The Story:
Okay, I'll start by admitting, I'm a big fan of standup comedy ever since I was a teenager, but up until now, I had never caught a Steve Harvey routine, and I had never even tuned in to his sitcom. As popular as he is, I figured, this guy's gotta be a laugh riot. Man, was I wrong.

How to best describe what I witnessed? Raucous shouting, dumb faces, really predictable setups, and a combination of preachy/political material all under the guise of being funny. Steve seems to feel a constant need to remind us that just because he has money, he's still ghetto (he literally says that), yet I wasn't convinced. His "blackness" felt like an act to me, completely forced. There were no surprises and no originality in his humor. His satirical anecdotes about life in the black community never touched upon new ground—I've seen it all covered before, much funnier, by other comedians and in a bevy of films and sitcoms. And those subjects, being black, being poor, were all consuming. It was as if he couldn't make any comments on any other aspect of his existence. I do feel his act for this particular show may have been aimed specifically at the target audience, for it was filmed in a small town in Georgia, and the audience was almost entirely African-American—and he used that fact as the launching topic for his entire show.

As if to prove my theory, this DVD also includes a half-hour comedy segment from an HBO special as a bonus feature, and I must admit, there was some redemption here. Steve was less preachy and more about being funny than about being a commentator on the black experience. I actually laughed out loud several times more than in the full length feature (although, I sort of rolled my eyes at yet another take on the whole OJ situation…it has been 10 years after all, and a great deal has happened since then). As this better segment came to an end, Steve thanked Dallas, Texas for being such a great audience. Aha. A much larger, much more diverse venue, and more diverse material from Steve. Interesting. I was almost insulted for the small town audience in Georgia, as if Steve felt he needed to make that material much more simple and basic so they could relate to it. I don't think he was giving them enough credit in his attempt to preach—I mean—speak directly to them.

And finally, I have to say, I didn't understand Steve's derogatory choice of vocabulary for one—just one—minority group. I have no problem with comedians being equal opportunity bigots when they are joking about peoples in a way that makes us all realize how silly stereotyping can be. But the only real negativity here was when Steve felt the need to refer to gay men as "sissies." If there actually was ever something funny to be found in the word 'sissy' and the limp-wrist gesture (yeah, Steve pulled a Mr. Roper in an attempt at humor) it's also become really cliché at this point. The man just lacks originality. Oh, but he did make one of those really goofy faces of his when saying 'sissy', which I guess was supposed to just make the word that much more humorous. Unfortunately, the man also lacks the charisma of some of the brilliant comedians I mentioned in my opening paragraph.

The DVD

Video:
Filmed for cable television broadcast, this feature is presented in full screen format, standard 4:3 aspect ratio. The color and picture quality are both fine, vibrant and sharp. However, the copy I viewed suffered from digital breakup at the top of the screen at two points, about 11 minutes in, and again at 30 minutes in. Don't know if that was just a flaw in my copy or if it's a flaw in the pressing.

Sound:
The film is presented in Dolby, and for some reason, the main feature is in very flat mono, while the extra half-hour bonus special was in 2-channel stereo. The main menu sound was also in stereo.

Extras:
As I said, you get the marginally funnier half-hour HBO special as a bonus, plus 9 trailers from other stand up comedians featured in this "platinum comedy series." This is platinum material?

Final Thoughts:
Steve Harvey-One Man proved one thing to me. Steve's stand-up routine is just that. Routine. There won't be any tear-inducing laughter while viewing this one.