- I used to spend the night in hotel parking lots.

What was I gonna do, I ain't had nowhere to stay,

so I lived in the car.

I had $35, and I said, "Come on, God.

"I've been trying to make this dream come true.

"You done left me out here like this."

And I was crying so hard that He just said,

I didn't like hear a voice or nothing,

but He spoke to me in however He said,

"If you get up, I'ma take you places

"you ain't never been."

Now, I was fittin' to quit, so I said,

"Skip it, I'ma quit anyway."

So I got in my car, I went to a pay phone.

And I was gonna call my dad.

You remember back in the day where you could

punch in a code and call your answering machine

and get your messages?

So I call, (phone ringing)

and I punched in the code, and the machine said, "Doot."

He said, "Hey, Steve, this is Chuck Sutton

"with Showtime at the Apollo.

"We saw a tape of you, you're very funny.

"If you could get here Sunday night,

"we'd love to put you on television.

"Call me back, let me know if you can make it."

So I hung the phone up, I'm crushed,

'cause my whole dream of being on TV,

and I couldn't get to New York, I got $35.

How I'ma get to New York?

I can't make it.

So I'm standing there at the phone booth,

and tears just coming down my face.

I said, "God, so that must be a sign for me to go home.

"'Cause this it, I ain't even got the money

"to to go the Apollo."

My whole thing wanting to be on TV,

I couldn't even make the dream come true.

This is the most messed up moment.

And so I said, "Let me call this dude back

"and see if he said this Sunday,

"'cause maybe he said next Sunday

"and I could hustle up a little bit of money or something.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do,

"but let me just call him back."

So I called him back, "Steve, this is Chuck Sutton,

"Showtime at the Apollo, we saw a tape of yours,

"you're very, very funny.

"Look, we have a opening Sunday night

"at Showtime at the Apollo.

"If you can make it, we'd love to put you on TV."

I said, "It's this Sunday."

Before I hit the button I heard, doot,

you have another message.

Now, wasn't there before, so I punched my code in,

I listened to the second message.

Said, "Steve Harvey, this is Tom Sobel

"from the Comedy Caravan."

This was a Thursday.

He said, "I have a gig in Jacksonville, Florida

"on Friday night that pays $150.

"If you can get there Friday night, you'll make $150."

So I called him back and I said, "Hey Tom,

"did you give the gig away?"

He said, "No, it's still available."

He said, "Can you get there?"

I said, "I'm in Pensacola, Florida."

I'm three and a half hours away.

So I drive to Jacksonville, Florida,

and that night I killed, I made the 150.

Club owner said, "Man, you funnier than the guy we hired.

"If you stay tomorrow night,

"I'm gonna give you another $150."

So now I got $300 now. (audience applauding)

So I get on the phone, I call Chuck Sutton.

I say, "Hey man, is the gig still available

"at Showtime at the Apollo?"

He said, "Yeah, we got one opening left."

I said, "I'll be there."

So I called Eastern Airlines, who used to be open back then,

they had a special for $99 going from Jacksonville,

Florida to New York round trip.

So I parked my car at the airport.

I got, (audience applauding)

got on the plane, flew.

Everything I had was in two bags.

I got to the Apollo, I said, "Hey man, I'm here."

I got there at 11:00 in the morning.

He said, "You can't stay here,

"'cause you don't come on till the late show tonight."

I said, "I ain't got nowhere to go."

I said, "If you just let me stay in this building,

"I ain't gonna move around, nothing.

"I ain't got nowhere to go.

"I'm in Harlem, I can't go back out here,

"I got these two bags." (audience laughing)

I got victim wrote all over me, man.

(audience laughing)

So he said, "All right, if you go upstairs,

"don't come down."

So he put me in the dressing room on the sixth floor.

That's where all the comedians was, so I stayed up there.

I got hungry around 3:00, I couldn't take it no more.

So I went back downstairs, dude named Alter Liston.

I said, "Hey man," he said, "I thought I told you

"don't come down them damn steps."

I said, "Hey man, I'm just hungry.

