Host, "Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes"
"You've seen Donnell Rawlings on the award-winning and critically celebrated "Chappelle's Show" as "Ashy Larry," the 70's jheri-curled "Beautiful" and numerous other characters. Rawlings is the franchise-player whom Dave Chappelle and co-writer Neal Brennan wanted as a writer and prime time player on their team." Bio Courtesy of Comedy Central
S1: Yeah, yeah, yeah what’s going on my peoples!!! You know who this is, this is S1 the mother fucking man…Legacy Magazine, Legacy Radio, legacymag.net…And today listen man I got a brother that’s going to make ya’ll laugh for days on end…I got my man Dinnel Rawlings, what’s poppin with you Dinnell? How you feeling baby?
AL: I’m chillin but I never heard my name pronounced like that, Dinnell, it sounds like I’m from Europe or some shit…
S1: Alright so you gotta go ahead and pronounce it for us…
AL: It’s Donnell!!! It’s the southern country version…Donnell!!!
S1: Donnell oh okay and for the catz that don’t know who he is if you haven’t already recognized his voice I got my boy Ashy Larry from the David Chappelle Show…But again DONNELL!!! Rawlings you know what I’m saying…So how you feeling today? Talk to us…
AL: I feel good man, I feel good…I’m excited about my life, I’m excited about my career and I’m excited about this interview!!!
S1: Alright that’s definitely wassup…Okay you got a lot I was going over your resume and I’ve definitely seen you on TV and on the David Chappelle Show and the Riki Lake Show and stuff like that so I was aware of some of your work but I didn’t realize how extensive the body of your work is…Lets go back to D.C. and start off with the official heckler, a name that I’m assuming you carried with pride and helped you start off in the comedy business…Talk to us about that, those early days…
AL: Well when I first I really didn’t know I was going to do comedy but I knew I liked going to comedy clubs cause I was a heckler and I used to like dog comedians…So this one club owner wanted me to shut up so he challenged me to go up on stage cause he thought that would shut me up, it didn’t work, I ripped it and it’s been jokes ever since…
S1: Alright that’s definitely wassup…Now where did you develop your style? Are you a natural comedian or was it something that you developed as a self defense mechanism?
AL: Well it was definitely…In high school where I grew up when I graduated I was 112lbs 5’4 so the only way I could defend myself was through jokes…So I used to rip dudes, I used to rip dudes all the time and they wanted to be my friend and try and do a peace treaty but I was like fuck that let’s do it but it was comedy that kept them from whooping my ass…
S1: Alright…Now you’ve been busy for the last couple of years…You got your own radio show right? 105.1 New York City talk to us about that dawg…
AL: Well it was something like they had a morning show that was doing well but for whatever reason they weren’t there anymore so I was like yo let me take advantage of it…So its been Egypt and Ashy for like the last 6 months…It’s a good opportunity for the people of New York to see what I do like every morning from 6 to 10 a.m….
S1: Alright that’s definitely wassup…One of the questions that I wanna ask you, and again a good portion of our readers probably recognize you as Ashy Larry from the David Chappelle Show…
AL: That’s old I’m formerly known as Ashy Larry, I’m changing right now, so it’s Ashford Lawrence…I would rather be known as Ashford Lawrence…
S1: LOL…Mr. Lawrence talk to us about the development of that character…How did you infuse that into the David Chappelle Show?
AL: Well Dave had the Larry down and when I started breaking down the character I saw that he wore boxers, I started hearing he only wore shoes and boxers…I remember when I was young I used to shoot dice and my mother used to know that I shot dice cause my knees would be ashy…So when I got the break down I was like yo I’m gonna make this dude ashy I wanna write how much money people owe me on the side of my leg…So Dave had the Larry and I threw the ash on him and that’s how Ashy Larry was born…
S1: Alright that’s definitely wassup!!! Now talk to us about that dynamic working with Dave and Charlie Murphy, I mean it was a great show…
AL: It was good we was like the Curb Your Enthusiasm of comedy we had a like group thing everyday because Dave liked to change things up…So like everyday we came in with a blueprint but we had an opportunity to do what we do and the only I can get away with some of the stuff I did was because it was funny and Dave embraced it he wasn’t like you know do it my way he was like do your thing and bring what you can bring to the table…
S1: Alright…Now when David decided to leave the show it looked like you tried to hold the strings together and maintain the ship afloat, how was it for you in that little scenario?
AL: It was weird because I didn’t know what the reception was gonna be because people love Dave, I love Dave you know…
S1: No doubt…
AL: But we also knew that we had fan base that wanted to see stuff that we had done and before Dave took off we had at least a quarter of the shows already taped…So Comedy Central had to make the decision do we leave this in a hard cap or do we give the people what they want and the obvious choice in that case would be me and Charlie Murphy…You know a lot of people gave us flax, it was like how could you do that, Dave didn’t want to do it…Dave never expressed to us like exactly what his direction was, so I felt like I had to do what I had to do and my thing was to present these sketches in a respectful way and not disrespect Dave, nobody tried to takeover the show…the only thing we wanted to do was present the sketches that we had already taped…
S1: Alright that’s definitely wassup…And honestly the majority of us really do appreciate that you went ahead and did that…His show was banging thanks to catz like yourself…Now I understand that you were a former military man?
AL: Yes Air Force I was a military police officer…I was the only guy that was a cop in the military in four years I only made one arrest!!!
S1: So what are you currently working on right now?
AL: I mean you know I did the Chappelle Show I still going through the auditioning process there’s a couple of films and me and Charlie Murphy did a show for Comedy Central and Comedy Central decided that they didn’t want to air it but it’s a deal right now where we trying to shop it to other networks and see who feels excited about Donnell and Charlie in some type of capacity…
S1: Alright, alright…I got a feeling that’s gonna be received well it make take a lil bit of time but I’m sure it’s a quality product…Again Donnell Rawlings we appreciate the time you took to do the interview with us here at Legacy Magazine…But listen man any words of advice for young comedians trying to break into the game?
AL: Stay focused the only way you get good at comedy is that you keep doing it!!
S1: Any last things you want to throw out there?
AL: Yeah the last thing I wanna say is Dave!! Come back!! I’m broke beyootch!!!!
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