May 22, 2020

Kevin Hart surprises Philly nurse on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

By Virginia Streva
PhillyVoice Staff

Jimmy Kimmel Live!/YouTube

Kevin Hart surprised a Philly nurse on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Thursday night. Natasha Lewis, a nurse who works at a city health care center, was honored on the late show as the 'Health Care Hero' of the night.

Kevin Hart surprised a Philly nurse on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Thursday night after he chatted with the host about his new audio self-help book, "The Decision."

Natasha Lewis, who works as an outpatient nurse at a health center in the Germantown neighborhood, was featured as Kimmel's "Health Care Hero" of the night. The health center is operated by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and offers care to the insured and uninsured people.

Lewis, who has worked as a nurse for 10 years, said working during the coronavirus crisis has been challenging but things are getting better. "It was tough in the beginning, but we’re staying strong," she said. "We’re a team."

Hart, who grew up in North Philly, popped up on the screen to a very surprised Lewis. As excited as she was to meet him, the comedian assured her that he was more excited.

"This is more exciting for me than it probably is for you. I’ve been made aware of all the amazing things that you’re doing for the city of Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love," Hart said. "To have individuals like yourself and the team that you have that are doing positive things like that ... you know, that’s as dope as dope can be for me. So, this is big for me too."

Kimmel partnered with Beyond Burger to send Lewis $10,000 for all of her hard work. The vegan meat company will also send care packages to all the nurses in her unit and donate one million meatless burgers to Feeding America in her honor.

Lewis organizes a winter coat drive every year and Hart and Kimmel both offered to donate coats from their personal collections. Hart first checked that it'd be ok that he sent all small-sized garments.

"Are you sure it’s not a problem?" he said, "I don’t want hear nothing, like, 'Who sent all these little jackets?'"

This isn't the first frontline health worker Hart has surprised recently. Last week, the comedian jumped on a video call to surprise a Cherry Hill doctor who won the comedian's All in Challenge Sweepstakes. The prize includes a walk-on role in one of the actor's movies.

Kimmel interviewed Hart about his new self-help book, "The Decision: Overcoming Today’s B.S. for Tomorrow’s Success," which came out on Audible on Thursday. The book is a how-to guide for success and contains methods that have worked for the comedian.

"I think success is something a lot of people want but they don’t know how to obtain," Hart said. "I'm going to be transparent. This isn't a 'do what I do moment' or 'live how I live.' This is a lens that I"m putting up for you to look through and assess things and see if it works for you or not. I'm just showing you that it's proven."