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Donnell - The Donnell Rawlings Show Episode #084
Episode Date: June 4, 2022Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
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The Donnell Rawlings Show, live in your face!
Fuck out bitch ass nigga, you'll never take my place! so That's right.
If anybody follows the Donner the road on this podcast,
I don't think there'll be any kids here because they're not old enough.
But you know, when I start my podcast, I have this corny music
which makes me talk like a guy from the radio.
Speaking of guys from the radio, to my right, I got my man Rudy Rush.
He's been a part of radio history for the last 18 years.
Give it up for my dear friend Rudy Rush. He's been a part of radio history for the last 18 years. Give it up for my dear friend, Rudy Rush, everybody.
And to my left, we've known each other for over 17 years. And the last six months, though, her shirts have become very skimpy.
And people love it. So we don't care why you listen. As long as you listen, this is about our own show.
We're live from the river.
If you had a good time in the river, make some noise.
Woo!
If you didn't tip your boat over, make some noise.
Woo!
If you live, come to this podcast.
Well, make some noise.
Hey, everybody.
How's it going?
Yeah.
First off, I want to thank everybody that showed.
First off, do you say happy Memorial Day?
Yeah, you can say that.
This is the day that we're supposed to honor our fallen soldiers.
So I want to take this opportunity.
If anybody here has served in the United States military in any capacity, nobody?
You.
I'm the only person.
We got one vet in the back.
All these white people.
No patriotic white people?
Yeah.
There you go.
There she is.
We don't know what division.
What branch?
All right.
Any real military out here?
Any who us? I'm just joking. What branch? Navy right. Any real military out here? Any who us?
I'm just joking.
What branch?
Navy.
Oh, it gets worse.
Any real, real military.
But I want to take this time to say thank you for serving.
It's a lot of white people here, not to only have just two people that serve this country.
We don't really know until we play Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA.
If you've ever been in touch with your inner white person, when that song comes on,
end up like a dog, stepping bitch to your end.
I don't even know what the hell Bruce is saying.
But I just wait for Born in the USA.
Today is a big day for me because a couple years ago,
I had the opportunity to be a part of something that made history in Yellow Springs.
Dave Chappelle went against what a lot of people thought was the right thing to do
or being socially responsible, and he created an opportunity
for his comedian friends to hang out, his community to hang out,
and he called it Summer Camp.
For two years, he ran this where he was testing people for COVID,
doing everything he could to create a safe environment.
It brought the community together during a tough time.
A lot of back and forth on the political side of stuff.
I won't get involved with that, but I do appreciate all the efforts he made
two years to bring this community together have his friends
come out have good comedy shows and make memory um this started thank you this started two years
ago and i was a a part of that process i wanted to get away from la and nobody knew exactly what
their direction their life was going to take. Nobody's ever been in a situation where they deal with a pandemic.
Dave said, I want to do some shows, Yellow Springs, Ohio,
but I want to get y'all here corona-free.
So he said, I'm sending a private jet for all my close friends.
And once I got off that plane, I looked at Dave and said,
I'm not doing any favors for that jet ride.
Yeah.
You know, jet rides is a different ball.
Yeah, you know, that comes with the essence.
Dave Ball, let me tell you a story about Dave's Ball.
You know people that ball out, right?
This is the most ballerist thing I ever saw.
We was on the road, right, and we were doing a bus tour,
and we stopped at this hotel.
And when you roll with Dave, it's all five-star,
best accommodations. We stopped at something like a Holiday Inn. And I you roll with Dave, it's all five-star, best accommodations.
We stopped at something like a Holiday Inn.
And I wasn't trying to be cocky.
I was like, ugh, I can't stay here.
Right?
And the tour manager, he went inside this hotel,
and he came out with a key and gave Dave the key.
And I was like, why are we staying here?
This is not like a Dave Chappelle stop.
This dude stopped to a hotel to take
a shit.
At least he didn't go on the bus.
I know I broke all PC roll or whatever, but I've never
seen like, I've never seen no
where you just, I was like, did you flush it at least?
It's gonna be
artwork, but just to pull over and stop
get a hotel room to take a dump.
I thought it was.
All right.
I'm trying everything to keep this PG-13, y'all.
That's it.
Well, we know the parents of these children.
You're going to be okay.
Okay.
But going back, what we did was Dave had the comedy portion locked down.
A lot of his friends, some of the top comics in the world came to perform for this.
But it was just something that during the daytime
that was kind of missing.
Dave's wife, she was an unofficial
camp counselor.
She used to plan all these activities
that black people don't participate in.
Like walking in nature.
What is that thing
when the women get together and sip in paint?
It's a very
orange housewives
of Yellow Springs thing.
That would be a great show.
And those Yellow Springs wives are gangsta.
They're the nicest people
in the world until
you don't return their casserole dish.
You don't return their double egg dish.
They come looking for you.
So Elaine had this idea, we're going to do these activities.
At the beginning, not too many people participated in activities.
Then she hit a home run, but I thought it was a home run.
She said, we're going to go on the river.
We're going to go kayaking.
And that's a very interesting thing to say to a black person from the inner city.
Because we don't know about kayaking, canoeing, or any of that.
And the first time I went on the river, I just got addicted to it.
I got addicted to the peace.
It was tranquil.
Like, you know, being from the city, you see frogs jumping out.
You're like, oh, look at that frog.
Look at that frog.
Y'all O.H.P.
Y'all like, oh, it's a bullfrog.
Tell the truth, Darnell.
You just was happy because it was only two feet of water.
Because black people don't play around five feet and under.
We don't do that.
I can swim, though.
I mean, not no ocean swim, but I can save myself in three feet of water.
So you went through all this stuff that black people don't do that they do here in Yellow Springs.
No, white people have been keeping stuff secret.
Nature, y'all been hiding that.
But you know what you forget?
You know what you forget?
Y'all been hiding nature.
He's like, yo, we had a ball.
How much we spend?
No money.
White people, stop hiding your secrets to life.
But he's trying to deflect from the main one that
did on Saturday. The kickball.
No, I'm not going to. We're going to get to that.
Anyway. The streets
versus the creeks.
Alright, let me explain.
Let me explain. I want to explain
what all this meant to me.
Dave Chappelle 100%
was the voice and the
person that made Summer camp what it was.
But when his wife Elaine removed herself from her duties, I had to step in.
I had to step in and start planning canoe trips.
We started doing barbecues.
And we just had a sense of fun.
And the thing I liked about it the most is that the community was involved.
It wasn't just one person doing it.
It was Vanessa coming through talking about...
I'll tell you, Vanessa is... We call her
Earth Chick. She never wears shoes.
She's always grounded.
She's always giving out rocks. Always giving out rocks.
Yellow Springs chicks
will hit you with quarts all day.
Hold on.
I don't want to be smudged no more.
