashawn Wade, used the $100 million settlement to start his own blinged-out airline, NWA.

His Comedy Central special, "I'm a Grown Little Man," is set to air later this month. And the television series "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire," in which he stars, premieres April 9 on Comedy Central.

The show deploys the sword-and-sorcery atmospherics of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia." Unlike those classics, however, the good guys in this mystical realm are self-doubting underachievers who whine and bicker like everyday folk.

Sean Maguire plays freedom fighter Krod Mandoon, who battles an evil overlord. He is aided by the dubious talents of Hart's character, a warlock who claims to have magic powers but never seems to walk the walk.

"If the sun is at a certain angle, it's hard for me to morph into X, Y and Z," Hart says. "My excuses go on and on."

At the Improv, Hart will talk about his new role as the father of two small children.

"I talk about what people can believe," he says. "I talk about my life. My show's 100 percent personal. It's about me, my kids, my life and my look on life and what I feel has changed. People leave my shows feeling like they know me."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News