The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Donnell Rawlings

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

The Commercial Break Podcast | EP#786: DONNELL'S LINKS: ⁠⁠⁠Watch A New Day on Netflix Follow him on Instagram Tour dates Watch EP #786 with Donnell Rawlings on YouTube! Text us or leave us a voicemail: [phone]TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tcbpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CREDITS: Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Green⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits: Written, Performed and Edited by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Because he had jungle fever Jungle fever is interracial dating. I had jungle fever before I had it for two years. I don't know where I caught it I'm sure it was Starbucks. It had to be Starbucks. I Just go to Starbucks every morning. I hide behind a plastic plant just waiting for them to come in with them lemon lulu yoga pants And them of boots and I used to wait for them to call a coffee order they They'd be like, double frappuccino for Amber? I'm like, aw. I had jungle fever so bad, I used to go hunting for white chicks.

I used to go to the farmer's market every Sunday. Six o'clock in the morning, I had the farmer's market outfit on. I had a baseball cap, I kept squeezing the brim, make it look like a hoody in a blowfish hat. I had a Bruce Springsteen t-shirt, cut off shorts. I had flip flops, Pilate ball under one arm. I had a yoga mat on the other arm.

I had a recycle bag made out of a recycle bag that was just recycled with a whole bunch of kale and gluten-free stuff. made out of a recycle bag that was just recycled with a whole bunch of kale and gluten-free stuff. White chicks love kale and gluten-free. A year ago, I didn't even know what gluten-free meant. This dude said gluten-free, I was like, how long was he locked up, dog? On this episode of the commercial break. You know, Jamaican guys, like, they sound very wise because of that accent.

I just got to admit it. They could say anything and it would sound like wisdom. I went to Jamaica once and there was a guy that was talking to me and I couldn't tell you half of the stuff that he was saying saying but I felt it was profound because of the way he was saying it yes whatever you're saying that's that is that is pretty wise yeah that's so funny because I used to have a bit about that I was like a Jamaican be like if one man put one burger on one bun with one piece of cheese. What do you have? You have a fucking cheeseburger, man. That's awesome. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh, yeah, cats

and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Kristen Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Kristen. Best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe.

Thanks for joining us on a TCB Infomercial Tuesday with Donnell Rawlings. I mean, a generational comic. A guy who only comes around once in a generation. He's got his body of work, isn't generation. He's got his body of work. His body and his body of work. His list and list and list and pages and pages. Actor, heckler, former Air Force police sergeant,

comics, stand-up comedy, all the things, the Chappelle show, The Wire, The Corner, which I never heard about until Chrissy started talking about, but we'll talk to him about that if we get into it. And stand up comic. He's currently out there on the road. He's got a brand new special links in the show notes. Donnell has been on the Chappelle show.

I'm rich, bitch. Yeah, that's his tagline. You all know it. Ashy Larry. Ashy Larry. Ashy Larry. He was Ashy Larry. He was all the thing. I mean, the guy is like, quite frankly, I'm a little, I got goosebumps that even Don-El even agreed to come on the commercial break. Clearly, this is a mistake and we better do it quickly before he changes his mind.

And we'll talk to Don-El about all of those things. Can't wait. I actually saw Don-El was with Joe List, Rory Scoville, Mark Normand, and that guy who plays Dr. Phil worse than I do. I play Dr. Phil much better than he does, but you know, he's made a whole- Adam? Adam Ray? Adam Ray?

Adam Ray Comedy, yep, Adam Ray Comedy on Instagram, if you wanna follow him. He's become Dr. Phil. He's had Dr. Phil on the Dr. Phil show. Yes, he has. That's funny. He plays Dr. Phil. He has a, you know, he puts on a bald cap and a mustache,

and he does a really good Dr. Phil impression. And he's become this character, and he's selling out theaters being Dr. Phil, essentially, the comic Dr. Phil, obviously. But he had Dr. Phil on the Dr. Phil show. Lots of other famous people have showed up. He is like an offshoot of Kill Tony. Want to ask Don-El about

Kill Tony because there was a dust-up online at some point about Kill Tony. We'll ask him about that. And what exactly the drama is there. We're not a drama show, but we should ask him, Chrissy. Yeah, we should scratch the edge. We should scratch the surface. We'll scratch the surface. We'll get into clickbait real quick, and then we'll dive out. We'll go in and then we'll get out. Yeah, real quick. But Don L Rawlings can be found online. He's got a huge body of work as Chrissy said on YouTube, on Netflix, on Hulu, on all these different places

because he's been in so many different shows, most notably the Chappelle show, but not too far below that, The Wire, which is one of the greatest television shows. I mean, on any critics list you look at at all, The Wire is either, if not number one, definitely in the top five. Rightfully so. So good.

Rightfully so. Such a good show. Yeah, if you haven't seen The Wire, you are 10 years too late to catch on to it when it was hot, but go watch it, because as Chrissy said, any... I actually watched it after it was already done. Me too, many years after it was done. I watched it during the pandemic. I think I did too. Yeah, like at the beginning of the pandemic, I started watching it, blew through it.

God, I know you're addicted right away. In like three months. Yeah, I was watching episodes and episodes per day because I just couldn't get away from this fascinating world that they had created. And Don-El was part of that. And I'm very interested to know how and why he got the part. And my understanding is that Don-El actually started in comedy because he was heckling people. And he became such a good heckler that they said,

you should be on stage, dude. If you're gonna heckle all the other comedians, why don't you try it yourself? And he did. And it took off. Yeah, and 30 years later, Don-El is a name not to be missed when he comes close to your town. So let's do this, let's take a break.

