BIG LAUGHS Funny Man Donnell Rawlings Is Back In Action

A conversation with Lincoln Salazar

LS: Hey, Donnell! You’ve been up to a lot lately. Give me an update on this year.

Rawlings: I think that I'm going to be in a different time zone every other day. I've just finished a Southern California tour with Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. We extended it to include Memphis, Birmingham, Charleston, South Carolina, and we just did St Louis. After that tour ends I start a tour with Dave in Australia and New Zealand. I'm going to be on the road very aggressively for the next five weeks.

LS: What's the name of the tour?

Rawlings: Well, the first part of the tour is the Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle tour, and then the next part is Chappelle's tours of New Zealand and Australia.

LS: Are you opening with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock as well?

Rawlings: Yeah, It’s me, Rick Ingram - funny, funny guy out of California, Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock. And it's been amazing.

LS: From my understanding, you've known Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock for a while now. Tell me how that has come to fruition with you guys all ending up on tour together and the history there.

Rawlings: Chris Rock is a comedy legend. I grew up watching him. I'm a fan of all his specials. Dave Chappelle and I are both from Washington, D.C., and we became close when I moved from D.C. to New York, which led me to be on the Chappelle Show, which led me to be a part of comedy history. I think yesterday was the 20-year anniversary of his show’s debut on Comedy Central. So I just feel honored and blessed that I could be a part of history and work with two comedians who will go down in history as two of the best to ever do it.

LS: The Los Angeles Times published an article about the rise and fall of cancel culture and comedy. From my experience with both you and Dave Chapelle, I feel like you guys kind of go above cancel culture and just say what’s on your minds. What are your thoughts on cancel culture and comedy?

Rawlings: I think that cancel culture is going to cancel itself. I understand people have some concerns about certain subject matters. But you’ve got to keep in mind that this is an art form and you should be free to say whatever you want to say. I went on stage the other day and said, “Listen, I'm going to say whatever I want because I can deal with the consequences.” I think that cancel culture is getting too much of a spotlight. Usually, the people that are offended [or find it] outrageous are only a small percentage of the people that enjoy standup. And for those people that enjoy exercising their freedom of speech, I think it's unfortunate because [cancel culture] is really watering down comedy. At the end of the day, if you go see a comedian it's not like back in the day where you didn't know a comedian's history until you went to see him live. Now you can Google a person, you can get a sense of their style of comedy, and you can choose to support it or not support it. I think going to places, being offended by people that are telling jokes, we're not trying to change the world, we're just trying to make people laugh. You’ve got people like Dave Chappelle, you’ve got people like Chris Rock that don't want to defy cancel culture, but they're going to feel free to say whatever they want to say.

LS: In the last three years you've been touring, have you seen any changes within your audience? Have you had any situations where you've seen more of people being offended?

Rawlings: I haven't noticed it much because, going back to my point earlier, people know Dave's brand of comedy. They know my brand of comedy. They know Chris Rock's brand of comedy. So you know what you're going to get. And you have the option to choose comics that don't push the envelope, comics that don't walk that line. Personally, I haven't seen too many people that were outraged over anything I said. You can't please everybody all the time, I'm sure there have been people at my show that say he's not my cup of tea, but I haven't had anyone walk out, anyone write me letters, or anyone marching outside of the venues. I haven't experienced that, but it's not to say that other people haven't experienced it.

LS: You're currently on BMF, can you tell me a little bit about your character and what you’re doing on the show? Have you had the opportunity to work with 50?