I thought I was going to get a diamond.
She got rocks and rocks and rocks.
She got more rocks in her head than New Jack City.
Okay.
The rocks be calling Vanessa, yo, these rocks just be calling me.
And we didn't know if Dave was going to do any summer shows this year.
Understand he got the permits, he got the rights to be able to do it, but I didn't know if he was going to do any summer shows this year, understand he got the permits, he got the rights to be able to do it,
but I didn't know if he was going to do it.
So I said I just wanted to kind of follow in what we created
as a community two years ago.
If we don't have the comedy shows, I wanted to create the activity.
And one of the biggest things, y'all don't understand,
we went on that river like two years in a row,
and you used to see some of the biggest celebrities in the game,
like they were excited to perform.
They was like, man, I want to go to the river.
We converted a person.
Kid Rock went on the river.
And y'all know how hard it is to take a picture with Kid Rock nowadays.
He was the only person that was invited and uninvited in the same invitation.
Somebody told Kid Rock to show up,
but we didn't know that sometimes Kid Rock has a way with words.
Oh, yeah.
Which words?
But, ah.
You know the word.
But it was, what about good friends?
Jake, he's head of security, good friends, Kid Rock,
he said, Kid Rock, come out here.
And Kid Rock came, but people were like, he just went through some stuff in the news where
people, again, weren't really excited about him or his thoughts were.
But when I met him, he was a dope dude.
Like, we went on the river, and I'm going to tell you, this is something that's so dope
about this river.
When you go on it, you feel peace.
You feel like you feel stress-free.
You look at life different.
I'm telling you, me and him paddling down the road,
and he looked at me, and he said,
Donnell, man, I feel like I just went through 12 hours of anger management.
And I was like, okay, it's working.
We built a relationship.
And a couple months ago, he did a comedy festival in Nashville, Kid Rock Comedy Show.
And I was one of the guys that he wanted to be on the show.
And I told people that I was going to do a show with Kid Rock.
And it was split down the middle of how people felt about it.
They was like, I can't believe you were doing a show with Kid Rock.
I'm like, I'm not doing a show for Kid Rock.
I'm doing a show for people that want to laugh.
It's not specific to him.
I wasn't tied to anybody's political views.
We did a two-and-a-half-hour show.
I was the only black guy on the show.
I caught a standing ovation.
And I'm going to tell you something.
This is what comedy does, man.
Comedy makes us all equal.
It makes us even.
You know, if we can't figure out a way to laugh and enjoy ourselves, we can't do anything.
Wait a minute.
And I'm going to tell you, I was nervous about doing that show, because I was concerned about
what people would think.
Am I aligning myself with this person and his political views?
I didn't do that. I aligned myself to
an audience that wanted to laugh.
And at the end of the set, Kid Rock came up
to me. He said, Donnell,
I just want to say, I just think
we just put America back together.
And I looked at him and said,
and don't divide it, motherfucker.
And to that he said, alright right, yeah, we're,
no, he didn't say that.
In the back of his mind.
But I was so happy to be able to continue
the fun things that we created in Yellow Springs
some years ago,
to see some of the people I've met on the river,
some people I've got to consider to be my friends.
Ted, he didn't want to be on camera, but Ted is the reason why we were able to do this.
And I know it was a big deal the first time he came on the river, because he was counting
how many black people was in our convoy.
It was like, it wasn't no white, white, white.
It was like black, black, black, black, black, black, black.
It kept going until we got to Michael Blackson complexion.
And that's what Ted said, we got to shut this river down.
But we had this idea two years ago because during the pandemic,
if we didn't do anything,
some people were in situations where they weren't working anymore.
We had to figure something out.
I was unemployed.
It was so funny because Austin's mom,
I was watching the news one day, right?
And this was, the pandemic was at its height. And she was like, why you look so gloom and upset?
I said, I don't know if you're watching the same news I'm watching, but Donald Trump just said,
90% of live performances will be canceled for 2020.
I said, 90% of money I make is from live performances.
And I looked at her and I said, we broke, bitch!
I had to make a change.
I started selling candles, smudge sticks.
I was like, yeah, man, I got to make a profit off this River Ninja stuff.
I was like, you think people would pay to go down the river with a ninja?
They was like, it all depends on what ninja it is.
But I thought about this, and we planned on doing this last year,
but for some reason season came up on too quick, we couldn't do it.
But I was like, if we don't do a summer of shows can we make memories and if anybody knows me they know how important it is for me
when I was planning this somebody said Donnell are you gonna bring your son
with you and I was like I'm not coming unless my son is with me my son would
not let me go with him anymore.
He fell in love with Yellow Springs the same way I fell in love with Yellow Springs.
Well, I had to start tricking him.
He was like, Daddy, where are you?
And I would have this nice background, like trees, earthy.
He'd say, Daddy, did you go to Yellow Springs again without me?
I was like, yeah, but I'm coming right back.
He said, Daddy, you can't do that.
So I had to start trying to trick him.
He said, Daddy, where are you?
I said, I'm in Ohio.
He said, isn't Yellow Springs in Ohio?
Smart kid.
I can't trick this dude again.
But the thing that made me realize is that how simple it is,
and I really believe this, everybody,
it's so easy to make a memory.
It doesn't take a lot of effort to care.
Going down, the first time I went down the river,
I was side by side with Patrick.
That was the original River Ninja.
We have different complexions, but we still Ninjas.
And we was riding down.
I was like, I don't know what it is about this river.
I feel so good.
And he had a kayak, and he was like, he was showing off.
He had his legs crossed.
Patrick always showing off.
Yeah, he had a peace pipe shirt all off, turning red. And he said, man, this is it, Donnell.
He said, these type of memories,
they remind me of going crawdad hunting.
What is it?
Crawdads.
Crawdads.
Crawdads.
They said crawdads.
And he said, and jumping ramps with your bike in the back.
I'm like, so you knew your dad.
Oh, show off.
And no disrespect to my father, but it reminded me,
I do have memories of doing things with my father, but not enough.
I got a handful of them.
My father chose a lifestyle that didn't give him the opportunity
to spend as much time as he wanted to with all his
kids. He had a lot.
All of them. A lot.
He had a lot of baby mothers
and you know it when somebody died, they all
showed up to the funeral.
And they all took
turns speaking. I was like, y'all ain't gonna share?
Can he rest in peace?
Oh my God. That was the funniest
funeral ever. They was like, I was with him from 1977 to 88.
You saw other women count.
Yeah, that was my year, bitch.
But I remember one particular trip.
My dad rented an RV, and my aunt took us out, all of my brothers and sisters.
And we went from D.C., drove to Myrtle Beach.
And for some kids that never had the experience of being outside,
it was the most memorable trips I ever had.
I remember we went crabbing in Myrtle Beach.
