Steve Harvey Spills The Truth: Here’s Why I Walked Away From Stand-Up Comedy

Steve Harvey has opened up about why he decided to quit stand-up comedy more than a decade ago.

The 68-year-old “Family Feud” host revealed that the rise of cancel culture played a key role in his decision.

Speaking on Tuesday’s episode of “The Pivot Podcast,” Harvey was asked about what jokes are considered acceptable in today’s comedy landscape.

“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 remarked.

Harvey responded, “I got it. And see, it’s very hard. That’s why I left stand-up in 2012… 2015, one of them. I had so many shows, built such a catalog of work, was making good money, but I had to let something go.”

The father of seven explained, “If I toured on the weekends, I wouldn’t even have a family. So I let stand-up go because I saw the change coming.”

He emphasized that “change is inevitable” and knew he had to step away from stand-up before it was too late.

“You got to react or participate. My participation was to get away from it because cancel culture started spreading everywhere,” Harvey said.

“Comedy is too hard to do right now. Just look at the way cancel culture works today.”

Harvey also praised the podcast hosts, saying, “Y’all got a podcast and you’re doing it brilliantly. Please don’t stop doing it the way you do. The problem with people is, they get something that’s working and then want to fix it. You don’t gotta fix it if it ain’t broke.”

Harvey’s final stand-up performance was at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in August 2012, a two-hour show that aired live on pay-per-view.