And then through the magic of tele-podcasting, Don-El Rawlings, legend Don-El Rawlings, right here on Little Old Commercial Break for your ear balls. Okay, sound good. Let's do it. All right, we'll be back. Why don't you text us and we can text back

and then you can text us in reply, then so on. It's a fun little game I've been playing and I think you'll be great at it. 212-433-3TCB, that's 212-433-3822. You could leave a message, too. If you do, maybe you'll end up being the voice of the show. But be warned, the pay is not great. You could go to the website and drop us an email, also, tcbpodcast.com. And while you're there, you can get a free sticker. Who doesn't want a free sticker? Just go to the Contact Us button and ask for one. Follow us on Insta at The Commercial Break and watch the episodes at

YouTube.com slash The Commercial Break. Now I'm going to go back to that texting game. You want to play? Come on. Bye. Hey, what's up, Flies? This is David Spade. Dana Carvey. Look, I know we never actually left, but I'll just say it. We are back with another season of Fly on the Wall. Every episode, including ones with guests, will now be on video. Every Thursday, you'll hear us and see us chatting with big name celebrities.

And every Monday, you're stuck with just me and Dana. We react to news, what's trending, viral clips. Follow and listen to Fly on the Wall, everywhere you get your podcasts. Mr. Rowling's here with us now. Don-El, thanks so much for being here today. Really appreciate it. You are a former military guy, right?

Yeah. Air Force? Yeah. So I have a question that's timely and topical. Okay. You are in Los Angeles right now. We're just talking about this. You, we have friends that are out there and our agents out there and they're largely noticing nothing because I think this, this kind of drama that's going on

with the national guard and the Marines is all happening in just a few pockets of Los Angeles, the not obviously not everybody's down in those pockets, but what's your take on if you were in the military and being deployed into the US cities? I'm thinking about like from a soldier's point of view, is it just like orders? Let me stop you. Let me speak for really quick.

I was in the military, but I wasn't patriotic, okay? That's my question. There you go. You know what I'm saying? Like I'll just put it, but I wasn't patriotic, okay? That's my question. There you go. You know what I'm saying? I'll just put it, I'll be honest. Black folks and white folks go in the military for two different reasons. You ask a white guy why you joined the military? To protect my country and its honor.

God damn! You ask a black guy, GI Bill College, I was on the basketball team. They told me I was going gonna be a general in three weeks and I was gonna have my own private jet. You know, when people come up to me, they're like, thank you, thank you for protecting me and keeping me safe. I gotta be honest, everybody's listens, I did my time.

If you would have expected me, future comedian, to protect you or keep you safe, you better off committing suicide because if I get shot, everybody around me is getting shot. I'm just telling you. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. I feel for the soldiers, man, because, you know, I got to imagine a lot of them are in the same mindset that you are.

I am here for a J-O-B to get a college education, to, you know, feed my family, whatever it is. I am not here for all the drama. And, you know, it's a great sacrifice that you make because essentially you say, hey, if we go to war, I'm going to put myself in front of a bullet. But I can't... Well, let me, I'm going to add to that. This is why I know I wouldn't have been able to save any lives. When I was in the military, I was stationed in Kungsan, Korea, right? And we had nuclear weapons on that building. So we have what they call exercise.

Exercise is when you practice if the base is going to come under attack, how you protect the base and everything. So it's like a simulated war. And this is why I know I wouldn't have been able to help anybody because every time we did an exercise, I died within the first of the war And the reason why I died because when you get when they shoot you they got the mouths get peeped your stuff go off so you gotta you gotta lay on the field and then they gotta simulate what would the uh, uh,

Response team do so they gotta actually come and take you off the field But when they take you off the field, you know what they take you? They take you to the basketball gymnasium. So needless to say, in all these war efforts, all the black guys were in the gym talking about money. And those white dudes had their face painted up like, be quiet, they're going to know where we are. Low crawl, low crawl. We was in there like, I got next, who got next?

You might want to talk to somebody else. I do respect what the military did for me as far as the transition from not exactly knowing what I want to do in my life, but I got to be honest, I'm not going to lie to anybody. I wasn't like, God bless America. You know, I was like, God bless this job. Right. Yeah, fair enough. You've been doing this a long time.

I saw a reel a couple of days ago. I was looking at your Instagram and I saw a reel where two dudes just started smashing each other in the fucking, um, in the, in the front row or like in the second row of, uh, you were at the improv. You know, what is going on? This is why you're first in the fucking, in the front row, or like in the second row of, you were at the improv. Why in the good shit was going on? This is why you're full of shit, okay? Is because out of all the videos,

I got videos of my son, and you just as guilty as everybody could do it. I got some stuff like this, oh my God, he's such a great dad. And guess what you asked me? What happened at your fucking show? They going crazy, bro. It's crazy, yeah.

Well, hey, I'll get you your son too, because I like what you have to say about being a parent. So. Well, I will say this. It was interesting because I was at Arlington Improv and I don't want to like throw any shade on the club. It just was one of those nights. I don't know how often it happens there.

But I was starting off my show. I'm usually like a firecracker right out the gate, bam, bam, bam. But for some reason I hadn't connected with the audience yet, right? So I kind of felt the room, it felt somewhat uneasy. And I saw a couple of people get up and I was getting ready to start roasting them.

I'm like this, all right, you can't get me to get my stuff together and next thing you know, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. It went crazy. together. And next thing you know, it went crazy. But, and I've seen some interesting stuff, but you know, even what I said, it was an opportunity I could have been like, guess who gets off work early today? Yeah, guess who's going home right now. Yeah. I'm like, you know, Chuck's going to be the same.