And we were from the D.C. area, so we loved blue crabs.
So we caught all these crabs.
We was like, ooh, we're about to have a crab feast.
But what happened was it was a three-hour drive from Myrtle Beach to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
So in a three-hour period, we fell in love with the crabs.
We started building relationships with them.
Name them.
Yo, we named them.
Yo, we had fingernail polish like crabby.
We raced to the crabs.
We was like, oh, crab.
And my aunt didn't give a shit about that.
All we saw, I remember this to this day.
We look in the house.
All we saw was like a pot of steam.
And she was like, bring them damn crabs.
We was like, no, not crabby.
Can y'all imagine like eight kids at the table?
And they was red.
They went from blue to red.
And she was like, pass me that sauce. And they was red. They went from blue to red. And she was like, pass me that sauce.
And she was ghetto.
Black people don't use no clippers.
We don't use no hammer.
We get a...
And we was like, you're killing crappy.
And I told myself, man, there's something beautiful about this place.
If I don't do anything, I want to create more memories.
I want to continue with it.
You came the first year and didn't want to go home.
You left your kids.
Yeah.
They needed to get left.
I was in the house with the kids for a year.
You guys know when you're stuck in the house with these kids for a year?
Yeah, nah.
Did I see you get bit by a crab or pinched by a crab the other night?
No, the crab disrespected me.
I let it on my gangster.
You ever get mad at something you can beat and just kill everything around it?
One crab bit me the other day, and I murdered eight crabs back to back.
I was like, this is for your peoples right here.
You ain't tell your man, don't bite me no more.
I took a ginsu knife right down the skull.
Crag out.
Ted, where you going, Ted?
We had this idea two years ago, and I said,
Ted, how many boats do you got?
And what number did you give me?
He said 168.
I know some of y'all freaks in here wanted him to say 69,
but he didn't.
Okay.
Y'all know how them river chicks are on the river.
Whatever happened in the river stays in the river.
168 boats.
And we had 168 boats.
And we had this idea.
I said, man, we're going to sell out all of those boats.
And today, not only did we sell out all those boats,
we had to go to another river and borrow more boats.
And then Ted was getting all nervous.
You know when somebody gets nervous, they start stuttering.
He said, what are we going to do?
I'm like, Ted, well, he said, I don't know if we're going to have enough boats.
I said, can we do it?
He said, yeah, we can do it.
I said, well, then that's your problem.
And it's a good problem to have.
We didn't know how it was going to work, if people were going to be bumping each other,
if people were going to get together, enjoy themselves.
But I'm going to tell you, this whole week has been so good to me.
People always ask me, they've been asking me, Donnell, are you having fun?
And you might not see it on my face, like elated, like, hi!
No, we see it. We see it on my face, like elated, like, all right.
No, we see it.
We see it, Donnell. No, but to see, to be able to sit back
and just see people really enjoy themselves in this way,
it means a lot to me.
I came up with this idea of Donnell Lane a couple years ago,
and this is so important.
Nothing that I've done this week or I could ever do, I could do without a team.
You can have all the ideas you want.
We had this idea.
I was like, yeah, I'm going to do this thing.
It's going to be called Donnell Land.
And it's like, what is it in one sentence?
I said, it's Neverland without the uh.
It's a happy part without the uh.
But you can have all the ideas you want,
but no idea you're going to have is ever going to go anywhere
if you don't put together the right team.
And I want to thank Mad Cab.
Mad Cab Rental, they started some years ago.
Y'all might have known some of the stuff they did with the Enon truck rallies.
But they've been supplying this community with equipment to have weddings and rentals.
And I was like, yo, this company is going to blow.
Y'all should do events.
And started connecting with Heather, started connecting with Elizabeth.
And I was like, y'all got some big shit.
I know Heather got a new job.
She doesn't really know anybody anymore.
She does private jets, whatever.
But I was like, this mad cat thing could work.
Partner with her, Elizabeth.
I don't know where she is.
She's like, she's at the front, continuing to work.
Anytime somebody say to me, Donnell, we love Donnell Land or anything, I cannot take the credit.
I immediately diverted to this would not happen without her.
She made this process seem flawless.
Even when I know that sometimes it probably been stressful or overwhelming, she always made it seem smooth.
I mean, I want to give a round of applause for Elizabeth Wade.
She killed it.
And she was destroying me because she likes spreadsheets.
She likes doing those apps and notes.
She had a thread, a note, a thread.
You know how your notes on your iPhone?
She had this with check marks, things you could check off.
It felt like I was taking an SAT test.
Check, check, check, check.
And then I tried to let her know that I was participating
with it, so I did me some notes to respond to her thread. She disrespected my whole thread.
Because I felt so good. My grandma was off, whatever. She didn't know that I was going
to get it. She texts Heather, she says, look at his paragraph versus my paragraph. I was off whatever. She didn't know that I was going to get it. She texts Heather. She says, look at his paragraph versus my paragraph.
I was like, I wasn't trying to win anything.
She had all the periods and semicolons and shit.
I was like, I just want to tell jokes.
Shout out to everybody at Madcap that helped this happen.
But I'm just happy everybody's here.
I didn't know what I was going to talk about when I came here other than having a good time.
This weekend has been great.
Excellent.
And this guy last night actually did his first official, non-official wedding.
Yeah.
Right?
You know your life is miserable when you get me to marry you.
You know you don't really want to do it.
You're like, yeah, man.
Let's get Ashley Larry.
Y'all got a ring.
We got a bottle of lotion.
Put it on.
But it was two of my friends, Tony Conchino.
He's on the radio station here in the evening.
And his fiancee now, Tanya, what's her last name?
Gabriel or whatever.
You don't have to seem so disinterested, Heather.
She was like, is the bitch here?
All right, let's talk about who's here.
No, but they met.
He was a good friend of mine.
And when they met, I don't know when they met.
I just saw him start to show up on the timeline.
And at certain times, you see certain pictures, you see
certain energy. I told you, when I first saw
them together, I was like, they're going to get
married. I was like, I could just feel it.
I didn't know
that I would be the one doing it.
But it was
unofficial. And she's like Middle
Eastern or something.
She about to have a ball, a ball, a ball of wedding.
But she got married
in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I
officiated. What is that word?
Officiated.
A wedding hosted.
Yes. So we'll play it for people,
right? What? We'll play it for
people on the show. How is that going to serve us
right now? I don't know. Just imagine,
guys. Close your eyes.
And just imagine. Some of them can't because they Just imagine, guys. Close your eyes. And just imagine.
Some of them can
because they have mushrooms,
so they can.
Imagine the most ignorant,
officiating that you ever
would see.
Take your time.
Work it out.
For the kids,
look at all these kids
over here.
Dawul, Austin,
how you doing?
You want to come up here,
Austin?
Come up.
Come here.