Rawlings: I actually worked with 50, maybe three or four years ago. He had a comedy show that aired on BET. One of the directors on the show, Tasha Smith was a good friend of mine, we worked together on HBO’s The Corner years ago. The role of Alvin [on BMF] is a mortician with an interesting life, to say the least. He’s fascinated with dead bodies in an inappropriate way, so I found that to be very interesting and dark. But, you know, that’s what they wrote. My character is cousins with Lamar, who people are comparing to Omar from The Wire, a villain type. Every good show needs a villain, some people root for him and other people want him to go. We find out that guy keeps coming back, he has more than nine lives, and it will be interesting to see that I’m pretty much one of Lamar’s only friends, and he doesn’t treat me like a friend or family. It makes for great drama, and I think he really captured the culture that was BMF in the late eighties, and I think he has another hit on his hands.

LS: Do you prefer to be on the stage or in front of the Camera? I know you have a podcast right now as well, are you looking to do more acting or do you enjoy going on tour and being on stage?

Rawlings: Well, I'm in more control of my career and the things I do through stand-up. With producers, directors, I don't have to worry about people picking me when I do stand-up. I don't have to worry about an audition, I don't have to worry about people beating me for a role. Acting is more challenging for me. I think after doing stand-up for 30 years, I pretty much know how to do that. I'm really good at it. When I act, it's still me playing make-believe, and I’m still going to class and learning more. I’ve learned so much by watching people that [act] for a living. I think acting is more fun, it’s a pastime. It doesn’t really feel like a job to me and I get to learn every time I hear ‘action’.

LS: Tell me a little bit about how you got involved in stand-up comedy and what your passion was for going on stage. Is this something that you planned your whole life or is this something that you fell into? How did you end up getting involved with Dave Chappelle?

Rawlings: Everything that's happened in my life in regard to doing stand-up and acting has happened out of nowhere. I'm a military vet, I was in the Air Force for four years. When I got out of the military I was waiting to be a D.C. police officer and doing in-between jobs to help me prepare myself. I worked as the head of security for a grocery chain in D.C. called Safeway, and there was a guy named Mike Washington who was a stand-up comic at night, and a Hostess rep in the daytime, and he would give me and everyone I worked with free tickets to his comedy show. I would go to the comedy club not even thinking about doing standup, but just as something to do with my coworkers. I started heckling the comedians, I was a loudmouth. The club owner wanted me to shut up, and he dared me to go on stage. He was like, okay, you're funny from your seat, but what about when the light is on you? And he challenged me to go on stage. I didn't do it then, but two weeks later, I went on stage and I got a standing ovation the first time I ever performed, and I never looked back. Stand-up led me to take a couple of acting classes and my relationship with Dave and my relationship with Neil Brennan, who was also doing well for himself in the comedy world. Both of those guys greenlighted me to be on the Chappelle show, and I've maintained a relationship with both of them for 30 years. Everything that’s happened for me, it’s just been chance, I was never prepared, I was never the guy sitting in front of a mirror saying, ‘I want to be a stand-up comic.’ I was always the funniest guy in the room but I never thought I would be the funniest guy in the room. It all happened by chance and I followed it and never looked back.

LS: When you first started, did you write your own jokes or did you have someone write them? Do you still write your own jokes today? Tell me the process.

Rawlings: That process isn't really writing jokes, I just try to get jokes just from real-life situations. My comedy is reflective of my life, who I am, and who I want to be. Some people write jokes like - beginning, middle, and end. I just come up with a premise that I think is funny, and I just keep working it out. Every time I just add more to it, and the next thing you know, I’ve gotten a 30 or 45-minute routine. My comedy is more observational than anything else, I think that’s the best way. Everyone has a different way of doing it, but I like to bring my life experience to the stage and add some punch lines to it.

LS: When you’re on stage, how much would you say is improv, and how much is practiced beforehand? Do you rehearse alone or do you rehearse with the other guys on tour before you go on stage?

Rawlings: I would say that I do know where I want to be, I know the things I want to talk about, but I don't necessarily know how I'm going to get there. I would say 60% of the stuff that I say I already know that I want to talk about, but also try to leave an improv element so things can happen on the spot. There's only a certain type of laugh you can get from your routine, but there’s that explosive laugh when people feel like it's something that's happened in a moment, whether it's something that happened from an audience member or just something that's in that moment. I find that people really like your routine, they like your show, but they also like when you're off the cuff. And that’s something that just had to happen in the moment, and there's no way you could have planned it, so there’s always somewhat of an element of surprise.