And then I kind of felt sorry because a situation like that for the club, because it's an opportunity for the audience just to leave without pairing their tabs. I'm in some similar situation like that where I was at a club and they had a blackout and I had to do 45 minutes in the dark with no microphone or anything. I told people to put their lights on their phone just so they could illuminate the room just so the club had an opportunity to make money. So I did that part.

But the first thing I did when it happened, I was like, what the hell is going on? Yeah. I'm thinking, what can you do? What do we need right now? And then I kind of drew from one of my favorite songs, Bill Withers, I started saying, some times in our lives. Yep. And then the funny thing about it was a group of women just jumped behind me on stage. I saw that, yeah. And I wanted to tell them, you do know that I'm not patriotic, right? Yeah, that's a good segue.

You're the last person to be patriotic. I'm like, you're going to die or at least go to the basketball gym with me. It was like, and then I had a decision to make. I was like, do I quit? But I manned through it and I did another 45 minutes afterwards over. Of course, some of the people left the show, but I was surprised that half of the audience still stayed and I got to finish my show. It wasn't exactly a show that I thought in my brain, but at the same time,

the interesting thing about comedy is the comedians that can adjust, you know what I mean, improvise and just keep it going. And that's what I did. Yeah. I was so happy for it. We were in Texas and Texas is definitely a gun carrying state. That was one thing that I was really nervous about because it was chaotic. And then there was a moment of silence. And then all I kept on was just bracing myself to hear, pow, pow, pow.

Yeah. That never happened. I got 600,000 likes, so I won. Yeah, I know. The real went crazy. Yeah, Georgia is one of those states too. It's an open carry state. And time after time, judges in this state have said, it doesn't matter what you put on the front door. It's an open carry state. Yeah. And time after time, judges in this state have said, it doesn't matter what you put on the front door.

You know, it's an open carry state. So you got to be careful. And I, you know, when we first had that law come out, I thought for sure, I do on occasion go to the grocery store and see someone with a holster. And that makes me a little bit nervous. But you know, that was what I thought when I saw the video first, I thought clearly there's poppin' comin'

because these guys went right at it. I mean, it was like came out of nowhere. It's interesting that you say that, being in an open carry state, because I grew up in metropolitan areas, like DC, New York, and whenever you saw a gun, you thought it was about to be a crime committee. It wasn't my right to bear arms.

It was just like, you got a gun, oh my God. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I grew up in Chicago. And so, I mean, we didn't see guns. That's not what we saw, but you come down here to Georgia, it's just a whole different angle.

It sounds like you grew up in a nice part of Chicago. I'm not gonna claim I grew up in Cabrini Green, Ron. I'm just not gonna tell you. I'm like, you said Chicago and haven't seen a gun? Oh, you're so privileged. Oh. Oh. Hey, you probably had both your parents, too.

You're so lucky. I had both my parents. For a while, I had both my parents. That's awesome. You've been doing this for a long time. And actually, when I see your face, I think I remember a I see your face, I think I remember a lot of your character,

like your acting work, as well as your comedic work too. You were in one of my favorite television shows. I know you get this all the time, The Wire. Tell us a little bit about the experience working on The Wire. It's so raw on television when it came television. It's such a good show. Yeah, it's so fucking fascinating. I'll tell you this. If you're a historian of David Simon, you would know that before The Wire,

there was a mini-series that won three Emmys. It was called The Corner. Charles Dutton directed that. It was a six-part mini-series, and that was written by David Simon. And it was a story about and that was written by David Simon. And it was a story about a family that was dealing with addiction and trials and the tribulations of being addicted. And that story was a very, very interesting story. And it was so successful that they wanted to do something else,

but they couldn't contain that story. And that's why The Wire was a spin-off of The Corner. And I had the opportunity to work on The Corner. I played a heroin addict, and it was interesting because I was a very, very young talent at the time. And when I did this audition, I clearly thought I bombed in the audition. There was nothing that you were gonna tell me

that gave me any indication that I would get this role to the point where when I first met David Simon, I had to ask him and I was already, I already booked it. I said, why me? Right, I was like, why me? I said, I swear I thought I bombed in that audition. And he said, we like the fact that you threw away the lines, right?

I didn't throw off the script, but he thought that that was a skill. That was me not being prepared. Because everybody that read the entire script and knew what was going on, I think most of them, knowing that it was a heroin addict, they played into the stereotype. So I'm sure everyone in the audition had the voice out, yeah, man. And they didn't want to see him like that. They wanted to see the human side of him. They wanted to see who he was on the corner, on the block,

making people laugh, how he interacted with family and everything. And I think me throwing the lines away, not intentional, but just by accident, it landed that role, which led me to get the role on The Wire. And the crazy thing, Robert Colesbury, he was one of the executive producers of the show.

When I got on set of The Wire, he said, you know, we were really, really considering you to play the role of Omar. Oh, wow. That was huge. Yeah. But they said, they wanted to save the role I played, Damian Price, they said, we thought it was something special about this role and we thought that you could bring something to this. And if you follow that show, you'll notice the first season, it was all about the towers.

But what happened was the Baltimore Tourism Board complained that every time there's a production in Baltimore, it depicts Baltimore has been a grimy, drug-infested neighborhood. And I'm like, have you walked through Baltimore? Oh, hi, yeah. Yeah. I mean, but they didn't want the flack of that. So what happened was they changed the storyline from The Towers, and then they went to the Docks.

And then when they went to the Docks, that's when my character got lost. Because if you really look at that show, you could tell that my character was going to do something crazy. First off, to go be a driver to Senator Clay Davis, to introduce myself to Lieutenant Daniels as Day-Date Price, and he's Lieutenant Daniels, and then to get caught with $30,000 in cash, get arrested, get released, you have to follow the money.

