By Jason Black   

Years ago, comedian Rodney Carrington made a list on a napkin of goals he wanted to accomplish: Perform in sold out theaters – check. Movies – check. Book – check. CDs – check. So, what’s the last goal on the napkin? 

“Quitting!” he says, with a smile on his face that almost makes the ultimatum believable.

When Rodney Carrington performs, few taboos are safe.

Not President Obama: “You guys voted for change, that’s all you’re going to have left when he’s done!” 

Not Tiger Woods: “Tiger should have just gone fishin’!”  

Not his wife: “You can’t slap a woman at Walgreen’s!” 

We didn’t say this was your father’s stand-up comedian.

Carrington’s fans can’t get enough, and, in this instance, braved the Christmas blizzard of 2009 to pack a local casino for three capacity performances. The laughs continued all night long as Carrington performed one of his signature shows consisting of 50 percent stand-up, 50 percent music, and 100 percent hilarity.

A Carrington performance follows a pattern. The first section of his act is pure stand-up, with jokes ranging from his marriage and the discipline of his offspring, conversations with, er, certain parts of his body, to bit after bit of self-deprecating punch lines. However, as one observes Carrington do what he does night after night, in cities and towns across America, they can catch a glimpse of a uniquely sincere individual, one whose Oklahoma charms are evident. 

Carrington turns to music, of a sort, for act two. Here he performs, in a clear, strong singing voice that would rival any current artist on the charts, a series of self-penned songs that go for the laughs, both cheap and expensive. These songs are not for the easily offended, and the terms “bawdy” and “ribald” describe them well. For the most part, they’re on YouTube and the audience, without shame, sings along.

It should be noted, however, that Carrington ends his music portion with a number called “If I’m the Only One,” along with a short film regarding adoption.

In the act’s third portion, Carrington recounts his forays into filmmaking, sharing with his groupies a winding story regarding a meeting with Toby Keith that led to the two of them making a film from Keith’s hit song, “Beer for My Horses.”

An abridged version begins with the two meeting during a charity golf event. 

“Tell me a joke,” Keith instructed. “Sing me a song,” Carrington responded. The two didn’t speak for the rest of the day.

Sometime later, they met again, and after a night of VIP treatment on the town, Keith pitched a movie idea to Carrington, inviting him to his ranch to work out the script.

What follows highlights Carrington’s wit and powers of embellishment … which, for the most part, can’t be printed here.

Carrington ends the show with his original song, “Show Them To Me,” in which he encourages the audience to, um, release their inhibitions. He exits to a standing ovation. Another satisfied crowd.

“I entertain people,” Carrington says. 

Carrington’s funny bone took flight while performing in the classic British farce, “Noises Off,” while in college in Kilgore, Texas.

“I kept ad libbing lines, much to the director’s chagrin,” he said. “I thought I would be an actor, but could never get the hang of not adding my own jokes.” 

With a desire to completely loose his inhibitions, Carrington took to the mike, and the rest is history. 

“I thought if I can do stand-up, I can do anything,” he said.

Upon this decision, the budding comedian went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he began to put together his act. Armed with only seven minutes worth of material, Carrington responded with a resounding “yes” when the club owner approached him to do 30.

Onstage all that week with one of the “Original Kings of Comedy,” Steve Harvey, Carrington remembers being encouraged by the veteran comedian. At the end of the week, Harvey put his arm around his opening act and said, “You’re going to be OK.”

His boss, however, didn’t share Harvey’s vision.

“At the end of the week, the club owner approached me to say, whatever I was doing before being a comedian, I should go back to,” he said. “After he gave me $400, I thought to myself, if I can get $400 for being bad, what could I make for being good?”

Five years later, Rodney returned to that same comedy club and was told by that same club owner, “You are the funniest comedian I’ve seen in my life.” Any comedian’s dream!

During his first five-year stretch, Rodney did more than improve his act; he improved his life off the stage as well. While performing at a Tulsa Holiday Inn for 11 people, he noticed a cocktail waitress and asked the bartender who she was. 

“That bartender said it was his girlfriend, so I left her alone,” he said.

Ironically, a few minutes later, the waitress’ twin sister walked in. Three months later, they were married. That was 16 years ago, and Carrington and his wife remained in Oklahoma, now residing and raising their family in the Tulsa area.

Over the years, Carrington has taken to heart early advice that he “network.” Radio seemed to be a natural fit, and he spent many hours appearing as a guest on local morning shows. One particular program was the number one rated “Rick and Brad Show” on KATT in Oklahoma City.

Rick Walker met Carrington during the 1990s when the budding comedian was the middle act at a comedy club in Oklahoma City. Walker thought he was so hysterical, that he asked Carrington if he would be on the show the next morning.

“Rodney’s a great guy, funny, drinks and has a hot wife – all the makings of a good buddy.” Walker says. “I saved his life from an unruly mob at a bar in Enid when we were on the Rick & Brad World Tour in the mid-1990s. He made some comment on stage, someone threw a bottle, and it turned into the cage fight scene from “Bruno.” I had to actually carry Rodney over my shoulder out the back of the bar, and we sped off into the night to where no one would find him until we could get him out of town. Actually, we went to Denny’s first, then sped off into the night.”

Larry Marks, owner of the Loony Bin Comedy Club in Oklahoma City, worked with Carrington in Little Rock, also in the mid- to late-1990s. Marks, who has booked countless comedians, admires Carrington for both his style and his business acumen.

“His merchandise sales were taking off so much at the time that I think he was making more on that than we were paying.” 

Around this time, Carrington also started appearing on the syndicated morning radio program “The Bob and Tom Show.” Carrington noticed that after he had been on, they would replay the comic bits he had previously done on the show. Sometimes it would be bits from his comedy, sometimes it would be funny songs that he had written. This led to a recording deal with Mercury records that has since produced albums of Carrington’s comedy and music.

After having so much success on stage and on CD, Carrington set his sights on television. The result, “Rodney,” ran for two seasons on ABC.

Carrington quickly learned that television, while potentially lucrative, offered a different set of problems than stand-up.

“Television kills your spirit – if fun and creativity drive you, then don’t do TV,” he said. “Writing an episode is like building a really great sandcastle and the network then kicking it over and telling you to do it again.”

With such versatile abilities, Carrington doesn’t want to be pigeonholed.

“I don’t want to limit my act to just stand-up or music. If I want to do it, I do it. Your environment dictates where your act is going.” 

In fact, Carrington’s latest release is strictly a Christmas album that includes an original song, “Camouflage and Christmas Lights,” a tribute to America’s troops.

“I knew I was never going to be Chris Rock. I knew I was never going to be Robin Williams. I just want to be the best me I can be.”

And we leave Rodney Carrington, knowing that he will continue to serve as Oklahoma’s comic ambassador, to both the uninitiated as well as rabid fans, in spots all over the world …

Check!