Interview With Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey

Let's review Steve Harvey's year. (This may take a while.) His syndicated radio show has an audience of 6 million, and President Barack Obama has been one of his guests. A version of the show appears in prime time on the Centric cable channel. He became host of the long-running "Family Feud" game show. His advice book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" spent a good part of the past two years on the New York Times' hardcover advice best-seller list, was No. 1 for 23 weeks and is being made into a movie by Screen Gems. The recently published sequel, "Straight Talk, No Chaser," had an initial printing of 750,000 copies and makes its debut at No. 1 on the advice list.

It's not going out on a limb to say that Harvey never has been more popular -- and he is not exactly a stranger  to the spotlight. He has appeared on television before, in his own sitcom and as host of a variety show, and he was for years a successful stand-up comedian.

But the books have landed him on " The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Ellen" and "Good Morning America." His turn as a relationship adviser is not a complete career reinvention, but it is definitely a dramatic redefinition.

Harvey has become "a legitimate, genuine American media star," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, which covers the radio business. "He's a successful radio host for the African-American community, and he's multicultural." It's the goal of any contemporary radio host, Harrison said, "to not be just a radio personality, but to be a television personality, an author or a newsmaker."

Not everyone likes it

Even with Harvey's new profile, some people sure seem mad at him, and the object of that anger is the phenomenally successful "Act Like a Lady," which has sold 1.2 million copies, according to BookScan, whose figures do not include sales at some mass-market retailers like Walmart.

"I was shocked by his misogynistic views on love and marriage," wrote one commenter on Amazon.com.

Another wrote: "The book is sexist, stereotyping all men into knuckle-dragging, sports-loving hunters that just need a little sex to keep them happy." (The book elicited nearly 900 customer reviews on Amazon.)

Harvey said he was unfazed.

"You know, I've been in front of people for a lot of years," he said after an appearance at a Manhattan Barnes & Noble in December. "I've told a lot of jokes I thought were hysterical that weren't as funny as I thought. I've been getting criticism for quite some time. I don't expect everybody to agree or understand. I get it. It's OK."

"Act Like a Lady" offers conversational counsel on topics like "The Three Things Every Man Needs" ("Support, Loyalty and the Cookie," cookie being Harvey's term for sex); "The Five Questions Every Woman Should Ask Before She Gets in Too Deep" ("No. 4: What Do You Think About Me?"); and "The 90-Day Rule," the time he says should be required before a woman will agree to have sex with a man.

More than 300 people waited in line for Harvey to sign copies of "Straight Talk" (subtitle: "How to Find, Keep and Understand a Man") at the store. He is commanding on a stage, but near the advice aisle on the second floor he has the warm radio presence that makes "The Steve Harvey Morning Show" so engaging.

He tells 'the truth'

He began his comedy career in small clubs in Cleveland, where he grew up, then went on to bigger stages across the country; in the 1990s he became a regular presence on television. From 1996 to 2002 he starred in " The Steve Harvey Show," a comedy on the WB network in which he played a music teacher named Steve Hightower. From 1993 to 2000 he was the host of the syndicated variety show "Showtime at the Apollo."

He was perhaps most famously one of the four Kings of Comedy (along with Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley and Bernie Mac), a successful touring act and later the subject of a Spike Lee documentary, "The Original Kings of Comedy," in 2000.

Harvey, 53, said the appeal of "Act Like a Lady" and "Straight Talk" is that he tells "the truth."

In "Act Like a Lady" he writes that men can deliver "the three P's" for women: profess (declaring his love "for all to hear"), provide and protect. But there are things men can't do, he said in an interview at a Manhattan hotel. (Harvey's fashion sense is one of his signatures, and this afternoon he was wearing a midnight-blue suit, a dark-blue-and-white patterned shirt and a tie that matched the suit.)

"I do understand what's missing for women," he said, "and I do understand that a lot of times as guys we are not capable of filling in what's missing. The problem is women want their love returned the same way they give it out. That's pretty lofty expectations to put on a guy, and we don't have it in our DNA to give it to you like that."

The advice in the books, he said, is based on what he learned in his own life: "It took me two marriages to really get it in my head, 'Steve, you're messing this up because you're getting ticked at these women who want all this stuff from you, and you're saying: 'Hey, this is enough. I'm doing this. What do you want?' I spent two marriages going, 'What do you want?' "

Harvey said that his children were another source of inspiration.

"I have daughters that are of the dating age, and I was just passing out all types of advice to them because they were bringing these guys over, and I was just peeling them apart," he said.

One daughter, Brandi, 28, said that the books "are great tools for women." She added: "I think that they're true. Men really do like the chase, and we have to allow them the opportunity to chase us. We're the prize. It's all the things he's been telling my sisters and me forever, and we said, 'Dang, he put that in a book?' "

What could have been

The reason he has sold so many books and has so many listeners and viewers is that "people have come to respect the fact that I'm honest," Harvey said. "I'm very honest, man."

Dawn L. Davis, publisher of the HarperCollins imprint Amistad, said that quality led her to approach Harvey about writing a book. "He reminds you of the smart, funny uncle who always tells the truth," she said. "When you have that honesty, people see it and respond to it."

Davis' initial idea was to have Harvey do a book based on the "Opening Inspirations" segment of "The Steve Harvey Morning Show," the spontaneous, spiritual monologues he delivers every morning on the radio. Harvey long has been public about his Christian faith. After "Kings" he appeared in a concert film called " Don't Trip ... He Ain't Through With Me Yet," which included a section in which Harvey rousingly introduced Jesus to the audience as if it were showtime at a celestial Apollo.

When Davis and Harvey "sat down and talked" about what kind of book he might write, "I realized I loved his relationship advice," Davis said. Harvey's show has a regular feature called the "Strawberry Letter," in which a co-host, Shirley Strawberry, reads a letter from a listener soliciting relationship assistance, and then she and Harvey provide it. "He peels the onion back a little more," said Davis, who came up with the "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" title. "He took it much more seriously than I thought he would. He wanted to give women the truth."

The radio and television executives who work with Harvey tend to echo Davis. "Steve is a very down-to-earth guy, he's very credible," said Dennis J. Brownlee, vice president and managing director for urban sales and marketing at Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates Harvey's show to 59 stations nationwide.

Loretha Jones, president for original programming at the BET and Centric channels, said that Harvey "really is the uncle-brother-father you wish you had." She added, "He may not always tell you what you want to hear, but he'll tell you what you need to hear."

Harvey's current Centric show, "The Steve Harvey Project," features highlights from his radio program; it is shown at 6 p.m. weeknights on the channel, part of Viacom, and reaches 46 million homes.

Harvey said he planned to tweak the Centric show -- less comedy, more relationship advice -- and that he was "really looking forward to" the next season of " Family Feud." "I don't think there's ever been a gig more suited to my skill set," he said. "I mean, first of all, grass-roots people -- that's who I love and have always respected because that's who made me."