Rodney Carrington doing comedy his way
Rodney Carrington admits his show is going to be disturbing.
The comedian is unapologetically irreverent and also one of the top touring comedians in the country.
Local fans can catch him May 7 at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet when he performs a 7 p.m. show for mature audiences only.
He’s got 11 albums to his name, including his most recent, 2019’s “Get ‘Em Out,” which went to No. 1 on iTunes. Two of his albums received RIAA gold record certification while a greatest hits CD went platinum. He published a book called “Rodney Carrington, Coming Clean” and starred in his own TV sitcom, “Rodney,” which ran for two seasons on ABC.
He co-wrote and co-starred with Toby Keith in the feature film, “Beer for My Horses” and starred in his own Netflix special, “Here Comes the Truth.”
Carrington has appeared on the American Country Awards, hosting the American Country New Year’s Eve Live show on Fox and in 2008, won Supporting Character of the Year at the CMT Music Video Awards for his appearance in the Trace Adkins’ music video “I Got My Game On.”
His latest single, “Let Me In,” was released in October.
“I’ve been doing this for 33 years. When people come see me, I think that people already kind of know what they’re getting,” he said. “My fan base is kind of locked in. I always tell them, if you learn anything, it’s an accident. I’m certainly not here to convince anyone of anything. I talk about my life and certainly what we’ve been going though.”
His act is a mix of inappropriate songs and lots of jokes.
He was in Alaska in March 2020 when the pandemic hit everything shut down.
“All of a sudden it was 12 months of mowing the grass. My yard couldn’t look any better,” he said. “The real challenge when we started back up was what the hell to say because everybody’s been living the same life. Now, you point out the elephant in the room and get on down the road.”
Carrington grew up in Longview, Texas, and started doing comedy when he was about 20, he said.
“The first person I ever professionally worked with was Steve Harvey,” he said. “I went to showcase at this club and I had seven minutes of material. The (owner) said ‘can you do 20 minutes?’ and I lied and said sure.”
While he was there, he stayed in an apartment with another comedian — Harvey, who was not yet a household name. Meeting Harvey was awesome; the showcase wasn’t.
“I got up and tried to stretch my seven minutes into 30 minutes every night. It was deathly quiet. I come off stage the first night and I was discouraged,” Carrington said. “Steve was this real sweet guy and he said, ‘You’re going to be all right. Anybody who can stand up there that long and people not laugh and you not be bothered by it, you’ve got a chip I ain’t never seen before.’
“He was a sweet guy and I had six days of watching him be Steve Harvey. And at the end of the week the club owner told me, ‘You’re terrible, you need to quit.’ And then he gave me a check for $400. I drove home six hours from Baton Rouge to Longview, Texas, and I thought, ‘He paid me $400 and I was terrible. I wonder how much he’d pay me if I got good at this.’ That single decision changed my whole life forever.”
Carrington is proud of the fact that he’s chosen to say (and sing) exactly whatever he’s wanted to in his act. When he started out, many of his peers were trying to parlay their stand-up acts into a Hollywood career.
“When I started, there were four people heading four networks. And I thought, ‘I’m going to let my whole career rest on four (people)?’ ” he said. “I built my career from the ground up by being a guest on syndicated radio shows and utilizing those different affiliates. I built my audience over time and did it the old-fashioned way.”
He went from town to town and sold cassettes out of a suitcase and by the time he finally did get that sitcom deal, he was selling
out 1,500-seat theaters.
“It was no different than selling Amway except I was selling jokes,” he said. “It’s been a really wonderful career for 33 years. And now I’m just enjoying touring. My life and my significance is with my children and my granddaughter. I’m not chasing the world like I did when I was a 30-year-old man.”