Star of ABC-TV’s “Big House” and possibly one of the funniest comedians in the industry today, Kevin Hart had Oakland’s Paramount Theater erupting with laughter for the duration of his show.

Originally there were two scheduled shows on Saturday night, at 8 and 11 p.m. Both shows sold out after only two weeks, and a third show was added on Sunday night.

Born in Philadelphia, 32-year-old Kevin Hart attended Temple University for two years, and then soon after quit his job as a shoe salesman to pursue his passion in comedy.

Hart performed at CSU East Bay in 2008, when he was still trying to make a name for himself.

He has appeared in several mainstream movies, including “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Soul Plane,” “Scary Movie 4,” “Death At A Funeral” and “Little Fockers.”

Most recently, Hart has done several TV specials for Comedy Central: I’m A Grown Little Man(2009) and Seriously Funny(2010).

Now on his “Laugh At My Pain” tour, he is once again electrifying crowds with his dynamic sense of humor. The mood was set even before Hart took the stage.

The opener, Naim Lynn, had the crowd laughing early on. He poked fun at women who draw on their own eyebrows. He also cracked several jokes on the women in attendance wearing their “summer” clothes, while still possessing their “winter” bodies.

Second up was Will “Spank” Horton. He successfully prepped the audience for the main act. He mocked men who wear skinny jeans and former special education students who decide to home-school their children.

Finally, it was time for the main event, and unlike any of Hart’s other shows, he decided to make a grand entrance.

The lights went out, smoke rose from the stage and two “sexy” magician’s assistants appeared on stage, pushing a 10-foot high replica of a Kevin Hart DVD box to the center of the stage.

The box opened in the front and the back and was hollow in the middle. The assistants opened and closed the box to show that it was empty. Then, on their third time opening it, sparks flew, music blasted and Kevin Hart walked out of this seemingly empty box.

From the time he took the stage until he finished his act, the crowd was laughing until tears began to flow.

Hart used his personal life experiences to arouse laughter from his audience. His “pain” essentially became our source of entertainment. It seemed that no topic was off limits.

He talked about the drug problems his father had when Hart was just a kid, joked respectfully about his mother’s funeral, the current divorce process he is going through and poked fun at his children.

It was fascinating and quite admirable how he could transform such sensitive topics into punch lines. It takes strength to be able to look back on past negative experiences and openly talk and laugh about them.

He also incorporated a few of his well-known punch lines from previous shows for his die-hard fans, as he called them.

There wasn’t a single joke he told that didn’t have the crowd erupting with laughter. The laughter echoed and amplified as it ricocheted off the grand walls of the theater.

Overall, Hart as well as his opening performers did a magnificent job in “tearing up” the Paramount Theater that night.