So that character was going to be, I was so excited about it because it was going to be the connection with the to follow the money. So that character was gonna be, I was so excited about it, because it was gonna be the connection with the politics and the streets. But once they changed the storyline, my character got lost. But David Simon was a real huge fan of mine. So he went above and beyond to create something

for me to come back and like in the series. And that's what my relationship with The Wire. I think he did a great job with The Wire. I, now that you're saying it, the story arc follows what you're saying, right? And I can understand. I can understand the pressure from the tourism board to say, hey, we'd like people to actually show up to our city. So if you could stop, you know, painting it in this light. And I bet, um, I bet the people involved in the production had to say to themselves, well, maybe we should turn it a little bit so that we have a friendly environment.

And then David Simon, I mean, it'd be one thing if you're a writer that's like from say like anywhere but Baltimore that has so much experience with police journalism. So he's really fond of the city. So I'm pretty sure his situation was, I don't want to do anything to disturb the great relationship that I've had in this city for like 40, 50 years. So we got to respect him for that. Yeah. You, you're a father, you've got a nine-year-old son. When you had your son, I always like to ask this question of comedians who have children, and especially younger children. Does that change the way that you look at, I always like to ask this question of comedians who have children, and especially younger children.

Does that change the way that you look at, I mean, it changes everything about your life being a father, I know that, but does it change the way you look at comedy in any way, shape or form? Does that affect the way the creative process for you or what you think about? Well, to answer your question, no, it didn't really affect my life that much because I've always been locked in with comedy. It's like the thing that like, it's just my everything. And I've always had a lens, I've always been focused.

But the lens when you have a kid and you have that sense of responsibility, it goes from a wide lens to a very, very fine tool lens. And you're not doing things. It's one thing to just be living for yourself, you know what I mean? So you don't have to be considered of too much anybody. You don't have to be considerate of yourself. But then when you got another human being that you're trying to make the best human you can, then you can, you know, some of the selfish things that you did, some of the things

that you had to consider, you know, it's just a different, the situation is like, I'm living for this guy now, so I got to be the best person I can be. Absolutely. It doesn't affect your comedy necessarily, but it affects the way that you see the world and you act and you're out there in the world. Did you have a good relationship with your father? Not really, not in a bad way. My father was, it's interesting because my father was a heroin king's pen in DC.

Oh really? Wow. Yeah. The funny thing was my parents were totally opposite. He was a heroin king pen and my mother was a social worker and they had the same clients. No. Oh my God. But it was like, he was in and out of prison.

He chose a lifestyle. He had a lot of kids. He chose a lifestyle that didn't give him the opportunity to, I want to say, spend as much time as he should have wanted to, but I don't have no regrets about the relationship that I had with my father, but I will say that that really made me want to like create every memory I could with my son. Like with the relationship I had with my father, I could probably, two handfuls of memories that I remember, important things. And I told myself, I don't want that relationship that I had with my son. That's why this kid gets all the opportunities.

I spend as much time as possible with him. I try to encourage him to be the best he can be. I mean, although me and his mom aren't together, we have a great, I guess tolerable co-parenting relationship. And I know it's kind of tough co-parenting at times, but the thing that I really respect about what we're doing with him, like the other day I went to go visit him, he was at his mom's house and he was like, dad, can you

come over in the morning? Because I want to have family breakfast with you and watch a movie. And when he says family, he doesn't separate me from his mom. And he knows family means us together. Wow. And then you and your ex or the mother of your child, you guys get together and do stuff like that? Oh yeah, I encourage it.

I don't know. I don't think, I mean, yeah. I'm really a person that strongly believes in that. And it was so funny because I can draw how I feel from a relationship I had years ago. I was dating this woman and her parents are separated when they were, she were like, like 10, her brother like 10 and 12. And as an adult, I knew her and her parents would always do stuff, go on trips and he would come over and cook dinner for them and me, I think food is a love language, right? always do stuff, go on trips and he would come over and cook dinner for them.

And me, I think food is a love language. Right. Fair enough. Yeah. If I'm cooking for you, I'm smashing. Yeah. I was like, I was like, oh, man, he's still hitting. He's still here. Uh-uh. That was that was the best jerk chicken I ever had in my life.

You know, right. And'm still hitting that, right? And then she was like, no, they're not. And it wasn't until I got in that situation and realized the importance of keeping that family structured together as most as possible, as best as possible. Yeah, I think that's really, I mean, I don't need to tell you, but I think that's really big of you. My parents, when they got divorced, that was it, see you later, sayonara. The only time they ever got together in the same room was for like super family functions, right?

Someone graduated or something like a marriage, a wedding. And they just don't tolerate each other in that way. They wouldn't. And I'm not gonna sit up here and act like it's been easy. Oh, I can't imagine, yeah. But I will say, and I do tolerate a lot, because I'm very, very good to her. I'm very good to her on the financial side.

I'm very good to her on being in my son's life. And like I say, it hasn't been easy. Sometimes I just want to look at him and say, boy, you owe me for this shit right here. Because I want to say, here's the money. See you fuck later. Yeah. And I think part of that is because I don't know if I would have had the same sentiment

if I was a young dad, you know, like in my early twenties or whatever. But I think that some of that is contribute to the fact that I had my son very, very late stage of my life. So I really respect what that is. And I also look at it like it's a blessing because I was already at the mindset that I wasn't going to have kids. I was like, and then most people, because psychologically you got to prepare yourself for that because it'll drive you crazy. And I was like, okay, most people in this situation, they decide they don't want to have kids for some reason, they can't have kids, then they bury themselves in their jobs, you know, they bury themselves in the relationship they have with their nieces and nephews, and

you can find yourself content in that. And I was ready to be content with that. But then when I found out that she was pregnant or anything, it was so overwhelming. I was like, oh my God, we really doing this. Yeah, we're really doing this. I had kids later on in life too. I'm an older father. And for a number of different reasons, I think that's a blessing. And there's some curse to it too. You know, when you're an older father, you don't have the energy you did and all that other good gravy. But at the end of the day, I'm fucking sure that these, I was such an asshat one of my 20s.

