Broderick Dornell "Rickey" Smiley (born August 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian, television host, actor, and radio personality known for his prank phone calls. The calls feature Smiley disguising his voice carrying a conversation with the recipient of the call. He is the host of the nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show based in Atlanta from its flagship affiliate WHTA "Hot 107.9". He starred in a sitcom, The Rickey Smiley Show, which aired on TV One. He was also a featured columnist on the Fox-produced tabloid nationally-syndicated TV show Dish Nation. In 2015, Smiley appears on Rickey Smiley For Real, a reality television series about his life.
Contents
Career
Smiley appeared as the host of the 2000 season of BET's ComicView program. He has appeared on Showtime at the Apollo, HBO's Def Comedy Jam, HBO's Snaps, The Nashville Network, Uptown Comedy Club, and Comic Escape. His original comedy routines often feature the role-play of fictional characters such as "Bernice Jenkins" (also known as Granny Swims, Ms. Johnson or Mrs. Francis), "Lil' Daryl", "Rusty Dale", and "Beauford". Bernice Jenkins has a grandson named Rufus who's a stereotype of the modern-day "Gangsta". Rufus is in two routines, in "Two Of My Toes Fell Off" and another prank phone call where Smiley calls a pharmacy.
Smiley became the morning show personality for radio station KBFB in Dallas in April 2004. The show features the trademark prank calls as well as news, information, and the latest hip hop music. In 2008, he signed a deal with Syndication One (a syndicated radio division of Radio One) to take the show nationwide and The Rickey Smiley Morning Show is now heard on a number of mainstream urban and urban adult contemporary radio stations. Syndication One merged with Reach Media in 2013.
He has released several humorous songs based on the bits such as "Roll Tide" featuring his redneck character Buford, and "We Miss Robert", based on a routine in which a friend of a deceased drug dealer performs a rap song called "We Miss Robert" at the funeral, which is actually a song about a woman and performed in hopes of landing a record deal. He had a starring role in Ice Cube's Friday After Next. He also appeared in All About the Benjamins as an informant of Ice Cube's character, Snitch Mitch. The performance can be viewed in a deleted scene in the special features of the DVD. Smiley released a book in 2017, Stand by Your Truth: And Then Run for Your Life.
Prank calls
Some of Smiley's most notable calls include:
"Buried Alive" - Smiley plays a narcoleptic who works at a funeral home and "fell asleep in one of these caskets" who calls a cemetery claiming that "they done buried me alive" and insists he is calling from inside a casket on his cell phone. He then requests that someone come and "dig all these graves open".
"Come Over" - In a reverse prank (similar to the ones innovated by the Jerky Boys), "K.D.," a hapless caller, phones a Smiley character named "Gina", a woman who initially entices him with statements like "I'm just 'bout to go crazy over here" and "I want you to come over and hurt me" before revealing that she is a hermaphrodite ("that means I got both genitals"). K.D. assures Gina he is "still comin'", which prompts her to up the stakes by announcing "my grandmama over here too... she a real freak." K.D. then speaks to the grandmother who wants to know "what kind of draws you got on."
"Uncle Melvin" - Smiley prank calls his uncle, as a man who believes his girlfriend has left him, and who punctuates every remark with the word "dawg" ("Is my girl over there dawg... tell her I love her, dawg").
"Churches" - Smiley plays two characters, both call Church's Chicken. One is an elderly lady who mistakes Church's for a "church" (e.g. wants to know "what time do y'all start service" and asks "who is y'all's pastor", and "well when d y'all have Sunday school?"). Informed that she has called a restaurant, asks "Don't the chicken belong to the church?" The other caller is "Willie", who claims to be a heavyset man with a thyroid problem, "I can't get out the house no more", and who asks for a rundown of the menu "Is y'all okra fried, or is it all slimy in the pot like grandmama used to make" Willie constantly requests delivery of food to his house.
"Pray For Me" - Again using his "Granny" voice, Smiley calls "Miss Ola Mae Benton Carter Jackson Glenn", and asks her to pray for a member of her church who was stabbed, involved in an ambulance crash, hit by a train, had a leg cut off by the Jaws of Life, shot "in the right eye."
Smiley gets the woman to sing leading her in several verses of "Walk With Me, Lord", each verse increasing in silliness.
Personal life
On July 6, 2020, Smiley announced that his daughter, Aaryn had been shot during a road rage incident the previous weekend.
Smiley is a member of Omega Psi Phi; he was initiated into its Psi Rho graduate chapter. Smiley is a lifetime member of Omega Psi Phi.
On January 29, 2023, Smiley announced his 32-year old-son, Brandon Smiley, had died after being found unconscious in his Birmingham apartment. According to the autopsy report from the Jefferson County Medical Examiner's Office, Brandon's manner of death was ruled as accidental. Smiley subsequently wrote a book about grief and dealing with pain called Sideshow: Living with Loss and Moving Forward with Faith.
Filmography
Discography
To date, Smiley has released six albums of his prank calls:
The Best of Comedian Rickey Smiley Vol. I
Rickey Smiley: Prank Calls Vol. II
Rickey Smiley: Vol. III
Rickey Smiley "Off The Hook Volume 4"
Rickey Smiley: Vol. V
Rickey Smiley: Vol. 6