Veteran comedian Donnell Rawlings has made headlines after he clapped back at another comedian, Corey Holcomb, over a joke about Dave Chapelle.
During a recent set at Los Angeles’ Laugh Factory, the Chicago funnyman, who recently was under fire for publicly bashing his daughter, described Rawlings’ comedy as “mild” and said his close friend was not funny.
No one in the audience was laughing on Sunday, Feb. 18, when Rawlings took offense to Holcomb, 55, using him and Chappelle in his stand-up routine.
Already done with his set, Rawlings was sitting in the audience to listen to his former “Wild ‘N Out” co-star’s performance. It seemed that Holcomb either freestyled his set after watching Rawlings or purposely crafted his act to target his colleague.
Holcomb previously has said Chappelle is not funny, particularly after Katt Williams raised his name during his Shannon Sharpe “Club Shay Shay” interview.
After not being able to take the gibes anymore, the “Chapelle Show” alumnus stood up and blasted Holcomb — objecting to a variety of points Holcomb raised, including that Rawlings had to perform a sexual act to get into movies and his comedy is “mild.”
Holcomb had alleged that any comedian with three or more films has had to do intimate favors to be cast. This claim Rawlings appeared to shut down immediately.
“You mild soft, my n—ga. M-I-L-D. You ketchup. You ain’t hot sauce,” Holcomb said, receiving a muted response from the audience.
“Nobody agree? So, I am wrong. OK. I can be wrong. But we at the … what’s this called, the Laugh Factory? N—ga, if we were at the Savoy you wouldn’t be able to be up here that long. They would be like sit ya h— a— down,” Holcomb taunted.
Rawlings rebutted, “I came up in the hardest rooms in Brooklyn and you ain’t never f—k with them rooms.”
Holcomb appears to gaslight Rawlings in the video, saying he was “yelling” and suggesting he “calm down.”
Refusing to take the bait, Rawlings said that he didn’t have the mic and would be willing to talk but that his reputation as a street comic was official: “N—gas know how I get down.”
“You trying to say I’m a bum,” “The Wire” actor said. “I ain’t no bum.”
“I said your funny is mild,” Holcomb said, acting as though Rawlings was blowing things out of proportion.
“You know what you are doing now? You’re a provocateur. You know how to incite people. Ain’t nothing mild about me,” the comedian continued, adding that he is a “beast” on stage.
After the video, first published by TMZ, went viral, Rawlings explained that he believes that many comedians as of late are trying to “sell controversy over comedy.”
He explained that he did not plan to watch Holcomb’s set but decided to because of Holcomb’s history of attacking his crew, but he did not expect him to say the outlandish comments.
“It’s unfortunate it came to this,” he said. “Should I have yelled out to him? No… But you know I’m very loyal. I’ve been rocking with my guy Dave Chappelle for years. I’m a loyal guy to my friends, my fans, and my family.”
Both Rawlings and Chappelle grew up in Washington, D.C., with only a five-year separation between their ages. Their professional connection grew after Rawlings was cast on Chappelle’s variety show that aired on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006.
He added, “For me, it was a build-up of a lot of things that is troubling comedy.”
Fans seemed to think that Holcomb was out of line.
“I use to f—k with Cory,but all he does is speak negatively about his peers and it’s weird at this point,” one person wrote online.
Another added, “It’s crazy because nobody on this earth has heard or seen Corey Holcomb doing a comedy special.”
One more commented, “Holcomb creating controversy and not material.”
Holcomb addressed the incident on the Feb. 20 episode of his “5150 Show,” where he claimed to not know Rawlings was in the building and that “his jealousy just bust out of him” and that’s why he exploded.
He also said that he has never been anything “but respectful to that boy,” because he is “scared of people that’s ugly.”
"N*gga, you're ugly!" Corey Holcomb roasts Donnell Rawlings and tells his side of the story on what caused the verbal back and forth at the Laugh Factory.
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) February 21, 2024
(🎥5150 Show/YouTube) pic.twitter.com/WfJt4sPMt9
Rawlings, in another interview on Math Hoffa’s “My Expert Opinion,” talked about how he doesn’t like negativity in his industry.
He told a story about how Chappelle has been a peacemaker between warring comedians, like Tracy Morgan and Mike Epps, and told them to never physically fight but use that energy to beat each other in entertainment by becoming successful.
He then used the Katt Williams and Kevin Hart beef as an example, saying the Philly native did not get down and dirty with his adversary, but dropped his movie which was atop the Netflix streaming platform for weeks.
Rawlings also spoke about Williams and Mo’Nique and said that they are successful enough that they “never have to be on film or tv.”
He added, “I think that people still want to align themselves with the same thing they say is disruptive and f—ked up.”