If I had, I can't imagine having kids. I was such a shithead out on the street, prowling like a stray cat. I know I'd have been like this, okay, diapers, bag of weed. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I would have been like, diapers, bag of blow, 12 pack of Bud Light.

I'll take the night shift, honey. You take the morning, no problem. I wanna try to make it as kid friendly as possible, right? Yeah, if you're letting your kids listen to this show, you're an idiot. I read somewhere that you were a heckler, like you're stepping into comedy. A professional heckler. That's what I heard. Well, it was interesting because you talk to some comedians, they always say, oh, when I was a kid, I knew I wanted to do this.

I had no idea if this is what I would be doing in my life. In fact, I was a military police officer in the Air Force, so I was waiting to be a DC police officer in Washington, DC. And I took a job in the interim. I was head of security for this grocery chain. I was like the head of rent a cops or whatever. And there was a guy who used to come to one of the stores I had supervised and he worked for Hostess Cupcake Company. He would stock the shelves. He was a comedian at night. He would give us free tickets to go to the comedy club. And I would go just as something to do with, you know, people I work with.

And I just started heckling the comedians. I started heckling them and I started becoming good at heckling. People started actually coming. They were like, yo, my chance, is that asshole going to be here tonight? You're part of the show. My part of the show. And then I started building the audience and I was so good at destroying those shows and bringing people to hear me heckle.

Then I went to the club owner and tried to get a door deal. You wanted to take a cut of the door if you were at the show? I was like, look, man, when I'm here, I increase your business by 30%. I went in and they was like, if you don't get the hell out of here, I increase your business by 30%. I went in. And they was like, if you don't get the hell out of here, what we will do is like, you think you're so bad. They didn't want, I'm sure that club did not want me to succeed. They wanted me to shut the fuck up.

Of course. But it didn't happen that way. And I'm being honest, the first time, and I think this was excitement of people coming week by week and wondering when this guy was going to take the next step, right? The first time I touched a microphone, I got a standing ovation. Wow. Oh, shit.

And I knew that this was going to be what I would be doing for the rest of my life. And I never, I mean, we talked to 30 plus years later, I never gave myself another option. I never looked for a job to offset bills. I was like, if you're broke, you're broke, you know, and I never gave myself a plan B. I think it worked out okay for you. Yeah. Yeah, your body of work is so long. It's not everybody's path, the path that I chose and how I did it. In fact, people come up to me and they ask for mentoring

advice and the first thing I say is like, if you're really serious about this business, first off, you have to be able to be happy being broke. If you can't find happiness in the struggle, then you're gonna be. We know all about that, Brian. Yeah, we know all about that. Yeah, and the other thing is, is that you,

you just said something I think is like a tidbit of wisdom if somebody is out there looking to be a stand-up comedian, a creative type, whatever it is, is if you give yourself other options, it's likely you'll get other options, right? It's likely you'll go other directions. You have to, there's that kind of this blind faith that you have to have almost.

I've met this, to making God, and he used to give me advice about certain things. And he said, Donnell, you know, the people say you don't burn bridges. He said, I say burn it down. That way, you know, you can't go back. You know, Jamaican guys, like they sound very wise because of that accent. I just got to admit it. They could say anything and it would sound like wisdom. I went to Jamaica once and there was a guy that was talking to me and I couldn't tell you half of the stuff that he was saying,

but I felt it was profound because of the way he was saying it. Yes. I was like, whatever you're saying. That's, that is, that is pretty wise. Yeah. That's so funny because I used to have a bit about that. I was like in Jamaica, it'd be like, if one man put one burger on one bun,

with one piece of cheese, what do you have? You have a fucking cheeseburger, man. That's awesome. Wow. Yeah, Chrissy is right too. You do have quite the body of work you have put together. What are some of your favorite sets that you've been on? I mean, it's so varied, anywhere from the Chappelle show,

which a lot of people know you from. I would say the wire in the corner, that relationship I had there, because I've never took an acting class or anything. So it was a student to everybody. Everybody was kind of helping me out. I didn't know what I was doing. And I wasn't ashamed to say I didn't know what I was doing and people helped me out.

I think in Chappelle's show was another one that show never felt like I was doing work. In fact, what people don't know is I wasn't really on the show a lot, but when I was on the show, I was on the show. Yeah. And it was times that I used to have so much fun on set, even on my days off, I would go to the set just to hang out. I love it. For a couple of reasons, I was like, didn't have a lot of money at the time. I was like, I get free food, right?

I get to hang out with my boys. And then there was a strong chance that, and this happened on so many sketches, that Dave and Neil would just say, hey, you want to get some of this. And that's a lot of the roles that I got. It was just because me being there and me like just being in the presence and giving myself an opportunity. But one of the things that I really, really appreciate that I'm glad that was under my belt

was being in the Pixar's movie Soul. Oh man, it's one of our family's favorite movies. My son, because my son didn't have respect for Chappelle, Show the Wire, he didn't give a fuck about none of that, right? But the minute I was on Soul, and the thing about it was, Soul, the year Soul came,

it was supposed to come out that summer, the pandemic hit. That's right. So they sent us screeners to watch. And this was before they did any promotion of it. And I had a little watch party for my son and his friends, and they could care less about that movie. And this was ruined in that situation for me because I ordered McDonald's Happy Meal for all the

kids, and they got delivered right when my scene was coming out. Yes. Yes. It's over. It's game over. Happy meal. But the power of marketing, but once they started talking about soul, YouTube and McDonald's and everything, now it's like my dad is in that movie. So to get his approval and him, just the other day he asked me, what was my favorite voice actors? And I told him Eddie Murphy, I named a couple of people. And I asked him, I haven't been in a lot of stuff. And I was like, who are your favorite voice actors? And he said, you number one, then he said Jack Black and other thing.

