Comedian Donnell Rawlings returns to Baltimore this weekend and promises the lure of laughs and some escape from madness of real life as he tries to educate Nestor on the finer points of modern comedy, and clarifies a lot of lore from The Wire and his Chappelle’s Show famous line. It’s a great day to smile…
Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, highlighting events in Essex and Lexington Market. He welcomes comedian Donnell Rawlings, known for his roles in “The Wire” and “Chappelle’s Show,” to perform at the Baltimore Comedy Factory. Rawlings humorously comments on press conferences and shares insights on his comedy style, emphasizing fresh material and audience engagement. He reflects on his roles in “The Wire” and “The Corner,” and his journey in comedy. Rawlings encourages Nestor to try stand-up, offering him a stage opportunity. They also touch on the impact of comedy on mental health and the evolving landscape of comedy in a woke culture.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Baltimore Comedy Factory, Maryland crab cake tour, Donnell Rawlings, The Wire, Chappelle Show, stand-up comedy, Netflix special, press conferences, comedy material, audience interaction, Baltimore tourism, HBO series, comedy improv, mental health, Elon Musk.
SPEAKERS
Donnell Rawlings, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We’re taking the Maryland crab cake tour on the road. On Friday, we’re going to be in Essex and at Pizza Johns, having some pizza crab cakes, baby cheese steak and some french fries and proper gravy. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I will have the magic eight balls to give away. We’re off to Canada for opening day next week, and then we’re going to be back at Faith leagues at Lexington market on the second before the Red Sox Orioles game with our crab cake tour. Listen, guys probably had some crab cakes because, I mean, I know he worked in Baltimore. There is video evidence of this. He’s coming back to Baltimore. You know him, probably from the Chappelle Show, certainly from the wire, he’s been an actor a long, long time, in many ways, as well as a comedian. He’s going to come in during these dark times to try to make us laugh this weekend at the Baltimore a comedy factory he’ll be in all weekend long. It is a pleasure to welcome him back to Baltimore, where the wire sort of made him semi famous many years ago. Danielle Rawlings joins us here, and all the comedy. My son’s such a Chappelle fan and so many people mention the wire to me all the time. It is a pleasure to know you. Welcome you on what’s funny these days. Danielle Rawlings,
Donnell Rawlings 01:15
I will say this, press conferences in the White House are the funniest thing ever right now.
Nestor Aparicio 01:19
They weren’t real. If they weren’t real, they’d be funny, right? Oh, man,
Donnell Rawlings 01:23
I did a joke the other day. I said, I don’t even write jokes anymore. I just watched press conferences, whatever side you with, the left or the right. I’m just, I will just tell you right now. It’s very entertaining, just recapping some of the things that happened the day before yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that. But more importantly, I think I’m on the wrong tour. I didn’t know you had a crab cake tour going on. I would have showed up for the crab cake tour instead of the black and mild
Nestor Aparicio 01:48
tour. Well, Friday, we’re over at Essex and pizza, John. They make a delicious crap. You could be the best PG you’ve ever had, too. So we you’re down the road DC. You come up here anytime. I always tell people, y’all can get the DC crab cakes. Don’t. Don’t go to PG County or montgomery county. No offense. For crab you gotta come up here. You gotta get
Donnell Rawlings 02:04
where the first off. We’re not going to have a East Coast, West Coast beef like, who’s got the bad bat the best crab cakes? Alright, I think in this world, we have to live with everybody, and whatever their preference is on crab cakes, you’re trying to start a war. We just did Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Now you’re trying to get the DC, Baltimore crab cake beef, and I’m not going to support that. No,
Nestor Aparicio 02:26
no, it’s a Maryland out. You never, ever, ever order a crab cake outside the state of Maryland. Don’t do that,
Donnell Rawlings 02:33
alright. I’ll respect that. But I’m excited. I’m excited to come to Baltimore again. I’m working at the Comedy factory outlet, which one of the premier comedy clubs in the country for a live stand up comedy, if I’m not mistaken, they’ve been the brand has been there for over 25 year, but they moved to a different facility maybe 10 years ago, which is bigger is better. And one of the me coming from the DMV area. I get people from Baltimore, I get people from from from Virginia. I get people from DC to come to the comedy factory outlet and we’re going to have a good time. One of the questions people ask, not just recently, last year, I just celebrated the one year anniversary of my Netflix special called A New Day. And the question a lot of people have, after you do a special, Well, is he going to do the same material? But rest assured that I the minute that special drop, I had already had a new hour. So if you come see me, it’s going to be fresh, it’s going to be unfiltered, it’s going to be topical, it’s going to be observational, but more importantly, it’s going to be funny.
