Netflix is betting on a Pennsylvania battle with Mechanicsburg’s Shane Gillis roasting North Philly’s Kevin Hart
The Philly comic will have jokes hurled at him at this year's Netflix Is A Joke Festival. Gillis will host.
Netflix is betting on a Pennsylvania battle and hoping millions of people will tune in to see one of its top comics, Mechanicsburg, Pa., native Shane Gillis host while North Philadelphian Kevin Hart gets roasted during a live show May 10, marking the final night of this year’s Netflix Is a Joke Festival.
And they are probably right.
Hart, known for his smart mouth and quick wit, is hard on himself on stage. In his latest Netflix special, Acting My Age, the 46-year-old comedian didn’t cut himself any slack. So if other comedians take his no-holds-barred cues, the night promises to be a funny one.
The Netflix Is a Joke Festival is a weeklong comedy extravaganza produced by Netflix and Live Nation that features hundreds of live comedy shows at iconic Los Angeles venues like the Hollywood Bowl and Laugh Factory.
In 2024, Hart executive produced and cohosted The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady. It was Netflix’s first live roast and, according to Deadline, was one of Netflix’s most successful shows ever with 1.67 billion minutes viewed, beating out streaming favorites like Grey’s Anatomy.
Brady’s roast was wildly successful thanks to cutting comments from comedian Nikki Glaser and A-listers Kim Kardashian, Peyton Manning, and Ben Affleck.
The retired NFL player vowed he’d never do it again, not because he was thin-skinned but because, he told Vox Media’s Pivot podcast, he was concerned about the impact on “the people that I care about the most,” including his children.
Clearly Brady doesn’t mind being on the other side of roasting. On Wednesday, Brady was caught talking trash at the much-hyped inaugural Fanatics Football Classic Draft, where he called out Cincinnati Bengal quarterback Joe Burrow for partying with social media personality Alix Earle after the March 15 Oscars.
(Last month, the gossip rags were reporting Brady was “hooking up” with Earle.)
Hart was present at the event where Brady took on Burrow.
This year, Gillis will host Kevin Hart’s Netflix roast. Gillis’ Netflix show Tires was recently approved for a $6 million tax credit by Pennsylvania’s state Film Production Tax Credit Program.
“The Roast of Kevin Hart” is 8 p.m. May 10 on Netflix. netflixisajokefest.com