A New Day

Donnell Rawlings has spent decades known as Ashy Larry from Chappelle’s Show, but for his first solo Netflix special, he attempts to pivot from ashy to classy. Dressed in a blue suit and red socks, he trades his usual rapid-fire shouting for a slightly more measured pace, trying to transition into a more polished elder statesman of comedy while holding onto the chaotic energy that made him famous. The 40-minute special, recorded at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City during the New York Comedy Festival, was actually Rawlings’ third attempt at filming this material; Dave Chappelle, who executive produced, reportedly scrapped earlier tapings because the jokes felt too dated or loosely structured. In the final cut, Rawlings covers the vocabulary of modern therapy, the logistics of co-parenting his young son, and his experience traveling to New Zealand, where he mocks the lack of diversity in Middle-earth and recounts being mistaken for Idris Elba. He also runs through viral pop-culture moments like the 2023 Alabama riverfront dock brawl. Critical response was mixed, with some reviewers noting that despite Chappelle’s quality control, the short set still feels slightly unpolished, but for audiences accustomed to Rawlings as a boisterous club comic, it offers a rare glimpse of him trying to slow down and let his jokes breathe.