Nestor Aparicio 03:36
My wife and I have a thing. I’ve been on the air 34 years. I’ve had every comedian I’ve ever had on, Louis Anderson really spent time with me and said one of my favorites. He said, You can do this. You can do this. You can be funny. You write your jokes, you send them to me. I’ll help you out. And then I ran into him in Vegas, like, three years later. He’s like, you haven’t sent me any jokes. And then he passed away. And now I have. I’m 56 I’ve never, I’ve I do this every day of my life for 34 years. And I know you did radio down in the DMV. Um, I don’t know if I’m funny or not, but I know if I wrote stuff, I could deliver it. And I’m not afraid of the stage and all of that. Have you
Donnell Rawlings 04:13
done it? I have done never done it. Never. You’re afraid of it. And I’m, oh, okay, follow up on Louie, because I have that a lot of times, and for him to say that, I’m pretty sure he’s seen a lot of people, and it’s not just, and I’ve said this for some radio personalities, but people, not even in our field, some people, I just feel like could be naturals at it. But the thing that holds them back is like, Well, I gotta write all these jokes and everything. It’s you’re never going to write the perfect joke, and especially if you’ve never been on stage. It doesn’t matter what joke you write, the minute you go on stage, you’re going to forget it. Something’s going to trigger you to go try to do it. Now I will say, if you’re interested, I’ll pick up what Louie said, and you can come on stage with me at the commune factory outlet. And do your three or your five minutes. So in the word this is what we say in the street, don’t talk about it. Be about it. Now I’m not saying it’s something that you want to do for the rest of your life, or it’s something that you want to say, I’m going to continue with this and give myself another career opportunity. But I will say this if you’ve ever once thought about doing it. You gotta try it. I
Nestor Aparicio 05:24
write stuff all the time. Mickey
Donnell Rawlings 05:27
go, excuses are like blank holes. Everyone has one. Alright, now we’re going to talk about you doing it, or we’re going to talk about something else, because we can have this conversation about I write, I write, I write, I write. I’m speaking on behalf of Louis Anderson. Don’t talk about it. Be about it. Next question, wow,
Nestor Aparicio 05:47
he’s got me going. Danelle Rollins here, comedian as well as actor. Let’s talk a little bit about the wire, because people bring it up. I had I’ve known David for 35 I worked with David at the Sun back in the 80s when I was a kid, and I had him on whenever the new HBO thing came out. Well, we got a monster a couple years ago. And the first thing I said to David was this, I never watched the wire. And the reason I never watched the wire is, if you see this picture, I lived, this was my home at the Inner Harbor for 19 years, on the 23rd floor, and I looked out the window when I lived at the harbor from oh three until 21 till about three years ago, and during that period of time, I just never felt like I felt like it might frighten me a little bit, because it was so realistic. It’s considered the greatest series ever, not by David or you, or people involved in it, anywhere I go as a Baltimorean, people mention the wire in a bad way, in a crime way, in the city and all of that. But the greatness of the art and the believability of the art and the characters and all of that, I always felt like it would sort of weird me out a little bit about the city and but all of these years later, you were part of something that I was considered the greatest of all time, right?
