Stand-up comedian gets comfortable with his material

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006 | 7:12 a.m.

Who: Rodney Carrington

When: 10 tonight, Friday and Saturday

Where: Luxor Theater

Tickets: $66.50; 262-4400

The blue-collar comedy guys are in town for the National Finals Rodeo.

Sure, Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, Ron White and Jeff Foxworthy are doing individual concerts during the rodeo's run.

But Rodney Carrington, who isn't an official member, could easily join that illustrious quartet.

Although his collar isn't blue, his comedy is.

You have to be 18 or older to see his act at the Luxor. His humor is so "adult" that family newspapers can't even print the names of some of his albums.

Carrington recently touched bases with the Sun from Little Rock, Ark., where he was performing in a small club to hone his act, which will be taped January in Dallas for a Comedy Central special.

"It's kind of like going to the gym," he said. "I'm getting all the material ready and feeling really comfortable with it so by the time I get there it's just the performance aspect of it that I have to worry about."

Not that he should have to worry too much. The 38-year-old native of Longview, Texas, has been doing comedy since he was 20 - as a professional since he was 21.

"The first time I was booked into a club for a week I tried to stretch my 10 minutes into 30, because I told the owner I had 30 minutes but I didn't," Carrington said. "I lied to get the job.

"The owner paid me at the end of the week and told me, 'I don't know what you were doing before you got into comedy, but you need to drive back to Texas and get your job back. You're horrible.'

"I remember driving back home, six hours back to Longview, and thinking, 'He paid me $400 and I was really bad. I wonder how much he would pay me if I got good at this?' That was my motivation."

The motivation worked. He now is one of the top comedians in the country. His comedy albums have sold almost 2 million copies, and a seventh is due in January.

While other young, up-and-coming comedians were trying to create an act that they would then take to Hollywood in hopes of getting a TV show, Carrington took the long way around.

"I stayed in Tulsa and built my career using appearances on syndicated radio shows and making comedy albums and developed a following," he said. "From there the opportunity came for TV. I always believed if I did well and made enough noise they would come looking for me."

They did. His series, "Rodney," was on ABC from 2004 until May.

"They called and told me they were changing the face of the network, going in a different direction," he said. "So now I'm back doing what I'm doing and having a lot more fun now than I ever had. I told my manager going from being a successful stand-up comedian to having your own TV show is kind of like going from being CEO of your own company to working at RadioShack ."

In addition to the upcoming Comedy Central special and the date at the Luxor, Carrington is writing a book about his life, which also will be released in January.

"Right now my plate is pretty full," he said.

And not with grits.