I want to talk to you.
Give it up for Austin Rawlins,
everybody. Hey talk to you. Get up for Austin Rawlings, everybody.
Hey.
This guy goes on stage with me,
I've been doing comedy almost 30 years.
He would go in front of an audience and just say hi
and get a standing ovation.
And I'm like, 30 years of crackin' jokes,
do you wanna say, all right, what is it,
when you found out, okay, explain this to me. What is it that you like
about Yellow Springs, Ohio?
Yep.
All of it, right?
Is that Charlie? Yo, Samson,
stop having your kids be hecklers.
Samson
has the most disrespectful crew of
kids you ever met in your life.
They talk to me like a grown
man. They don't do
no mischief or anything. They're like, anyway, could you
get us some food now?
I was like, did you have fun?
Yes, but we deserve it.
What is the thing that you like about your friends and everybody being here?
You want to help me?
We're about to give you the light, son.
Any kids want to share how you feel about it?
Hudson, come here.
Are you going to talk?
Don, don.
Only come up here. Don, he's got about eight kids over there.
Come on. Give it up to the future president
of the United States, ladies and gentlemen.
I know y'all Ohio's like, yeah, we did that already. Been here, done that.
What is it, Hudson? What is it that you find
to be so cool about coming here to Yellow Springs and down in your land?
It was a lot of fun when we got to see the river and all the nature.
The nature part of it?
And you know why we haven't seen nature?
White people have been hiding it from us for years.
Yo, they like this.
You think they're going to find out
about it? Okay, what else?
Austin, what do you want to add?
My favorite
part is when
we got to
stay in
the new
is when we
had our The new is when we had, when we got.
They're going to say get it out.
The new cabin.
Oh, you like the cabin at Donnell Land?
At the lake.
And also the Donnell Land park.
Yay.
He's going to whisper in my ear like, now give me my candy.
I said it.
I know.
He got me.
Everybody know I'm an older dad.
I'm an older dad.
Some people say I'm a granddad and a dad and the same dad.
I don't argue.
I don't try to teach life lessons.
I just pull out lollipops.
What is going to make this kid be quiet?
Nobody care about cavities.
This is your first set.
You'll be all right.
And I invited my man Rudy out.
Yes.
You came here before with Dave years ago, didn't you?
Long time ago, but it was, like, really quick.
I didn't have this experience before, so, you know,
I wasn't invited to the river.
I didn't know about the shack.
I didn't know I was going to be getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning
after getting in at 4.50. I didn't know I was going to be getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning after getting in at 4.50.
I warned everybody.
They'd be trying to kill my audience.
We'd be at the shack.
3 o'clock in the morning, I'd be like this.
All right, we're going to the river.
Yeah, we're going to the river.
The last time we stayed here, we had one of the places we stayed.
It was like five people staying in this place,
and everybody getting lit.
I'm like, y'all better chill out.
We're going to the river in the morning. I was like, y'all going to be ready? They was like, yeah. 8 o'clock in this place. And everybody getting lit. I'm like, y'all better chill out. We going to the river in the morning.
I was like, y'all going to be ready?
They was like, yeah.
8 o'clock in the morning.
Nobody was ready.
I'm so disrespectful.
I got the biggest boom box in the house.
And I started playing a military reverie early in the morning.
Like, blast.
I was like, I need you out of your room, private.
But it was funny. and I kept coming back.
Yeah, I'm dead.
Like, usually I talk more, but I'm relaxed right now.
You know what I like?
You know what I like?
I have to say this about everybody.
The community, everybody just chipped in because, like,
after the second day, I just was at the Calypso restaurant.
I just got in a random white couple's like I'm going down the block it was
like sure come on I was like I'll see you later tonight at the shed okay
yellow sprays only place you can see a concentration of ten black lives matter
signs in one yard okay and across the whole street, the main street.
Yeah, we just trying to figure out something to talk about.
No, let's talk about it, man.
How did Ja feel?
How did Ja feel?
You guys notice he is still getting away from the fact he lost kickball.
Like, he is not talking about it.
Come on, where are my streets at?
Here's the thing.
Oh, wait, was there more creeks out here or at? Here's the thing. Oh, wait.
Was there more creeks out here or something?
It was a strategy.
If the creeks beat the streets, the streets never going to want to go see the creeks.
Oh, so you set it up.
We lost so they could understand what it feels like.
Oh, that's what it was.
And didn't make it more inviting.
But we have Vanessa on our team, and she's from here.
Vanessa played kickball with no shoes on. Yeah, she was in the mud
up to her ankles.
And I thought, I'm going to tell you, I thought it was something against me
because I know I'm not supposed to be out there.
Last time I tried to do something extracurricular
like this, I tore my patella.
Oh, let's not bring that up.
Trying to dunk on an eight foot
rim
in Austin's grandma's backyard.
She got me drunk off of fireball shots.
Then the kids say, what you going to do, old man, on an eight-foot rim?
I said, what y'all going to do is y'all going to turn y'all phones on,
and we about to go viral.
They said, what you going to do?
I said, I'm going to throw the ball off the backboard.
I said, I'm gonna throw the ball off the backboard. I said, I'm gonna grab it. I'm gonna do a 360.
I said, I'm gonna bang it.
And I was barbecuing, so I
had a barbecue rag right here. I said, on my way down,
I'm gonna wipe the rag
and wipe my face.
Y'all get ready to capture
this. All I
remember was taking two steps, and something said,
Pow!
I said, what gang followed me across the country to shoot me in my knee?
And the funny thing, the kids, it looked like I was in a Spike Lee movie.
They was all looking over top of me, right?
I'm looking up like this.
They was like, we don't know
what happened he was only two inches off the ground i thought i was coming down i never went up
and i was so fearful to do this last game i was like i did all this stretching you saw
out this stretches and you know sometimes you don't know how your brothers feel about you
until they're on an opposing team.
Oh, yeah.
Is that why you left?
Yeah, no.
Him, he is a captain.
Angela Yee is the captain.
I didn't see them the entire game until I turned around
and looked out by the parking lot.
They're on their phones.
They're kissing babies.
I'm like, where are our coaches?
I'm going to where are our coaches?
I'm going to tell you why I quit.
First off, my disrespectful-ass little brother, he's – I'm pitching,
he kicks the ball, and I – no, I'm thinking I'm going to do like, oh, I'm staying like this.
Catch it with your hands.
You caught it with your feelings.
Yo, I caught it – yo, I felt like it was personal.
Because when he kicked, it was like – and I saw the look in his face, man.
It was like, it hit me right in the chest.
Foul!
And then the worst part, I'm a comedian that can't take a joke.
The worst part was everybody laughing at me.
I feel like they're all going to laugh at me, laugh at me.
It felt like the laughter was in slow motion.
It was like, I was like, he tried to hurt me.
So that was already discouraging enough.
And then next I go kick.
I don't know what I was thinking.
I was in between third and home.
I did one of these moves.
See, when you get
older, you do things on the inside. You don't do it on the outside. I was like this. I'm gonna be
like this. Oh, I got him. Man, I did two moves. I felt my legs here. I said, I'm out. I was like,
I'm trying. I'm about to be a cheerleader. I didn't get nowhere near that feel.
And then I got to do two shows that night.
And for the most part, I usually have a lot of energy.
They was like, and then Dawn was hosting.
She tried to help me.
I was like, if you don't get away from me, she was hurt too.
Everyone was hurt.
All the comics that came out there was hurt.
The most funny is Marshall Brandon was stretching before.
I have him on my video.
He's stretching.
He's getting all in there. And I have him at the video. He's stretching. He's getting all in there.
And I have him at the end. He has all this
ice wrapped around his leg. I'm like,
this is
A to Z.
And then Vanessa showed with none of them damn
rocks. Like, that ain't going to help me.
And bells.
She like, what is this rock for right here? I broke my kneecap.
This shit ain't going to help.
She got rock formations.
And look, you're right in your eye.
How many rocks you got?
None?
No.
Rudy, did you get a rock?
I got a rock.
I got one.
Yeah, I'm working on my second rock.
Yeah, I got one.
And I got offered bells.
I like the bells.
Yep, still trying to figure out something to talk about.
Listen, the smartest play I made,
everybody asked me why was I coming out there with flip-flops
and why I'm not playing.
What I did was I found a couple.
I looked them in the face and was like, what's in that cup?
They had a cooler full of liquor.
They was from Chicago.
They sitting right there.
Those are my best friends.
I was on the side just getting drunk.
Was this your first time on the river?
How many people first time on the river?
Count how many times they flipped over.
Why is all the black hands, all the black hands?
Count how many times they flipped over.
How did it feel?
Was it good?
What?
Somebody tipped over.
Whenever they respond like that, they got tipped.
There was a bunch of people who tipped over today. Wait, your mom, your mother tipped over. Oh, your mom tipped over. Whenever they respond like that, they got tipped. There was a bunch of people who tipped over today.
Wait, your mom.
Your mother tipped over.
Oh, your mom tipped over.
Oh, you didn't hear about that?
Your brother took her down.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I want to do another intro.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen.
When you hear this noise, you mean I'm going to start the show over.
My brother went to Brown University and Georgetown Law.
He was one of the only black guys on the crew team years ago.
He took my mother out of the boat and he tipped her!
He tipped her over!
And I remember he said, I'm the only professor on this river.
He tipped her!
Shout out to the crew.
And he tipped her!
Yo, he did that.
He did say that. And he didn't tell anybody he tipped her.
But she told everybody.
She did tell everybody.
She was so proud of him until we halfway out there, he was turned around like,
we on the wrong way.
Turn your damn canoe around.
I thought you was a professional.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
I just like doing, yeah, and he rode past me smooth, too.
Like, you know, he went to Brown University of Georgetown Law,
and he talks like this.
I beg your pardon.
I thought he, um.
A lot of thieves.
You know, the people that got that voice, you're like,
they're not starting an argument, but it's the tone.
What do you say?
They blink like this.
I mean, what do you...
I feel like I do that.
What does that mean?
And that's how we talk.
And guess what?
He got an asshole little son, same talk.
He's an extension of him, but we was trying to get him to come.
So I'm texting him, and then he started putting all these big-ass words together.
He started to send us off.
Let me find that.
He started to have clarity.
Clarify?
I have bullet points and everything.
I'm like, yo.
Is that the nephew that calls you Uncle Darnell?
Yeah, Uncle Darnell.
Yes. Hey, Uncle Darnell. I'm like, yo. Is that the nephew that calls you Uncle Darnell? Yeah, Uncle Darnell. Yes.
Hey, Uncle Darnell.
I'm going to tell you something funny.
I love the kid that he's turned out to be because there was some question when he was young.
Not that he wouldn't be a good kid, but like the koof.
I remember one time a brother called me.
He said, hey.
You know what's crazy?
He said, hey, this is Dwayne.
I'm like, nigga.
Like, I know this nigga.
I know who you are.
You ain't Mr. T.
As soon as I see the name, I'm like,
oh, here we go.
He said, hey, this is Dwayne.
And you got to understand,
nobody calls me for fatherly advice.
I don't think I had a kid at the time when you called me.
I don't think I had a kid.
You're still learning.
But he said, hey, this is Dwayne.
I may have a situation.
I might need your help.
He was like this, what the?
I'm like, what?
He said, well, it seems like
some of the kids don't think that
Dusan is really one of the coolest guys.
And in my mind, I'm like this, yeah.
I'm going to tell Dusan what being cool is.
Being cool is respecting your elders.
Being cool is doing your homework.
Being cool is pulling your pants up.
I was like, I'm going to tell you what real cool stuff is.
Then my brother said, I don't know if we have time for that.
I was hoping you could come to the school and do a couple
I'm Rich Bitches.
He's like this.
Make him cool by associating.
Yeah, like instant cool.
That's your uncle?
Oh, you cool.
Yeah.
And then I remember one time,
so I don't remember this,
and I gave,
because I was trying to tell him who I was
when I was telling him who I was.
And I had a flyer.
I remember this.
And I put it in one of his books or something.
I was like this,
you know this is your uncle Donnell.
He's like, whatever.
Anyway, tomato, tomato.
Yeah.
Let's have more clarity. Darnell, Donnell, whatever. Right. tomato, tomato. Yeah. Let's have more clarity.
Darnell, Darnell, whatever.
Right.
And then I remember one time he was like this, Uncle Darnell.
Yo, my friends saw that flyer.
And they was like, who is that?
And I was like, it's just my Uncle Darnell.
And that was a proud moment.
Yeah, he's official.
Yep, flyers. You got to brag, kids. Austin didn't even know what I did for a living until I was a proud moment yeah he's official yep flyers you got a brown kids Austin didn't
even know what I did for a living until I was in the movie so he didn't care about any and I
consider myself to have a decent resume and now I understand why some celebrities they have a
certain level to the career they didn't start want to do the animations, you know, like the Pixar stuff, because it kind of validates what you do.
Your kids can appreciate that.
And Austin wasn't really tripping off the movie
until it made it to the Happy Meals.
Your character was on there.
What?
Because he already conned me out of McDonald's.
But he was like this, I know I can get at least a month worth of McDonald's if soul is in the box.
You know all your credits, too.
We've been friends for over 20 years.
He's my only friend that I know all their credits because every place we would go in New York and they wouldn't let us in, Donnell would run down his credits.
Oh, you're one of those, Donnell?
He said, do you understand?
I ain't never said that, son. I'm Larry, son.
