Kevin Hart’s relationship with Netflix expands even further as his three opening acts and entourage, known collectively as the Plastic Cup Boyz, received their own stand-up showcase, with each of the three performing for about a half-hour for an Atlanta crowd this May.
The Gist: Joey Wells, Spank Horton and Na’im Lynn have worked with and for Kevin Hart for more than a decade, not only opening for Hart on tour, but also appearing in sketches with him on his concert films, Laugh at My Pain (2011) and Let Me Explain (2013).
Hart brought them to Comedy Central in 2015 for their first comedy showcase, Kevin Hart Presents: Plastic Cup Boyz. And their relationship continues today, obviously with this Netflix collection. The Boyz also pal around with Hart currently on a MotorTrend app series called Kevin Hart’s Muscle Car Crew (the superstar bought his entourage their own muscle cars at the end of his Irresponsible tour in 2018), as well as twice-weekly on Hart’s LOL Radio SiriusXM station in a two-hour gabfest, “Straight From The Hart.” So if you know and love Hart, then you’re bound to already be familiar with the Plastic Cup Boyz.
And yes, these guys, all now in their 40s or 50s, still cling to their red plastic cups. No word if they’ve cashed in on potential red Solo cup endorsement money, though?!?
Of note? Neither Netflix nor Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions put out a trailer for the showcase beforehand.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: This falls into a fairly lengthy tradition of star comedians pulling up their friends and/or opening acts so they can succeed on their own, too. We’ve seen this most recently on Netflix with Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready. Perhaps notably? Hart doesn’t speak, make an appearance nor even lend his name to this collection for his Boyz, even though he’s an executive producer on it. He’s letting them fly or flail on their own here.
Memorable Jokes: The opening episode features Joey Wells, who appeals to the Atlanta audience by celebrating them for tipping the 2020 election for the Democrats, including a topical joke about the backlash by Georgia state Republicans to suppress future early voting. “I don’t know what y’all was eating that made them say you can’t eat next time” while waiting in line to vote, Wells cracks.
He’s also the one of the three comedians in this collection to most pointedly address the pandemic, since it’s referenced in the Netflix title and all, by joking about his own experiences catching COVID. Wells also begs of white Americans: “Can you stop comparing wearing a mask to slavery?” Spank Horton, in his episode, introduces his own slang for COVID, asking those in the audience: “Who caught the 1-9?”
Wells spends the majority of his set, however, on how his body has begun betraying him in his 50s, while Horton pivots from a series of jokes questioning his relationship with alcohol (at one point telling us: “We should not be laughing at these jokes”) to stories questioning his relationships with his two kids. He calls his daughter “mentally challenged” but wonders how she scores so much better than he did on tests, then expresses his frustrations with his son’s hobbies, whether it’s playing the flute or riding the bench on the basketball team.
Na’im Lynn closes the collection with the longest set of the trio, clocking in just over 39 minutes. It’s decidedly different in two other ways: 1) Lynn’s young daughter stands onstage with a microphone to introduce him, and 2) his routines cover a wider variety of topics, from the proper etiquette for COVID, Karens, and sexual foreplay, to jokes about grandmother and his father, to various observations.
Our Take: There’s a fundamental disconnect going on here, as each of these Boyz would love to enjoy individual success, and yet they remain inextricably linked to their bright star in Hart.
Lynn has come closest to making his own mark already, as he currently stars on the BET sitcom, Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living, recurred in multiple episodes of Survivor’s Remorse on Starz, and previously released his own half-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central back in 2012.
Wells mentions he once tried using Hart’s personal trainer but had to fire him after just one session.
Horton weirdly wants to talk about unemployment fraud during the pandemic, joking about how it made much more sense to file for unemployment benefits last year when you could get $767 instead of $167 per week. What has Hart been paying him this whole time???? Then again, Horton also dwells quite a bit on his perceived alcoholism, even mentioning his sweating onstage mid-set before first blaming it on the alcohol, then taking another swig from his red plastic cup. I hope he finds the help he needs.
And then there’s Wells, who somehow makes such light of catching COVID-19 that he makes extended jokes about hiding his symptoms from his wife is just downright morally irresponsible. Yes, it’s clearly a joke that he’s worried about his wife thinking he got sick through some unfaithful means, but doesn’t he care at all about getting her sick? Or anyone else in his orbit of family and friends?! What message is this sending to his audience? It’s no big deal to get COVID as long as you don’t tell anyone?! Sheesh.
Our Call: SKIP IT. If you’re a completist of the Kevin Hart Cinematic Universe, then nothing I wrote will dissuade you from devouring these three performances in one sitting and laughing the whole way through. If you don’t already know about the Plastic Cup Boyz, then I suggest you sit this one out and wait to see what they come up with next time around.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