Donnell Rawlings 06:56
It’s so interesting, though, because people say, what is your legacy going to be? You never know, because you won’t be here to experience that, but I will say us Entertainment Weekly, one of the one of the leading magazines. They did an article the top 100 television shows in the history of television. And I was a part of two shows that were considered to be in the top 101 being the wire, and two being a Chappelle Show. David Simon, first off is amazing, amazing writer, amazing human being, which I think is more important than anything. And my relationship to wire, it came from my relationship with HBO as the corner. If you know the wire, and you’re a historian of the wire, you know the wire was basically a spin off of HBO as the corner. That story was so dark with the family, and what they talked about is you couldn’t do a continuation of the corner, because most old people were either dead or just wasn’t that so they did the spin off. Was the wire. Another fact a lot of people don’t know is that the character, one of the one of the breakout characters on that show, was Omar Mike K Williams, right? That role came down to myself and Mike Robert colesberry RIP one of executive producers from the show. When I, when I got the role as day day price, he said, you know, we were really considering you to play Omar, but we really want thought you could bring something special to this Damian price day day character, but and I was supposed to be a part of that story. But what happened was the Baltimore Tourism Board complained that all the productions in Baltimore, it’s always in something to go with. But what you’re saying is always pictured to be dark. It’s always picture to be decreed, you know, I mean, it’s always picture to be in a bad situation. So David Simon and the writers, they had to go from the towers, which was very popular string of Bell and all those guys, they had to rewrite the storyline and go to the docks just to appease the Baltimore tourism board. When that happened, my character, Damian Price, who was connected with Senator clay Davis. First off, that story had so much legs. I get caught with $30,000 right? They take me into custody, and they gotta release me, and I have to leave with the money. And that story and what happened to that money never was answered, because they had to shift it. But David, being a great guy, he is, he said, Daniel, I wanted to pay like, some homage to you and what you did to our brand in the show, so that’s why I just decided to bring you back on the last season of The Wire. But I even, even when I got that role, it was confusing, because I was a young actor, I mostly had a stand up background, and I thought I bombed in that audition. And as soon as I got on set, I saw David, the first question I asked him, I said, Why me? I was like, I really thought I bombed in that audition. I didn’t know what I was doing. He said, We like the fact that you threw your lines away. Throw your lines away means you go off book. I didn’t throw my lines away. I forgot my lines. So I had to, I had to improv, and I played bread. He was a heroin addict, which most people in the corner was, and what. Found was they I, I’m sure every actor went in there that knew the background of him in a heroic, heroic addict, heroin addict, they played to the addiction. They played to him getting high. But what they wanted to see in audition was, Who is this guy when he wasn’t high? So me not being prepared. I took that part away, and my personality came out, and the comedic undertone hit, and that’s what they chose. And I built a relationship with me, with HBO the corner. I want to shout Charles Dutton, who destroyed that. I want to show everybody that was on a production. It won like three Emmys back in 1997 gave me opportunity to be on a corner to the wire. And I guess if you want to say the rest is history, Danelle
Nestor Aparicio 10:44
Rawlings is going to be doing his brand of comedy all weekend long right here in Baltimore. And you know about Chappelle, you know about the background the comedy, but I had rain prior on this week. She’s doing a Broadway night on Saturday this week over at the the phc, and daughter of Richard Pryor, and so I had a long conversation, and I looked you up. You and I are six weeks apart in age. I was born October 68 you were born at 68
Donnell Rawlings 11:09
as well. How did you didn’t have to do that. I would have let the audience decide that. But go ahead, I knew what you told me. I knew when you said it, you was going to bring it up. You could have left that alone. You could have let the people decide you wanted to make that connection? Well, I wanted to
Nestor Aparicio 11:23
make that connection because we both grew up in the same exact time, sort of same exact place, in regard to what comedy was with Carlin, with red fox, with brown paper bags, with Steve Martin, even in the early 70s and Saturday Night Live, what was funny to you as a young person that brought that part to the stage and then brought it to Chappelle, and it’s going to bring it to Baltimore this weekend, because I in talking to rain prior this week, I really I said to my wife, too late before adironda said, loved Richard Pryor like and I was too young to know it. I was 1011, 12 years old, watching that Long Beach act, you know, all the bad words and all that stuff, silver streaks, but I’m thinking about that, and maybe red fox and Sanford and Son. But I wasn’t up late enough with Carson as a kid to find that comedy. I found Dundalk body, dirty, brown paper bag working blue. That’s still funny to me. Andrew Dice, Clay still funny to me. If it’s not blue, it’s harder for I’m a Dundalk guy, and I why clean 34 years I can’t use that language here. But