That made me feel good. The fact that he could go to school and brag and everything and feel good about it, that was a great moment. But I look at my careers, everything moves the dial. And I've done a lot, everything moves the dial. And I've done a lot of stuff, I forget. I was hanging out with Chappelle a couple of weeks ago. He said, Donna, I don't know if you understand,

every black show that resonated with pop culture, there was a hit, you've been on it. Interesting. Like the last 30 years, like every one. I don't look at that because I don't look at my resume. I don't look at anything like that because I just feel good that I found my God-given talent and I was able to do something with it. I don't connect with fame. I don't connect with celebrity. I don't abuse fame or celebrity. The only time I would abuse fame or celebrity. I don't abuse fame or celebrity.

The only time I would abuse fame or celebrity if I'm at Disneyland or something and I don't want to stand in that man. There you go. Pull out the card. It's for my son. I'm like, ahem, ahem, ahem. You know, but that's the only thing.

The only time I would use my celebrity for anything if it can help my son out. Yeah, and as a matter of fact, I'm going to Disney World in a couple of weeks and I'm gonna use your fame to get me on the rides. I'm gonna say, I know Donnell, you know, Soul is one of those movies, if I'm not mistaken, one of the first movies or the first movie

premiered on when Disney Plus came out. Am I right about that? Yeah, because the theaters were closed. Yeah, the theaters were closed. And I remember watching that with my then young son. And we watched that on a loop for weeks. We loved that movie. And it some of the first questions about life in general, life and death and all that came from that movie. And yeah, that was that was a big movie for our family. And we still watch it on occasion here.

How did you meet Chappelle? Like, how did you get involved in the Chappelle show? I'm not sure I've ever heard the story. Well, we knew each other because we're both from Washington, DC. And then Ben from that city is a great town for comedy. Like, if it was someone before you, which Dave was, I'm older than him, but he was before me, you kind of followed their career because you asked yourself, what did they do to leave? The first sign of making this business is leaving your hometown. It's not like that today because you can be successful making yourself famous anywhere now. But back then it was like, all right,

he's serious. He moved to New York or LA. That was just it. It wasn't Atlanta, it wasn't no Austin, Texas. It was none of that. So I knew of him from being the DC guy who was making it. And he shared this story on my 50th birthday. Someone asked him, how did you and Danielle meet? And Dave said, you know, I'll tell you how. He said, I was popping. I was getting money and I was New York and I would go back for the holidays and I

would ask who's the guys that's really doing something. And it was always the regular names that he heard year after year. He said, but then they were like, but there's this one guy named Donnel Rollins that's whew. And Dave being the competitive spirit of the years when they told him that he said, fuck Don L Rawlins. The funniest thing was, I had said that about him. I said, who from DC is really killing it because I want to go through their neck. And they said, hey, what about him? He's young, he's smart, so and so. And I said the same thing, fuck

David Chappelle. So we knew of each other from our reputation and what we did to DC. And then that just was one thing about, you know, when you go to New York, like if you're coming from DC, it wasn't too many of us. It was like you just had a connection because, oh, that's the dude we from so and so, let's pop it. That led to him, me being on the radar of a funny guy. But it was a relationship that I had with Neil Brennan. He really landed me the job on the show because Neil and Dave had wrote the movie Half Baked and it's a cult favorite and Neil got some writing gigs.

He wrote like three other movies that he got paid for, but the movies weren't getting the green light, so they were just being canned. So he thought that maybe he would try his foot in directing. He never directed anything, but he wrote just one short film. It was only one person and direct him. He never directed anything, but he wrote just one, uh, this short film was only one person, another person. And he reached out to my manager. He's like, man, I really liked Daniel. You think he would do this for me? And I did it. And that was already doing a corner and some other stuff. Yeah. And I said, man,

I know you can't afford to pay me. I said, if you ever in a situation where you could toss them your bone, do it. And that bone was tossed as the Chappelle show like three months after that. Wow. Look at that. What a bone. What a bone. Yeah, we had Neil on the show and we heard the story about the early kind of blossoming of the whole Chappelle show. It's a fascinating story in and of itself. Yeah, I agree. I will, as much as Dave is the star of the show

and you don't have a show without a star and as much support he gave me, I can't thank Neil enough because if it wasn't for him cosigning and really pushing for me to be on the show, you know, there would be no Ashleary, there'd be no Beautiful, there'd be none of that. Yeah. All right, so you're on the road still today. I mean, I gotta imagine for almost all the comics

that we talked to, with maybe the exception of a few who are doing less now because they can, but I gotta imagine that this is in your blood. You like traveling, you like doing the road, you like being out there cutting your teeth and finding new material. I do, but you know, I will say that it's been more difficult because of me having a young son.

Yeah. The road isn't as appealing as it used to be, but you know, it's probably like 70 to 75% of my bread and butter, so there's no way for me to get around it. But I continue to try to make steps where I don't have to have such a vigorous schedule where I'm trying to position myself where I could get to that point where I can just go tour for three months and be good for the rest of the year. Yeah.

