Steve Harvey stands by his decision to quit stand-up comedy over ten years ago.
The “Family Feud” host, 68, appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “The Pivot Podcast” and was asked what “acceptable jokes” can be made in comedy nowadays in the cancel culture era.
“I even see you on ‘Family Feud,’ sometimes, I can see the clock working where you got a joke, but you’re not allowed to say that joke,” host Channing Chowder said to Harvey.
“I got it. And see, it’s very hard,” Harvey replied. “But that’s why I left stand-up in 2012, 2015, one of them. I left stand-up then because I had so many shows. I had built such a catalog of work. I was making money. I had to let something go.”
“And if I tour on the weekends, I wouldn’t even have a family,” the father of seven added. “So I let stand-up go because I saw the change coming.”
Harvey reiterated that “change is inevitable” and said he knew he needed to get out of stand-up before it was too late.
“You got to react or participate. So my participation was to get away from it because the cancel culture, started becoming everywhere,” he explained. “Comedy is too hard to do right now. And all you got to do is look now the way the cancel culture works.”
“Y’all got a podcast and you’re doing it brilliantly,” Harvey added to the hosts. “Please don’t stop doing the way you do. The problem with people is, they get something that working and then they wanna find something that work better. You ain’t gotta fix it if it ain’t broke.”
Harvey performed his final stand-up show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in Aug. 2012. The two-hour show aired live on pay-per-view TV.
“It’s been a wild ride over these years on stage, radio, TV and more, and taking the stage for my final show,” Harvey said at the time.
“The road to this final show has been an amazing journey doing stand-up for the past 27 years, and I can’t thank fans enough after reflecting on all those years on stage, and the unforgettable moments and jokes we’ve shared,” he added.
Since leaving stand-up, Harvey has been busy hosting shows including “Family Feud,” “Celebrity Family Feud” and “The Steve Harvey Morning Show.” He also hosted Miss Universe from 2015 to 2019 and his own syndicated talk show from 2012 to 2017.