Rodney Carrington has been a slow-burning fuse in his career, but his successes have exploded him onto the stand-up comedy scene while allowing him another career as a red-necked country singer specializing in “blue” songs that some consider pornographic. Granted, the man has a warped and strangely wonderful sense of humor that you can’t exactly showcase to anyone.
In fact, many of Rodney’s initial CDs seemed to be sold out of the tool boxes of suspicious-looking pickups. You couldn’t just buy them anywhere. Now they’re everywhere, but they come with warning labels. If you’re sensitive or easily offended, or if you’re giving one as a gift to someone who is sensitive or easily offended, pay attention to the warning labels. Rodney goes where other comedians fear to tread. And you won’t find any angels there.
Still, for all that, he’s a keen observer of humanity and society. In order to be a successful comedian, I think those skills are necessary. You can’t make a joke out of nothing. The best jokes are always those that are based on the truest things in life. Rodney does that. The problem is, he looks at those things the way many of us do but would never comment on. At least not in polite or mixed company.
I had the good fortune to meet Rodney backstage one night back in 1993. His career was just getting started and he had a baby on the way. In addition to doing stand-up comedy, he was hawking shirts to help pay for the baby. I bought one and still have it. One of my older boys was talking about one of Rodney’s CDs and I mentioned that I had met Rodney. Then I told him about the shirt. It was everything I could do to hang onto that shirt. I guess I'm going to have to leave it to someone in my will.
Rodney’s career has blossomed, and he’s deserved every bit of it. There’s no one in the stand-up comedy business who’s worked harder or more diligently to make his career happen. He spent two years in Hollywood starring in a television show based on his stand-up comedy. Of course, he toned down a lot of material he was dealing with to get it past television censors.
Article comments
1 - Sarah
I like it. Very thorough.