S. Samuel
Donnell Rawlings of The Chapelle's Show fame has selected the winner of his month long "Bootleg Comedy & April Fools" Contest.
Last month, Donnell partnered with SOHH and TheDougie to launch an online contest for amateur comedians to compete for a “bootleg” prize.
“I want you to go to TheDougie.com, post your funniest videos. Take your camera phone, your cell phone anything that’s a recording device. It don’t have to be the best production but the whole key to the thing is it being funny,” he said. “I’m going to have you and a person join me in the world famous New York City to see me perform live on Broadway, put you in a nice hotel, five star restaurant. We gon’ party like rockstars.”
After much deliberation, Donnell chose a winner.
“After watching countless, countless, countless videos I’ve come to decide that the winner of the bootleg comedy contest is Ricky Starr. The reason why I picked this guy is because he submitted about 20 videos which tells me that he’s serious about writing, he’s serious about producing. In this business sometimes you have to create a strong body of work and have options for people to choose from.” (SOHH)
Ricky Starr was shocked to hear that he had won Donnell’s Bootleg Comedy Contest.
“Damn! I did,… COOL! Lol…Thats really cool,last time I won something was back in 6th grade,a Chinese Checker board game! Lol..” (SOHH)
In one of Ricky’s videos, he created a character called Rambro who loaded up an ammunition belt with shoes and hurled them at a photo of former President Bush.
“I like the fact that it was a creative idea,” Donnell told SOHH. “I didn’t know what direction he was going in with the Rambro thing and when he did the shoe holder for the Rambro didn’t know he was going to be busting George Bush in the face with the shoe. But anybody who wants to throw a size 14 stinky Nike at George Bush they got my vote.” (SOHH)
Donnell recently released a Bootleg Comedy DVD in conjunction with the contest that was made available for purchase online.
The break out star of The Chapelle Show is taking you behind the scenes to see the real comedy, the grind and the workout that a comedian does to prepare for a performance. This DVD is full of sketch comedy, live stand up, interactive media, rap parodies and music videos, all showing what makes a comic tick. (Cool In Your Code)
[Go here to see the videos that earned Ricky Starr the prize in the April Fools comedy contest.]
Below you can see Donnell announcing the winner:
