Here Comes the Truth

Rodney Carrington leans hard into the indignities of middle-aged suburban domesticity, treating physical decline with a mix of acoustic guitar work and explicit locker-room humor. He spends a significant portion of his set diagnosing the struggles of maintaining a sex life in your late 40s, using catchy country tunes to soften the blow of punchlines about weight gain and physical deterioration. It is a show built for an audience that wants a direct, vulgar acknowledgement of what happens when the body starts to quit.

The set was filmed at the BOK Center in Carrington’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and released on Netflix in October 2017. At this point in his career, Carrington was a seasoned veteran who had survived the mid-2000s sitcom boom, having starred in the ABC show Rodney, and had settled into a highly lucrative independent touring hustle. Performing to a massive, packed arena, he walks a fine line between traditional Southern storytelling and explicit club comedy, showcasing why he continues to sell out large venues despite operating outside the mainstream critical radar.

Specific highlights include his acoustic songs “I’m Fat” and “The Marriage Advice Song,” alongside stand-up material about watching his ex-wife give birth, the quirks of internet pornography, and the cocktail of daily medications he relies on to stay active. Critical reception was predictable; reviewers noted that while his material relies on highly gender-segregated tropes about relationships, his crowd is fiercely loyal, and his delivery is perfectly tailored to them. As Carrington himself reminds the audience after a particularly blue bit, “These are jokes. If you learn anything, it’s a goddamn accident.”