LS: What is your favorite place to tour?

Rawlings: The one that [writes] the biggest check is always a good place! But being from D.C. and spending most of my career in New York, I really feel something special when I go back home and I consider both New York and D.C. to be my home.

LS: Have you been to Australia before this tour?

Rawlings: Yes, I was here for the Rottofest Comedy Festival maybe seven or eight years ago. I did two cities, Melbourne and Sydney. This tour I think we're doing like seven cities in Australia, and this is a much bigger play. When I did it, I was part of a festival and I think my biggest audience was around 500 people, and now we're playing arenas for anywhere from 10,000 to 17,000. So I’ve never experienced Australia on this grand level, but I’m super excited about it.

LS: How many people are you guys performing for right now, between yourself and Dave Chapelle?

Rawlings: I would say there’s been a range from 10,000 to upwards of 25,000.

LS: What do you think the premise of a good joke is?

Rawlings: It's hard to say. There’s a phrase I use. People always ask me, ‘how can a joke be too soon?’ And in some cases, a joke could be too soon, but it's never too soon for a funny observation. As testy as some jokes may be, you know, going back to my style, it's just what I observe and what I think is funny. You never know what's going to be a good premise until you go up there and you try it out and you can tell if it's going to hit or not.

LS: Do you have any other acting coming up or any other shows that you're going to be on?

Rawlings: BMF was just renewed for another season, but the thing about shows like that is that you never know when [your character] is going to die. If I'm lucky enough to make it through this season, there's a chance they build on my character, and I think there are a lot of things that could be told about his story. But again, acting isn't my life, stand-up is my life. I never know what project is going to come down the road, but I'm prepared for it if it happens. Throughout my acting career, for some reason when I'm involved with a project it’s usually something that becomes a part of history and people really love it. From HBO’s The Wire, The Corner, Winning Time. I’ve just gotten lucky enough to be a part of some good projects and work with some phenomenal actors, directors, and producers, including 50 Cent.

LS: Growing up, who was a comedian that you looked up to?

Rawlings: I was a huge fan of Martin Lawrence. I was a huge fan of Robin Harris. Louie Anderson was a guy I liked watching because of his storytelling abilities, he wasn't a guy that was overtly physical or anything, he was probably sitting in one spot for an hour. But the way he told stories, his facial expressions, and the way he captivated an audience, I was always intrigued by that. Richard Pryor goes without saying. Almost every comedian you talk to was a fan of Richard Pryor. I was also a fan of Bill Cosby and the way he would tell stories. For me it was a mixed group, you know?

LS: Tell me a little bit about your podcast, how often are you doing it and what should people expect from it coming up?

Rawlings: I’m going to be relaunching it. I was really aggressive with getting [episodes] out every week during the pandemic because I wasn't doing that much and that was my way of being creative. But I haven't done it in about four months, and everywhere I go people tell me that I have to bring it back. For any podcast, if you want to make it work, you have to be consistent. I do think that I have stories to share, and people are interested in the way I share my experiences. So I think within the next couple of weeks I'm going to reboot the Donnell Rawlings show and give people that unedited, outrageous style of comedy that they've grown to love me for.

LS: Tell me a story that you've had with Dave Chappelle, something crazy you guys did on the tour that most people haven’t heard.

Rawlings: We were traveling in the Midwest somewhere and we were all on a tour bus. And for the most part, when we go touring Dave is always staying in five-star hotels. And there's one particular day we pulled the bus over at a Days Inn, and I was like ‘what the hell is this? We never stay in Days Inns.’ The tour bus driver gets out and goes inside and comes back with a key. Dave takes the key, and I thought that Dave was going to check in at this one-star hotel. But we pulled over just so he could take a crap and we pulled off right after that. So that's the most baller shit I’ve ever seen, literally and figuratively speaking.