I'm rich, bitch.
Let me in.
I'm the most humble person you'll ever meet.
I was like, hey, we just came from filming.
Filming what?
We just filmed Chappelle's show.
I just did the Apollo, son.
I'm rich, bitch.
You don't know me?
I don't remember that.
It worked, though.
It worked.
You know who my daddy is?
If it's something to get my son or something, I always do it.
But Austin was funny because he was getting all these Happy Meals.
And one day he said, Daddy, I wasn't really happy with my Happy Meal today.
I'm like, what happened?
And he said, well, they didn't have any soul toys.
They switched the toy up.
He was not having that.
He was like, I want the soul toys.
And that was the end of his love for the Happy Meals.
He had to come up with something else.
Yep.
So what are we talking about on this show?
That's what we're talking about.
This is a show.
I don't know if anybody followed the show,
but this show literally is about nothing.
Seinfeld.
A podcast.
It's a Seinfeld podcast.
Somebody say, Donnell, are you going to have any notes or production?
Nope.
Just ask me a question.
Let me, let me, let me.
How many people are hearing the show for the first time,
seeing Donnell for the first time do his podcast?
Have you guys subscribed?
I think you guys should all go on your phone and subscribe right now.
You know what we could do?
No, we got to warn them first.
It's not this version.
It's better.
It's not this version.
There's no kids in the studio.
Y'all going to, hey, guys, come on, let's look at Donnell.
Whoa.
What just happened?
What does taking it in the face mean?
What was your inspiration for the podcast?
How did you two hook up?
How did you guys connect?
We met some years ago on a film in Los Gatos, North Carolina.
One of my friends was doing this movie about this car dealership.
Did you play my girlfriend or something?
I was supposed to be your girlfriend, but then the budget cut me out,
but I ended up being the makeup artist on the set anyways.
She will find a job.
She don't care.
I'm a bitch that finds a job.
Okay, I can't do that one, but you know what else?
I could do this, this, this, and this.
But the funny thing, when I first met her, we had like a dinner party.
Oh, here we go.
Are you always telling this story?
I always host events.
Food is my thing, right?
And we're like the only two black people in this film.
And she was like, I'm going to bring some.
I said, what are you going to bring?
She said, I'm going to bring some watermelon.
It made it even better.
You were walking by me, and we popped the trunk,
and the watermelons were dangling back and forth.
But I thought she was going to, like, I mean,
I'm not saying watermelon is a racist fruit, right?
But just don't show up with watermelon.
And it wasn't even cubed what made it it just don't show up with watermelon.
And it wasn't even cubed what made it real racist.
It was the whole watermelon.
And it had the rind.
I was like, oh, man, this don't look good.
At least cube it and put some toothpicks in it.
I was 23 years old, and I was doing my best.
I was doing my best.
That's all we could do. I told her, I said, you cannot bring this amount of watermelon around white people.
It's going to make them nervous.
They killed it, though.
Yeah, but they did destroy it.
They killed it.
I found out that white people love cubed watermelon.
Oh, yeah.
And fried chicken.
It's cubed watermelon, not on the rind.
It can't be the long, but the cubed, nice.
Yep.
So this was the first.
I think we're going to do this again.
I think it was success, not just with the River Run, but just what we did the entire week.
I'm walking down the street.
People are like, oh, it's the best feeling.
People got to get away.
Dawn B over there look like she needs some Bengay.
Take it off.
I mean, she needs Bengay and a babysitter.
In a minute.
For anybody, it just might be a good opportunity because I don't,
I never have the opportunity to do Q&A because I never have an audience.
But I'm pretty sure there's some people here that might have had a question
that they wanted to ask Donnell or might want to, I don't know.
Anyone want to say something for Q&A
everybody
you got a question Austin is still in rocks
he's going to go skip those later
Julia what's your question
my favorite color
is blue
is that yours too
my favorite food is one of Austin's is blue. Is that yours too?
My favorite food is,
my favorite food is one of Austin's favorite foods,
pupusas.
My favorite dinner is when you don't show up and give me a hard time.
All right, you booed me.
This is how disrespectful his family is.
Samson, this is how disrespectful your family is.
I remember this. I'm cooking family is. I remember this.
I'm cooking for them.
I'm making spaghetti, and I'm trying to get into the groove, music that I like.
This little girl looks me in my face and says, Donnell, your music is trash.
No.
Do you know what trash means?
She said trash and then followed with, you know, garbage, garbage.
It's awful.
We don't like your music selection.
And she was eating the spaghetti, not enjoying it, but going for seconds.
She had like a spaghetti mustache all over her face.
So I know you're hating on me.
You're not really hating on me.
That's just trying to show me some tough love.
All right.
Any other questions?
From the team.
There's one right here.
Where?
That lady in the back.
Guy, what's going on?
What's up?
I'm sorry, ma'am.
Yeah.
She's saying thank you for creating a great experience.
Why do you act like I can't hear her?
No.
They don't hear. The people watching can't hear? No, they don't hear.
The people watching can't hear.
Here in Yellow Springs?
His favorite performing experience.
I will share this one story.
It was maybe five years ago.
I was opening for Dave at the Hollywood Bowl.
Right? If you know the history
of the Hollywood Bowl, it's been around for years.
The capacity is 18,000.
Right? So I'm the opening
act, and I'm supposed to go
in at 7 o'clock. Jeff Wills,
who's the head of Live Nation Comedy,
he comes in to be kind of frantic.
He's like, Donnell, some good news and bad news.
He said, we're ready to start the show.
He said, but there's nobody out there.
He said, you can start at 7 or you can start at 5 after 7.
Now, the venue holds 18,000 people.
It's probably like 600 people,
so you can imagine what that looked like.
I'm like, it's not like 18, 18 000 people going to come in in five minutes so just give me the mic and let me go
and i jumped off the stage i was like there's no way i'm going to connect with this audience
if i'm far away i went out into the audience basically was having like a street performance
going to different pockets of people making them laugh And I felt like it was like one of those memorable sets.
But, you know, Dave locks up phones.
I'm like, you know what the worst thing about this?
Nobody can record it.
And it was like a moment where you would think
it would be the toughest situation.
Like, I had every reason to quit.
I could have been like, I don't want to do this.
I manned up, and I performed for 800
people in a room
or venue of
18,000, and to this day,
Dave says it's one of the best sets he's ever seen
a comedian do under the circumstance.
So
that was that story.
Then there was a time
where I was in front of 50,000,
but it was only two people in the audience.
When was that?
And Dave called me and said that was the greatest.
No, I'm just playing.
The one-upper.
No, but you know what?
As comics, I could say to Donnell, like, you know,
taking chances like that with your career,
it could be some of the best things,
some of the best moments that we've had,
whether it's Donnell, Bill Burr, even Chappelle,
sometimes it comes at a moment where it's the most
uncomfortable position for you to be in.