Donnell Rawlings 12:28
I think comedy is subjective to what you like. I know it’s been tougher for some comics, especially the ones that are outspoken and want to say they want to say, I’ve guessed, the last 20 years it’s been a super, super woke consciousness with comedy cancel culture, people think you can say this, you can’t say that. And to that, I have a tagline that I use on all my platforms. My podcast. Someone said, Daniel, can a joke be too soon? I said, a joke could be too soon, but it never could be too soon for a funny observation. And the thing is, the world we’re living in right now, with the internet and everything i It’s always interesting. When I hear people go to a show, they get shocked and they leave. You can go, you can Google a performer you’re going to go see, and for the most part, you can kind of know what style of comedy. It’s not like back in the day, like coming to the show, you didn’t know what you didn’t you didn’t know until you went there. So people have the option to do a research on these comments, but I think comedy should be, from your perspective, how you look at life. My good friend Dave Chappelle, and I’m not name dropping. It’s not name dropping if you know the people. But he said, Donnell, as comedians, it’s our job to make fun of things that are troubling the world. We’re therapeutic. We get therapy. The audience get therapy. Whenever, whenever I go on stage, I feel like I’m dealing something, dealing with something in my past, and the audience is helping me either accept it or understand it. And I think when people come to my show, one of the best compliments I had over the years is that when someone comes up to me and they’re like, you know, I wasn’t feeling good. I didn’t want to come out. I just lost a close relative, a close friend. I just got fired from my job, but I’m glad I came out, because I got to relieve myself and I got to move away from that, even if it’s only for 45 minutes to an hour. Comedy should be an escape and because be something to help preserve your mental state.
Nestor Aparicio 14:17
Why that’s you’re helping me here. You’re trying to inspire me to get on stage and do this. So when you write things, how do you know whether it’s funny or not? The material you’re doing this weekend? And go ahead me, personally,
Donnell Rawlings 14:28
I’ve been doing it long enough, like really good comics, you think of, your brain is programmed to think funny all the time. That doesn’t mean it makes it to pen and paper. It doesn’t mean it makes it to the stage. But when you have a certain amount of experience, you can feel what something is going to be right. Like, I hear people like, Yo, you gotta work it out and everything. If I think something is going to be funny, nine times out of 10 when I go on stage, I believe in it enough. I got enough stage presence. I got enough experience. You. Make it work. But in some cases, sometimes things may not work. But me personally, if I say, now that’s funny, it met the criteria for me to go up there and try it. I don’t necessarily write jokes down. I’ll write a premise down, something that sparks my interest, or whatever, and I my workout is constantly getting the reps, doing it, doing it again, doing it this way. And I will say I’ve been doing it over 30 years, and I’ve had the same energy and the same will to the destroyer audience every we’re talking about a guy that’s I’ve had hundreds of 1000s of shows. Every time I go on stage, I’m trying to make this show better than the last show. That was a good show.
Nestor Aparicio 15:44
Well, you mentioned that your Netflix specials out. Everybody can go check that out. And that’s one script that you have different things going on here. How much are you always updating things? Are there things this weekend you’re going to use five new things, 10 new things in a in a how much is material happened for you? For
Donnell Rawlings 16:02
me, I would say probably I could do 45 minutes to an hour on stuff I’ve already done. But I like to try to keep myself open to improv something happening. I’ve been in situations where, literally, like, minutes before I go on stage, I’m like, That’s funny, and I’m going to drop it then. So it’s very unpredictable. You know, I like again, I’d like to be able to say, Okay, this is the core of my set, but it could go in any direction. I’ve had shows where I would come up with, see something in the audience that sparked something. And next thing you know, that’s 15 minutes worth of new material for the next show. So my stuff is like, it’s, it’s open book. You never know what’s going to happen. I think that’s what people enjoy about my my shows the most. And people that come to the comedy factory outlet, they’ve been following me for years. They know one thing when they come to my show, that you’re not going to get the same material. You’re going to get this guy that really, really cares about being new, relevant and funny.