LS: When you were on Dave Chappelle's Show, how was it for you when he decided to leave?

Rawlings: For me, I was more concerned about his mental state and how he was doing than whether he came back to the show or not. It didn't matter to me because he had already given myself, Charlie Murphy, and so many other people a platform. I had done a lot of shows before Chappelle's Show, but that was the one that hit home. At the time, myself and Bill Burr were doing a tour and we were selling out smaller theaters and clubs everywhere. So when [Chapelle] left, it gave us the opportunity to go out there and make some pretty decent money. I never questioned the reasons why he left, he’s a good friend of mine and I support him and the decisions he wanted to make. At the end of the day, he made the decision that he thought was best for him and for his family. He came back bigger and stronger, and he came back to the business on his own terms. He became one of the most powerful comics in the business by doing it, in the words of Frank Sinatra, he did it his way.

LS: Over the next 3 to 5 years, what are some of your goals or things you'd like to accomplish within the business?

Rawlings: To be quite honest, I think that I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish in this business, to create a good lifestyle and make an honest living doing something that is a God-given talent and something I'm passionate about. So anything from here on out is just icing on the cake. I've been able to sustain a pretty decent living by telling jokes while a lot of people are working jobs that they hate and that aren’t lucrative for them. I don't have any of those issues and I'm enjoying it. My goal is to be a successful comic, and now I can only do more of it, make a little bit more money, build more relationships, and make people feel good.

LS: Is there anything you’ve done over the years whether that be a show, a character, or an arena that you would say is something you had always wanted to achieve?

Rawlings: I’ve had some success on the small screen, even the big screen every once in a while. More importantly, I'm working comic, but the one thing that I've achieved that I really appreciate is being a dope dad to my only son. I mean, I love comedy, but being a good example for my kid and trying to give him the best life I can means more to me than any of this career stuff.

LS: You have a very humble approach and mentality when it comes to what you do. Have you always had that mentality?

Rawlings: At the end of the day, all of us are born here, We have the beginning and then we have the end. And the end is when we expire on this earth. And the thing that people really need to focus on is that dash in the middle. The dash in the middle is the most important thing you can do. What are you doing with your dash? Are you living your life the best you can? Are you doing good by people? That's the only thing we can do, and that's what I aspire to do, to get the most out of that dash.

LS: Our brand encompasses the best of luxury lifestyle. What are you an enthusiast of? Is it cigars, wine, spirits, or travel?

Rawlings: It's travel, It's lifestyle. I don't know if you follow me on Instagram, but, people always say about my character “Ashy Larry’ that it looks like I'm finally going from ‘Ashy’ to “classy’. That's the way I present myself, the way I dress. I like a spirit every once in a while. I'm just starting to get into the cigar world because you can't have tailored suits and not have a nice cigar in your hand. Every time I see guys like Steve Harvey and Daymond John they have on these nice suits and what compliments them the most is that nice cigar. I'm being introduced to that world and I'm embracing it and I'm loving it, and I get to cross my legs in a very distinguished way when I have a cigar, too.

LS: Is there anything else you want to add? Anything that you want to be able to talk about?

Rawlings: Going back to cancel culture, I said cancel culture is going to cancel itself. We need to get back to letting people express themselves the way they want to express themselves. At the end of the day, as a comedian, all we want to do is make people laugh. There are two types of people, people that want to laugh and people that need to laugh. I get the best feeling when after a show, someone comes up to me and they say, ‘You know, I've been experiencing some bad things in my life. I really wasn't feeling excited about going out, but seeing you perform took me away my problems for at least 45 minutes to an hour.’ I think that that's when the job of a stand-up comic really comes in, when you can make somebody feel good at a very down time in their life. When they say laughter is the best medicine, it really is true.