And that's a true testament to the comic he's become.
And all of this stuff has evolved to a point where, you know,
we've known each other for a long time.
And you've come and done a lot of different things.
I mean, I'm here because, you know, of our friendship.
But just coming here and being able to just kind of relax.
You're here because you had no work this weekend.
I did. No, I'm joking. I go to Aruba every year. No, able to just kind of relax. You're here because you didn't have no work this weekend. I did.
No, I'm joking.
I go to Aruba every year.
No, I'm just messing with you.
No, but this was 100 times better.
I'm upset I didn't bring my daughter with me because all the kids that are here
and all the enjoyment that they have and all the people who are actually just like
as a community watching everybody because, you know,
we were leaving the kids all over the place.
Dawn got two kids at the hotel now.
We got two kids manning the merch table right now, too.
Yeah, we put them to work.
But this has been a great thing, man, just having some fun.
The guys that are cooking, coming into the house.
Chef Dane, round of applause for Chef Dane.
Yeah.
That food was good.
You know you got good food when you can sell an Impossible Burger to an Ohio crew.
I saw somebody, they was Impossible Burger to an Ohio crew. I saw somebody.
They was getting ready to eat the burger.
I told them it was veggie.
They was like, it's nasty.
They already ate half the daggone burger.
But give them a round of applause for trying to give us some good stuff.
We're not trying to.
Doing a good job feeding everybody.
Hopefully everybody got the food.
It was great.
That was my first turkey rib.
Turkey rib.
Oh, I'm in love with the turkey ribs.
I discovered them in Columbus, Ohio. It's a company That was my first turkey rib. Oh, I'm in love with the turkey ribs. I discovered them
in Columbus, Ohio. It's a company called
Cook's Turkey Farm.
Anytime I'm here, I always go there.
Y'all support that if you're in Columbus. Are they real
turkey ribs? Yeah, it's a certain
part. I forget what it is. It's a certain
part of the turkey. Do turkeys have ribs?
I don't.
Or do they just make it over a bone?
I feel like you're like a a cop now just keep asking these questions
I gave you the only answer
I'm going to give you
thanks again Ted I really appreciate you
making this happen under the circumstances
of what we're going to do
everything was smooth
any other questions from people
from the audience
what is it
what you can look forward to with me is From the audience, what is it?
What you can look forward to with me is I do have a special that's going to come out soon.
I recorded a special maybe seven months ago for Netflix.
Dave Chappelle was the producer of it.
We had an air date and everything.
I was ready to go.
I was so excited.
March 17th was supposed to be the date.
And maybe literally two weeks before we were supposed to drop it,
we did the Netflix promotion, everything.
I'm about to go on stage, and Dave calls me, and he says,
Donnell, I want to do it again.
And I paused.
This is the first time I had a conversation with Dave.
He was like this, hello, hello.
He was like, are you there?
I was like, yeah, I'm here.
He said, D, trust me, I want to go again.
And I asked him, I said, how do I go from getting a standing ovation,
chest bumping, talking to the producers,
thinking we got it in the can, to you want to do it again?
He said, I've seen you do these jokes better.
He said, there was a lot of COVID-related material.
I'm being real.
It was a blow.
It was like, there's a lot of COVID stuff.
And when I thought about it, he said, Donnell, you could,
he said, I could put you in front of an audience,
and you rip any audience. He said, but that doesn't make it a great special he said if we want to get this we want to
get it right get it right you know and i was working and set out doing covid where i was
doing five minutes here i wasn't really working and set out wasn't happy about it and as time
went on and i started to work out, I started doing more consistent shows,
I'm like,
it's a good idea
that we waited. And my
mother would say this,
look at God.
Because
when I thought that one opportunity
wasn't there anymore,
I got a phone call a couple months ago
about being on Snoop Dogg's Netflix special. It's coming out June the 16th
So it gave me more time and built a relationship with Netflix. So I'm excited about that
But the most important thing I'm really excited about every day is being a
Best father I can be to my son over there.
Giving him experiences, giving him memories,
and also encouraging people that may not really be in touch with their kids like that,
may not be in touch with their son like that, may not be in touch with their son like that.
If you can use me as an example of how you want to move,
how you want to give your kid the best opportunity,
and I know sometimes relationships are strained where people don't get along.
But, man, I'm just saying, man.
It has nothing to do with the kids.
It has nothing to do with that.
But if you're an opportunity to be a positive figure,
a positive person in your kid's life,
this may sound weird to some people, like, yeah, it's called being a dad.
I just encourage people to, if they need to reconnect in relationships,
I just encourage you to do that.
Because it's going to be the most rewarding thing that you have experienced.
And that person is going to talk about you when you're no longer here.
There's one more question back there, too, with the blue shirt.
Where?
No more questions from white people.
Black people, stand up, please.
No, I'm just joking.
I'm going to tell you the best advice.
You're not going to be able to take it.
Don't ask for advice.
And I'll give you as an example.
Some years ago, there was a young comic that was under the same management as my manager,
so we do favors.
I let him open for me, right? And he came up to me. He said, Donnell, what one piece of advice would you give a young comic coming up that could help him? One piece of advice. I said,
don't ask for advice. Everything you're going to learn from this is going to be through the
microphone. Let them know there's going to be no answer other than you doing it. Let me tell you
this. I said, he said, what piece of advice?
I said, don't ask for advice.
Just do it.
A year later, same dude, same dream room comes up to me and says,
Donnell, do you have one piece of advice you could give a young guy?
I said, you don't listen to advice.
Already told you.
Get on stage.
You want to do it?
Have you ever done it?
Okay, I'm going to tell you this.
Don't make no excuses.
I can feel your energy, and you're preparing for it.
You've been writing jokes.
You've been studying it.
You've been doing everything to do it other than doing it.
Overthinking. Don't overthink. Just do it. Yeah doing it. Overthinking.
Don't overthink.
Just do it.
Yeah, and I'm going to tell you,
it's a nerve-wracking thing,
but I'm telling you,
you've got to get out the gate.
I've heard so many people so long,
like, yeah, I'm going to write this material,
and once I get ready,
you're never going to be ready.
It goes back to what I'm saying.
Every time you go on stage,
you have an experience
to deal with the next situation.
But if it's in you,
ladies and gentlemen, what's your
name? Ladies and
gentlemen, this is his first time.
Come on, Donald!
First time to the stage,
Donald of Yellow Springs
this is very awkward
he just answered his own question
if anybody knows anything that I do
I'll always encourage the next
generation and I do tell people
if you ever thought about it at least
try it one time not to say it's going to you ever thought about it at least try it one time
not to say it's going to be a career move but at least give it a shot because you don't want to
live with knowing that you didn't try thank you so much for this opportunity there's a lot more
people here than I thought there was um man I don't even know how to start this.