Nestor Aparicio 17:05
Donnell Rawlings will be in town all weekend. Make sure you get down to Baltimore comedy factory outlet. Check him out. He is from the area. I mean, you, you’ve been doing this for DC area, and just like here and the wire, I think people really associate you with that. How often do people bring the wire up? Is that an everyday thing with you? And Chappelle every single it’s kind
Donnell Rawlings 17:26
of I will say it’s interesting, because I’ve done a lot since that show BMF. I play a character on Disney Pixar movie sold at one one Oscar. I’ve been a part of 20s. I’ve been on guide code. I’ve done a lot of things, but for not, for some reason those two shows are, like two of the biggest shows in television history. But it’s interesting, people have come up to me like, you know, I really liked you on Chappelle Show, but Imma tell you my all time favorite is the wire. But to be associated, and we’re talking the wire, probably was 20 years ago, 20, maybe 2021, years ago. The Chappelle shows like 20 years ago. But just to be able to be a part of that is awesome. And I get a lot of sometimes people, you have people that are negative, they’re like, yeah, what has he done since Chappelle Show? I’ve done a lot well, what is he What is he going to do next? I’m sorry, and I’m not going to apologize for being on one of these shows that people consider one of the greatest shows in television history. So people can say that I’ve already made history. I’m not trying to rewrite history. I’m not trying to outdo Chappelle Show. I’m just trying to maintain a level of consistency, a level consistent with my stand up, with my acting stuff, and just keep it moving. Nothing is going to ever then at some point there will be something that people are like. This reminds me of so and so, but that was a part of time I embrace it. People call me day day on the streets, Damian price. They call me Ashley Larry. They call me beautiful, but they call me so at the end of the day, I’m winning. You
Nestor Aparicio 19:07
can call Danielle Rawlings anytime. Five shows over the weekend, two on Friday, two on Saturday, one on Sunday, the Baltimore comedy. Fact, you haven’t mentioned where it is. It’s on my side of town. It’s almost in Dundalk. We used to call it the heights over there. O’Donnell Heights, right, right off i 95 Danelle, I’ll tell you what, man, you’re in the heart of crab Landia, being in East Baltimore. So you ain’t gonna have any problem. Just come through the tunnel and we’ll take you over to you two miles from cost this year, right around the corner from all the good spots. So I have a great weekend here. Bring that Baltimore comedy up here. And I, I’ve been watching a lot of these press conferences, and I would agree with you. Is Elon Musk funny to you is that, is that part of
Donnell Rawlings 19:42
your you know, what’s so funny? It’s interesting because I was with Chappelle. We did a show in San Francisco some years ago, and at that time, Dave Chappelle, I’m not going to say friends, but you know, he would be in conversation with him, and he come to shows. And I think Elon had an idea of wanting to do stand up. Up. But I don’t think in front of a 20,000 seat arena is a good place. And this was right after he laid off all those people in San Francisco’s San Francisco, when I tell you, it was a horrible situation, he went on stage and they booed the hell out of here. Boo Boo. And you know, there’s a, there’s an iconic catchphrase that I use on Chappelle Show, which would have been perfect for Elon. I was like, Yo, you gotta say it. He said, Say what? And I said, You gotta say I’m rich. And then I’m not going to say the end of it, right? And then he said, he butchered it. So he said, I’m rich, botched it. Was like, Boo Boo, boo. And I was like, No, you gotta say it like this. He didn’t get it, and that was the end of his comedy career. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 20:47
he’s a billionaire, and he’s controlling everything at the head of the President. It’s a I’d like to say it’s funny from the outside, but it’s not kind of funny, right? I mean, there’s parts of it that humor is involved in everything I’m doing on social media, because we this is the only thing we have at this point, is humor in regard to the situation.
Donnell Rawlings 21:05
Again, repeating what I said earlier, my good friend Dave said, it’s our job to make fun of the things that are troubling the world, and that’s what I’m bringing to the Baltimore factory comedy com baltimo comedy factory outlet this weekend, talking about the things that are troubling the world in a very funny way. I
Nestor Aparicio 21:26
appreciate the time well spent with you, and crab cake anytime. And if I write anything funny, I’m going to run it
Donnell Rawlings 21:32
back whatever. Don’t. Don’t talk about it. Be about it. That’s it. Don’t. Let me be the next one. And then Louie told me he died, and Donnell died,
Nestor Aparicio 21:44
you’re killing me now. I gotta do it before you die. We’re the same age. All right. On behalf of the to honor the late great Louis Anderson, I’m going to get into the comedy business with Daniel Rawlings. Thank you very much. Knock them dead over the weekend. Am I breaking leg or whatever I got to say about that? I am Nestor. We are wnst am 1570 it’s house in Baltimore, stacking up comedians and wire actors and all sorts of good stuff. Will be an opening day next week. We’re Baltimore positive. You.