Well, you do the podcast too, right? That's how funny you said that because when I was on Rogan's podcast some years ago, I said, I think I need to reinvent myself or just reintroduce myself to Hollywood. I need to make money in Hollywood so I can be here more. And he was like, just start a podcast. And I was like, ain't no damn money, no podcast. And then I Googled his network. I was like, so, podcast.

Yeah. But one thing about it, anybody tell you what a podcast, the number one thing you gotta do, the consistency of it, you know, I was super, super aggressive with it during the pandemic because I didn't have too many options, but once the world started opening up where I could go out and get my normal money,

I probably didn't put as much interest in it as I should. But the other day, one of my internet dudes or graph, whatever you want to call him, he was like, you got to update your W9. You got some money waiting in Facebook, right? And I looked at it, I was like, how did we do that? Right? I was like, it was a nice amount.

I was like, we need to do more of that. Yeah. Yes. That's it. That's the thing is that it's largely about content creation. And once you create the content, it can just keep on turning and burning. And a lot of these platforms are automated.

They make the money for you. They find the sponsors. They take a good cut of it. But you're so prolific. And you've done so much that if you just keep on putting, repurposing that content, you get, the thing that I like about what we're doing and you have done this for the last 30 years

is that you've got a library of content, right? Digital, audio, TV, whatever it is, that library can continue to be repurposed and re-cached in over and over and over again. Look at Rogan, he's got 4,000 episodes, 1,500 episodes, whatever it is, he can just keep on turning and burning that catalog. He could retire tomorrow and people would continue to buy that like it was Seinfeld on repeats. But that's why it goes to like what we're talking about in regard to how important college is to be. And for that,

you got a person like me, there's an older guy that might not be as nice as that, but that's going to be a job. There's going to be a guy like this. You know what? Hire me. I'm going to do the scrubbing. I'll find it all. I'll set it up. And it's, it's right there, but it's like, who's going to dial in? Yeah. There are whole agencies that do this. I mean, you know, I'm happy to discuss that with you. I don't want to bore the audience.

But there are whole agencies that do this for you. They take a cut of the revenue, but they go out and they do that. They find the good material. They put it out there for you. You know, video production companies, social agencies that will do this. And with a huge library of content like you have, you know, you just keep filming yourself when you go to these stand-ups

and you'll be doing this forever and ever. Podcasting is a game of consistency, it really is. We are not that good at what we do on any given day, but we have, you know, almost a thousand episodes. So for us, it's like we have an advantage in the sense that we just keep on doing it. Blind faith, Donnell. Like the Jamaican guy said, we burn bridges a long time ago. We're stuck. I mean, I see people like yourself and other guys, other guys and gals, women, them, they, those. Put the focus on it. It's something that

lately I've been getting back on it, but it's something that I know that I have to do because it's just right there. And it's like what they call it, it's mailbox money. Yeah. Oh, mailbox money. That's what it is. It's mailbox money. I saw you were out in Indianapolis with Dr. Phil, the Dr. Phil, and Rory Scoville, Joe List, and you guys, did you guys do a show over the weekend? Yeah, we did. It was my first time doing Dr. Phil Adam Carolla. I've been knowing

Adam Carolla for years. I'm really super excited that he's found a lick, if you want to say, that's really doing well for him. And he's been a fan of mine for years. And I went to go see his show some time ago. Teddy Swings was one of the guests, and I wanted to go hang out with Teddy. And he just happened to be on Adam's show. And I was like, Adam, you got to give me a date. And he got the date, and we did it. And I had a little reservation, because that character was a spin-off of Kill Tony.

Ah. Ah. And then for some of off of Kill Tony. Ah. Right. And then for some reason, sometimes Kill Tony, they're not huge fans of mine. What happened with Kill Tony? Well, you know, there was some like dust up at some point or something. It was like, you know, everything is, I'm gonna tell you, the biggest person with a podcast is your producer, how they edit clips. That's right. And I was, I was doing one of the shows in Austin, Texas.

And this was a time during the pandemic when nobody wanted to do Kill Tony. They were afraid of getting COVID and I had just happened to be there. It was like, yo, I need you when you come on the show. And I did him a favor. I said, I'm not gonna be here too much longer. Too long.

I was on the show for two hours, started getting a little buzz. I had some prior shit that I had to do. And I got into a situation with one of the comedians and they edited this video, this clip that went viral and they made it look like the guy was roasting me and I walked off and stormed off. They did make it look like that. For sure. For sure. No doubt about it. And then those fans are so whatever they are. are. Yeah, yeah, I got it. And I've been on different platforms, tried to explain what happened. Nobody believed me, but I was, I'm not going to waste my time and energy trying to, you know,

prove to these guys who I am, you know, as much as they want to say, I'm the walk off guy. But if you go through the bank and they got up thousands of shows of Killton, you ask them how many times anybody's ever got to stand in an Ovation I show and I was one of them when I just went there with Lucas on it. But I look at like you have people that are trolls, it doesn't matter what you do, you won't win them over. But at the end of the day, engagement is engagement. And whenever I'm on those shows or I'm a part of them, that's what happens. Yeah, man.

That's the dangerous part about content creation, right, is that if you're in the game of telling it like it is, then you show it how it was. If you're in the game of clickbait, then you show it how you want it to be. And so, or what would- Most people aren't into how you want it to be, but how you want it to be is doing way better than,

I dabble, I mean, I have so many stories about Hollywood and relationships I had with people and stuff that I could just go on any platform and just start airing shit out and go crazy. But my morals and my integrity won't let me do that. Ours either, sometimes to our detriment, we just won't do the click bait. We're not gonna twist people's words.

