""You remember, I said change is inevitable. You got to react or participate," Harvey said. "So my participation was to get away from it because the cancel culture started becoming everywhere. Comedy is too hard to do right now. And all you got to do is look now the way the cancel culture works.""
""That's why I left stand-up in 2012, 2015 - one of them," he said. "I had so many shows and had built such a catalog of work that I was making money, but I had to let something go. If I toured on the weekends, I wouldn't even have a family.""
""no standup [comedian] alive that is sponsor-driven can say anything he wants to," citing the likes of Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and D.L. Hughley."
Steve Harvey retired from stand-up, citing cancel culture and a shifting cultural climate that makes comedic performance riskier and harder to execute. He viewed change as inevitable and chose to withdraw from stand-up rather than adapt to emerging constraints. He left touring around 2012–2015 despite a lucrative catalog and many shows, prioritizing family time over weekend tours. Harvey previously argued that sponsor-driven comedians cannot freely speak, citing peers such as Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and D.L. Hughley. The debate around cancel culture raises concerns about artistic stagnation and a desire among some comedians for unrestricted expression.
Read at Consequence
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]