Rodney Carrington - Wichita Falls Times Record News

You might say Rodney Carrington, comedian, television star and movie star, is the Barbra Streisand of the com­edy world, though he probably wouldn’t say that.

Like Streisand, he has rocked the CD sales, with hot-selling comedy albums on the Billboard charts.

Like Streisand, he’s made movies â€" well, one movie, “Beer for My Horses.”

He sings. Like an angel, with a twang.

And he’s had his own television show, too, called “Rodney,” which ran for two seasons on ABC.

Now all that’s left to do is hit Broad­way and go for that Tony Award, not that Carrington has thought about Broadway quite yet.

He just wants to make people laugh.

After “Rodney” wrapped up pro­duction, Carrington said, “I high-tailed it outta there.”

He was more than happy to go back home to Tulsa, Okla., full time after splitting his time between there and Los Angeles.

“I was out there and going back and forth. For me, it’s quality of life ... I can make a decent living (here). Quality of life is everything ... Doing television takes so much away from you.”

So what’s the next step for Car­rington, who’s made a career out of telling sophomoric jokes about certain jiggly manly parts and certain jiggly female parts, about dancing with a guy he thought was a gal, and who has a CD actually titled “Morning Wood”?

“Quitting is the next step,” Car­rington said with a laugh. “Getting ready to quit is the next step.”

Actually, the next step for Car­rington is to bring his comedy show to Wichita Falls. He’ll be at Memorial Au­ditorium Thursday night doing what he does best.

“I have some things I’d like to do. I’m working on a comedy sketch show and want to present that,” he said. And he has enough material for a new album, something that takes awhile for him to put together. “It takes a couple of years to really build it to where it’s funny.”

Carrington said, “As I view things, I simply do things I think are fun.”

The comedian said he didn’t have the easiest time in school. English wasn’t fun. Math wasn’t fun, and so he said he just didn’t want to do those things. He just couldn’t seem to pay at­tention long enough. “I was a fairly shy kid growing up,” he said. “ ... I did have my fair share of trouble, but it was mischievous trou­ble.”

So Carrington started to try and find his own niche.

Unlike other comedians who say they had a funny dad or an uncle who was a preacher and had a way with words, Carrington said, “My parents weren’t funny at all.”

So his comedy skills seem to be something, he said, he just came up with on his own.

Carrington did find his way to Kilgore College in Texas, where he was involved in theater. Unlike English or math, that seemed to be something he liked to do. Soon he was in comedy clubs with his bud­dies watching the comedians sink or swim on stage.

He remembers thinking, “I know I’m funnier than THAT guy,” and ended up deciding that, yes, “I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do this.”

And so he started following the path most comedians do, which is to hone his skills at comedy clubs. Only, in the beginning, he wasn’t too savvy about scheduling his appearances. He would simply drive wherever the job was, sleeping and eating Cheerios in the car, getting paid and thinking that was the greatest thing.

“I thought, God, if a fella could do comedy â€" if I could do comedy â€" I could do anything.”

Carrington said after all these years of making people laugh, he no longer gets nervous before appearing before crowds. “Not now,” he said. “The ner­vousness comes with not knowing and being unprepared.”

Being on that stand-up stage seems to be where Carrington is most com­fortable.

Los Angeles, for him, was a crazy place. “It’s kind of a face without a heart. There’s not a whole lot there,” he said, and still has a lot of friends who still live in Los Angeles, dealing with the fast pace, the critics, just the whole Hollywood machine. “I don’t know how they do it ... how they sub­ject themselves to that.”

Living there hasn’t changed the way he does things much. He’s still the same slightly immature, funny guy his fans have come to love.

“My comedy itself hasn’t changed, but it’s changed from the standpoint of I’m older and I think differently.

“Some of that comedy evolved out of rough clubs, but my kids are now teenagers, and my marriage is 16 years strong.”

He said he seems to be capturing life’s little moments more in his rou­tines.

One thing he’s not capturing, so to speak, is Twitter and social network­ing technology. Yes, he has a Facebook page that he updates, but he definitely doesn’t like when people are physically there but mentally somewhere else as they’re plugged into their computers or video games.

“I think the Internet is a horrible thing. I don’t need access to every sin­gle thing. People are impatient. People are so preoccupied.”

He added, “There are days when my phone is NOT in my hand.”

Carrington these days just seems to be happy at home, away from the mad­ness that’s L.A., and spending quality time with his wife and children.

And, of course, he’s having fun just making everyone laugh, mischievous guy that he is.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.