Steve Harvey recently made some time to remember his late brother in comedy.
Harvey on Thursday, Aug. 9 posted a passionate tribute in the memory of Bernie Mac.
“THE LATE GREAT BERNIE MAC…. his contribution to us, his brothers. The KINGS OF COMEDY can’t even be put into words or measured….. he was simply our KING of comedy …you can’t even know how funny he was until you’ve set backstage in the dressing and listened to the stuff he WOULDN’T say on stage 😂😂😂……
“Bernie almost killed us one night before the show talking about his cousin who obviously wasn’t that sharp I laughed so hard I spit a coke in Bernie’s face!!!!!!” Harvey continued. “He looked at me and said you just like that stupid MF!!!!! Then I swallowed half a cigar…….. my man always. The great Bernie Mac!!!#BernieMac #kingsofcomedy #comedy.”
Fans shared their condolences, too.
“We miss Bernie…”
“I miss the Macman! ❤😢”
“One of the REALEST EVER to do it. #RIPBernieMac.”
Mac and Harvey go way back in the comedy game. The late stand-up appeared alongside Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley in the “Kings of Comedy” tour, which nabbed a Spike Lee-directed film, “The Original Kings of Comedy” in 2000.
Even though Harvey and Mac were comrades on the tour, rumors persisted that the duo wasn’t too friendly behind the scenes.
In a 2003 GQ profile, Mac indicated Harvey was jealous of his success — at that time the comic had his Fox sitcom, “The Bernie Mac Show” — and alleged Harvey tried to steal gigs from him.
“I was upset at first because it just wasn’t true,” said Harvey said on BET’s “Conversations with Ed Gordon” in 2010. “Me and Bernie had a lot of good times together and then this article in GQ came out and put all this vicious stuff in there.”
Harvey also said when he spoke to Mac about the interview he told him he “never said it. I had to take him at his word for it.”
However, when Harvey was reflecting on the death of Mac in 2016, Harvey was nothing but kind. The talk show host even got emotional when reflecting on Mac’s life. He even helped proclaim Nov. 14 as “Bernie Mac Day” in Chicago.
Mac died 10 years ago on August 9 after succumbing to complications from pneumonia.