Donnell Rawlings

To close out his 2010 comedy special From Ashy to Classy, Donnell Rawlings offers his own take on a time-honored tradition among African American comics: the “white voice.” Rawlings (Ashy Larry and many others on Chappelle’s Show and Day-Day Price on The Wire) gets a lot of comedic mileage out of the disparity between races, but he insists the goofy white voice is something white and black people have in common — at least while African Americans are at work. The implications of this joke could probably fuel a dissertation, but the closest Rawlings ever comes to lecturing is when he plays the title character in “Dr. Trill’s ‘Take It in the Face System’ Seminar.” After headlining Thursday’s fourth annual Fiesta Comedy Explosion (benefiting the Priest Holmes Foundation) Rawlings sticks around for four additional shows at Laugh Out Loud.