It is what it is and we'll show it in full and if it was boring, well then move on words. You know, it is what it is and we'll show it in full and if it was boring well then you know move on to the next thing. That's that is what it is. But no one can say that about Don-El Rawlings. And listen also when you have a show that is completely based on that roast factor then your audience is gonna be yeah they're gonna be Lions and Tigers also right? They're primed for that. That's what they do. But that's why I don't like everybody. I don't, I don't do them because it's easy for you to say,

oh man, these are just jokes. Yeah, but they hurt. They do. Yes. And a punch in the face hurts too. So let's just avoid all that. I try to stay away from stuff that don't fit what I do. I agree.

I like your initial, my initial reason for being on that show is what, you know, I mean, I consider Tony Hinchcliffe a friend. So it is what it is. It is what it is. All right. Well, listen, Don L has a brand new special. He's got the podcast. He's on the road.

Social medias. It's all in the links below. Don L, do you ever come to Atlanta? Are you on Atlanta? Are you coming to Atlanta on this tour? Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure it's in the fall. I love Atlanta.

I used to love this club. It's a small club, but I used to have, it had so much history with them. It's called the Laughing Skull. Oh yeah, of course. I love that one. That's where we are. We're in Atlanta.

We're in Atlanta, yeah. Yeah, I'm always up through there. I think, I don't know. If you go to my website, Don-ElRollins.com, I think I'm coming to the Atlanta Comedy Theater in like the next two or three months. Always do well down there, and I love the people of Atlanta and I've got some good friends there.

If you come down to Atlanta, and we'll, I mean, we don't have to decide this now, I'm just throwing this off rather. If you come to Atlanta, we have a studio where we, where we would love to see you in person. So if you come, you let us, you let us know when you're coming and then we'd love to invite you for 30, 45 if you come, you let us know when you're coming and then we'd love to invite you for 30, 45 minutes.

And promote the show. And promote the show. Sure, I'll definitely, it'll be on my list of things I have to hit. Okay, that's great. Don L. Rawlings, all this stuff in the show notes, such a pleasure to see you. We hope to see you again, maybe in person

in a couple months. I'm rich, bitch! Woo, you did it! We didn't even have to ask. We didn't even have to ask. All right, that's going on the promo reel. Yes. Don L. Rawlings, you did it. We didn't even have to ask. We didn't even have to ask. All right, that's going on the promo reel. Yes. I know.

Donal Rollins, thanks so much. We appreciate it. Thank you. You make this rather snappy, won't you? I have some very heavy picking to do before 10 o'clock. Hi, cats and kittens. Rachel here. Do you ever get the urge to speak endlessly into the void, like Brian?

Well, I've got just the place for you to do that. 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Feel free to call and yell all you want. Tell Brian I need a race. Compliment Chrissy's innate ability to put up with all his shenanigans. Or tell us a little story. The juicier the better, by the way. We'd love to hear your voice because Lord knows we're done listening to ourselves. Also, give us a follow on your favorite socials at The Commercial Break on Insta, TCB Podcast on TikTok. And for those of you who like to watch, oh, that came out wrong, we put all the episodes out on video, youtube.com slash The Commercial Break, and tcbpodcast.com

for all the info on the show, your free free sticker or just to see how pretty we look. Okay, I gotta go now. I've got a date with my dog. No, seriously, Axel needs food. Today is pork chop day. Well, Mr. Donnell Rawlings. Wow. What more could you ask for?

He talked about it all. He didn't get in the Air Force to save your ass. He got in the Air Force to save his ass. And you know what? Who could blame him? I know. They've been doing that since Vietnam, you know? I agree with them to some degree. It's like, you know, I'm here for the benefits. I'm here for the cruise package, kids. That's what I'm here for here for so but thank you for his service anyway even if he wasn't in it to save my life still got more balls than I do that's all I gotta say so thank you to all the men and women who serve. I love how the woman ran behind him on the stage. Oh yeah did you see the video? Yeah. Watch the video

it's crazy it's online about the two guys who got into a fight at his show recently. I think it's from June 2nd or 3rd he posted it. And then there's a follow-up video that shows the aftermath where there's not only a couple women on stage, a couple men ran behind him too. But who could blame them? In this day and age, I mean, you never know what's going to happen. So, Don-El, the hero we never know we needed and he didn't want to be. There you go. How's that? Don-El Rawlings, all the pertinent links are in the show notes. Check out his new special. I might reach out to Don-El and explain to him how he needs to take that body of work that he has and start

putting it out there for public consumption. Yes. You can't hide that away. He's gotta get, gotta get hip with the kids. Public consumption. Yes, you can't hide that away. It's got to get got to get hip with the kids And speaking of kids he sounds like a good father Oh, yeah, so you always applaud a good father fathers need to be good. That's what we need to do We need to be good take care of our kids. That's right. You do a great job, too Well, thank you. I try I just goof around with them. That's all I really do You're the fun one Anyway I just goof around with them, that's all I really do. You're the fun one. I am the fun one. Anyway, TCB, how did you get ahold of us? TCBpodcast.com, that's our website.

All the comings and goings of Chrissy and I, as well as your free sticker. It's free to you for now. We may not do this forever, because we learned our lesson by getting some coupon site out there, put our website, and said free stickers here. And guess what? Thousands of people asked for stickers.

So we had to do a little quiz to make sure they were TCB fans. Anyway, 212-433-3TCB, 212-433-3822, text us questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas at the commercial break on YouTube, I mean at the commercial break on Instagram and YouTube.com slash the commercial break for all the episodes on video. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now.

I think so. I'll tell you that I love you. And I love you. I'll say best to you. Best to you. And best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say, would you say, and we must say,

Goodbye. and we must say, goodbye! I'm a He