"Let me go to that KFC I saw on the corner.

"Just let me get some chicken, I'll come right back."

He said, "Man, if you ain't back in 20 minutes,

"you ain't getting in this building."

So I went, bought me some chicken, came back.

So the comedians started coming in the building.

They start coming up on the sixth floor.

So I meet this guy named D.L. Hughley.

I introduced myself, he introduced hisself.

I'm sitting there, another guy come in named Dwayne Johnson.

Then this other dude walked in named Jamie Foxx.

And I introduced myself, we don't know each other,

ain't none of us famous, it's 1991, man.

They gave everybody the lineup.

I was on the last show of the night.

I don't go on until 11 at night.

I done had this four pieces of chicken,

I'm starving, that chicken done wore off.

I'm nervous, I'm about to throw up.

D.L. Hughley went downstairs.

D.L. Hughley got booed off.

Dwayne Johnson got booed off.

Jamie Foxx went down there and got booed.

They booed Jamie, then Jamie started singing.

And then they start clapping.

And Jamie had they ass, then he went back to them jokes

and they got his ass.

(audience booing)

So I'm walking down the steps and I see Jamie sitting

on the steps, I said, "Hey man, hang in there."

He said, "Man, that ain't never happened to me before.

"This crazy," this Jamie Foxx,

one of the most talented people in all of comedy.

You don't even know how nervous I am.

I can't even, my breathing is shot

'cause these dudes been booed.

So I walk out, I had wrote this joke.

Mike Tyson had got in a fight in Harlem

with this heavyweight named Mitch Green.

Mike Tyson had hit the dude in the eye in the store.

Now, he was on the news, his eye was swollen.

So the joke I wrote was, they was interviewing

Mitch Green, and he was telling everybody what happened,

but his eye took over the interview.

And I wrote this joke that his eye started talking

and was just, "I'll tell you what happened."

The heavyweight champ's fist is coming towards my face.

I just said, "Lord, Lord, Lord."

And I wrote this whole joke

about this dude's eyeball talking.

And when the punch came (screaming) and all this here.

(screaming)

The Apollo, man, they went crazy, they lost they mind.

I got a standing ovation, man.

I walked offstage, (audience applauding)

I walked offstage, just started crying.

I couldn't believe it, and they paid me, I made $750

for being on TV for one night.

I had never made $750 telling jokes in one night.

So that was my first television appearance.

Couple weeks later, Sinbad was the host of the show.

He got this job on "Different World," and so he quit,

and so Mark Curry became the host,

and then Mark Curry got "Hanging With Mr. Cooper,"

and he quit, and they came to me and said,

"Would you come back to New York

"and host amateur night for us to just try you out?"

Oh, ain't no problem.

So I went to New York, I hosted amateur night,

and I was killing, but every time we went

to commercial break I was supposed

to let the warm up act take over like Reuben does.

But I knew not to let the warm up act do that

'cause he would change the attitude of the crowd.

'Cause the Apollo was a wild place.

So I stayed out there, I did the warm up

and the hosting, and I created a bond with that audience.

And that's how I got on TV with my very first TV show.

I hosted "Showtime at the Apollo" and ended up

being the longest running host in the history

of "Showtime," I did that show for eight years.

Nobody ever did it for eight years.

(audience applauding)

And that was my turn back moment.

See, in your life, everybody has a turn back moment.

You have a moment where you could go forward

or you can give up, but the thing you have

to keep in mind, before you give up is that,

if you give up, the guarantee is it will never happen.

That's the guarantee of quitting.

That it will never happen, no way under the sun.

The only way the possibility remains that it can happen

is if you never give up no matter what.

Because God is always coming, He's never too late.

At your worst moment, look man,

when they told me I had to be in New York,

I saw no way I could get there.

But that God though, He make the phone ring.

I end up in Florida, I made $300.

Then I go to New York, I make $750.

I almost got a thousand dollars out of nowhere.

That's what happened to me,

that was my moment of never giving up.

That's when I first learned that faith was everything,

that you have to remain faithful.

(audience applauding)