I got some COVID stuff.
It's pretty crazy to me.
You know, all these people have a government conspiracy, you know, tinfoil hat people.
I think the biggest conspiracy that no one's really talking about is how Walmart and Kroger, I think, started this conspiracy of COVID-19, you know?
They really got rid of those little kids' shopping carts real, real quick.
We haven't seen them back.
A whole generation of kids.
They ain't going to have that fun no more.
That's all I got.
All right.
It's relatable.
Thank you so much.
Where do you work?
I work at Honda.
Don't quit that job.
We tried.
A star is not born today.
No, I feel like his story was relatable because what really did happen to those little kid parts? I was thinking the same thing.
Yeah, that's good.
Yes.
No, I'm just joking, brother.
You just now, you're one step closer to answering all your questions for yourself.
And you can say the first time you stepped on stage is with who?
No, that was good.
But don't be like this.
Yo, I got to stand.
I open.
I got to stand in ovation.
He wanted to wrap me up.
I open for Donald Rawlings.
He called me up on Saturday and said, I need you, Donald.
No, you know how it's going to be?
He was like, it's yes or so now I'm on tour with him.
I take the pass.
You know, Dave sent the private jet for us, and we're just going to keep it going.
You got to embellish.
Again, I didn't know what to expect with this weekend,
but I knew I wanted to do something.
I knew I wanted to kind of make my mark and continue with
all the things this entire
community had
to offer. And I feel the same way.
Like Dave, for years, he used to
always try to get us to come here, right?
And we'd be like, man, we from the streets,
man. We ain't messing with no corny-ass Yellow Springs.
And we didn't know what
it was about this place that he enjoyed so much
until we actually started coming here.
And I feel the same way he felt to us, to anybody that came here for the first time.
Like, I want you to experience the place that gives me peace,
the place that gives me happiness.
This is really different because, like, this is the first podcast that I've done
where I'm swiping ants off you, flicking spiders off your back.
See, she's a city slicker.
Yeah.
You can tell she's a city slicker.
They show up to the woods wearing, like, Dracar and Pierre Cardin.
Like, we wear off around these parts.
You don't even buy cologne out here.
I'm telling you, when we were yellows, I'm telling you,
it was so cool when I first got here during the pandemic.
Just the simple stuff.
I never thought I would be excited about seeing a TJ Maxx.
And going there and go, I went shopping because we was here so long.
Nobody wanted to go home.
So if you saw the Chappelle team,
we all was swapping out each other merchandise.
Like Dave would have a Donnell hoodie, I have a Dave hoodie. And we was running out of clothes and we went shopping.
I gotta tell you this, I went shopping at TJ Maxx.
And I took two young ladies that worked with me shopping.
We was all out of clothes.
I spent $320 and had three shopping carts full with clothes with Yankee candles and sea salt blocks.
You know, that's all you get.
I had a pink Himalayan sea salt block for no apparent reason, but it was 1999.
Why do I get this?
Because TJ Maxx and Marshall, everything is 1999.
It is.
I need a lawnmower.
It's 1999.
Snicker Barton, 1999.
But going back, it was just a simple pace of that, man.
I had some shoes, some Tevas, and I had a phrase,
from the streets to the creeks, from the hoods to the woods,
from s'mores to oars. It was a more graphic
word, but I'm not going to say that.
Not horse.
You just said it.
Snitches get stitches.
You see?
Guys, it's been a long weekend.
It's been a long weekend.
But everything about this place makes me feel good.
Everything about how you guys showed up for me
and how I built a relationship, it wasn't just today.
It was like the last two years.
It was the last three years.
Working those cornfield shows together.
It was no better feeling like actually going to work at night
and seeing those long lines of those cars and the window being cracked
and people like hey Donnell ready for a good show and some people was critical
about what they considered the chance chances that we took but we took
chances on living life as normal as possible under the circumstances. People used to get mad at me.
Yeah, it must be nice
having rich friends, huh, Don L?
You're right, it is.
Feels great.
Always a good time.
Never say no. Feels good.
You can go to somebody's house and get COVID tested anytime
you want. I enjoyed
it.
And Dave got a whole nose test,
and he raped my nose for six months.
Every day.
Whap!
In my nose.
Whap!
And we had one tester.
I'm not saying that this dude was racist,
but I will say,
he was going into black noses a lot deeper
than them white noses.
Them white noses was leaving like this,
oh, he's a jolly good fellow.
Black people like, yo, I just think I got a concussion
in the back of my head.
Was he supposed to be in this part of my head?
But during that process, I met a lot of good friends.
It means a lot to me, man, when I see y'all having a good time.
People that supported me in my career. People that supported me in the things that I would like to do
and the things I would like to continue in Yellow Springs.
And if this becomes an annual thing, Ted, we started it. We started it here.
The best part about this is the efforts that people made.
Nobody complained about anything.
We always did help each other out.
It was like almost like the old school firefighters
where you used to fight fires with the buckets,
where it was like the whole town.
You had to keep passing.
If you guys haven't seen me, I don't know,
maybe you have, whipping around the passenger van. You had to keep passing. Because you guys haven't seen me. I don't know. Maybe you have.
Whipping around the passenger van, the big, long, white one.
I am an official driver.
Come on, dog.
I am the official driver for the Donnell Rawlings team.
I'm not lying.
Yeah, she just took that job.
That's how the team worked.
It was like, there's a job around here.
I'll take that.
She was good at it, too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Samson, I want to thank you.
Latoya, I want to thank you.
Elizabeth, where is she at?
She's not going to come up here.
Happy birthday to Elizabeth, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you to Heather.
Even though she changed, we call her Heatherwood because she's got this big,
fancy position now.
Christina over at the store.
Everybody, Vanessa, my whole family, Uncle Matt, my mom,
everybody was here, man.
Y'all don't understand, man.
This is a memory.
This is a memory.
We'll be able to look back and say,
remember that time we had Donnell Land Memorial Day
weekend and it was
perfect. 2022.
And remember when my brother tried to drown
my mother?
Remember that? Oh, I wish
I was there. I would have saved her. I'd be like, yeah, this is
what you get. I beg your pardon.
So did you, Charlie T. Drown? Mom
did that. Never going to live that
down. Mom tip over.
But hopefully this can turn into something big.
It was a good memory.
It was a great memory for me.
Man, I also got to go to Atlanta.
We got to continue work.
We got a 6 o'clock flight tomorrow.
And everybody's like, when are you going to get rest?
I don't know.
But I do know the feeling I have right now and what we did these last four or five days, I'll never forget it.
Yellow Springs, Ohio, period.
I want to thank y'all. This is the Donnie and Rollins show
live
from
Birchbark
Canoery. Thank you very
much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye.