Rickey Smiley can’t keep quiet.
The Southern-bred comic is sitting in a barber’s chair, in the lower level of his Birmingham home getting a haircut, with his beloved Omega Psi Phi emblazoned on his chest, effortlessly cracking jokes without pause. When his brand strategist Marvet Britto (who has been instrumental in the careers of Mariah Carey and Hill Harper) speaks of an event she wants to plan for him, he immediately boils the dress code down to “open casket sharp!” (Coincidentally, his 2011 BET special Rickey Smiley: Open Casket Sharp became a Walmart bestseller.) Seconds later, he’s recounting a childhood memory of how both of his grandmothers would circle the obituaries “like they was job-hunting” which would result in his great-grandmother driving all of them around “visiting.” For a young boy, the practice was confusing.
“I was like ‘damn these are pretty ass people lying in these nice hospital beds.’ I was about eight years old before I realized them people were dead,” he smiles, insisting it’s a true story. Funny is in his bones, but so is business. Before the laughter subsides, Smiley begins brainstorming on creating yet another vehicle—beyond the sold-out stage shows, his radio anchor The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, FOX syndicated show Dish Nation, TV One sitcom The Rickey Smiley Show and many successful recordings—to get more of these hilarious stories out.
How would he find the time? Smiley’s Atlanta-based radio show is now in 70 markets, reaching over 10 million listeners every morning. On top of that, Dish Nation, where he and his crew alternate with other radio personalities, mainly in Dallas, giving their nightly spin on the pop culture headlines du jour, has hit number one in New York—despite it not being a market for his radio show—plus the laughfest pulls strong ratings in L.A. and other key markets. And with another 26 episodes, his sitcom will soon hit syndication: the holy grail of television.
“I’ve just had some great and wonderful opportunities but my opportunities now are just going through the roof,” he says. That’s only because Smiley stays one step ahead. “I have a diction coach now. I’ve been practicing. I read the teleprompter every day so I’m prepared.”
“It’s not about telling jokes anymore. You have to be a great storyteller,” he continues, describing today’s comedy landscape. “You got to bring people into your neighborhood. You got to be animated and years of experience [will] get you into that space and you just crack people up. And don’t take yourself so serious. That’s what brought on my success.” And by no means is he stopping there.
“I am excited about building the Rickey Smiley brand,” he beams. “I love having a sitcom and working on the set all day. I love having a syndicated radio show, getting up every morning and making people laugh all over the country and then taping Dish Nation. It’s hard work and that’s what it takes to get to the top and we’re on our way.”
Born and raised in Birmingham, the entertainer just has hard work, thanks to his granddad, in his DNA. Similar to many of his black predecessors— namely the controversial multi-millionaire and multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry—Smiley has amassed a quiet fortune and loyal following through what some call a modern-day chitlin’ circuit comprised of smaller Southern cities like his hometown and larger Midwestern ones such as Chicago. And like many of his more well-known comedic counterparts, he eventually worked his way to the then-popular round of shows such as It’s Showtime at the Apollo and Def Comedy Jam and he even helmed BET’s Comic View—in 2000 and 2004, when black comedy was expanding—and it was there, in 1997, that he unleashed Lil Darryl, his seminal character based on the annoying primary school friend we all had. It was a major turning point.
“Lil Darryl changed my life. It changed everybody’s life. That year every [fraternity and sorority], whoever had a line that year and the year after that and the year after that, somebody on line was named Lil Darryl. Even my Lil Darryl First 48 (modeled off of the A&E series) probably got a million hits on YouTube. Lil Darryl got a vine video that’s hilarious. I got kids that love Lil Darryl that were not even born when I first did it. Lil Darryl has been reborn,” he smiles.
Other fan favorites include Church Announcements with Sister Bernice Jenkins, where he incorporates the hilarity of his extensive church background and his popular prank calls. Although Smiley, also an accomplished pianist and other instrumentalist, first realized he was funny around seventh grade, it wasn’t until his senior year at Alabama State University in Montgomery, where he majored in music, that he turned to comedy.
When a local comic snapped on his high-box fade, he took the mic and let him know, “Man, yo momma hair so short when she braid it up, it look like stitches,” and the whole auditorium erupted. “I was popular on campus from that point on. I was known. That’s when I made my mark,” he recalls. Performing locally around Birmingham, particularly at The Comedy Club Stardome, owned by Bruce Ayers, who helped nurture the early careers of both Tim Allen and Sinbad, Smiley got an even bigger break when he attracted the attention of another more established comedian on the rise.
“Steve Harvey put me on,” Smiley shares with gratitude and astonishment still in his voice. “He came to Birmingham and decided he was going to work with me. I was blessed to open up for his [tour] The Kings of Comedy a few times. I would have to be in the hotel lobby early to ride in the limousine with Steve and I was a nervous wreck.
“I would scoot all the way up, [sitting] back to back with the driver, staying out of the way. Steve would get in, my heart [would be] beating fast, I didn’t know what kind of mood he was in. He got sick of me telling him ‘thank you,’” he laughs. Harvey linked Smiley with his other protégé, Cedric the Entertainer, and soon Smiley was traversing the country opening for both of them. But Harvey’s mentorship didn’t stop there. When he left his Radio One show in Dallas, he recommended Smiley, who was already doing radio in Birmingham, to take his place. Alabama’s finest brought more than laughs to J.R. Ewing’s backyard.
“I did a lot of stuff in the community. We got the first African American district attorney, Craig Watkins, elected. We got a little girl [Shaquanda Cotton, who was accused of shoving a teacher] out of jail. It made Inside Edition, CNN. We made some great strides while I was in Dallas, so [Radio One CEO] Alfred Liggins decided he wanted to syndicate my show.”
Despite enormous success, for the self-proclaimed “good ole country boy,” family matters most. In Smiley’s home of nine bedrooms and as many baths—on five acres of lush greenery, with a pool, lake and adjacent golf course—church and Sunday dinner are mandatory. Going to the bigger lake, grilling on the property and watching movies are favored pastimes.
“It’s a real simple life. We ain’t balling out and popping Champagne!” Bottle service is not a priority, but his kids certainly are. They are the centerpiece of the home he says he decorated personally, “to look nice and be comfortable.” In addition to his two biological children—Brandon, 24 and Malik, 13—the divorced father has raised his daughter D’Essence, 16, since she was 2 years old and he has pitched in to parent the kids of his relatives, fraternity brother and many others in need.
“I have been helping to feed kids since I was 15 years old,” he explains. “[There] were kids in the community, their parents were on drugs. I started out boiling hot dogs and making sandwiches for kids that didn’t have anything to eat.” He wishes for his generosity and fatherhood, not wealth and fame, to be his ultimate legacy.
“I enjoy being the best father I can be and being an awesome father to the fatherless. My dad was murdered and taken away from me when I was 7 so I know what it’s like growing up without a dad, even though I had an awesome granddad and uncles. But to be able to fill that void for somebody else is just incredible. I would actually pay money to do it.”
Related: Behind the Scenes at the Rickey Smiley Cover Shoot
CREDITS:
Stylist Provi Fulp-Ramphal Assistant to Stylist Iman Aziz Groomer Will Hudson Make-Up: Denise Tunnell Post-Production Bianca Carosio Videographer: Mustafa Mahdi Assistant to Mr. Smiley Angie Price
On Cover/at pool: Tuxedo & Bow Tie (both custom): Suit Supply; Shirt: Tom Ford; Shoe: Top Shop UK; Pocket Round: Smiley’s own; Glasses: Tom Ford
In office : Shirt, Pant, Hat: Ted Baker; Shoe: Converse Jack Purcell; Glasses: Smiley’s own.; (living room): Shirt Michael Kors; Pant: Kent & Curwen; Shoe: Converse Jack Purcell
At Piano: (on Rickey): Sweater: Ted Baker; Shirt: Bloomingdales atlanta; Pant: Ralph Lauren; Shoe: Sperry Topsider; Glasses: Rickey Smiley for America’s Best Collection