Who is Rickey Smiley?

Who is Rickey Smiley? The Comedy world know Smiley as a standup comedian, television host, actor, member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated and radio personality best known for his prank phone calls. The calls feature Smiley using a disguised voice and talking to whoever answers the phone.
Smiley became the morning show personality for KBFB Radio in Dallas, Texas in April 2004. The show features the trademark prank calls, as well as news, information and the latest hip hop music.

Smiley is also known as the host of the 2000 season of BET's "ComicView" program. He has also appeared on "Showtime at the Apollo", HBO's "Def Comedy Jam", HBO's "Snaps", "The Nashville Network", "Uptown Comedy Club", and "Comic Escape." He is known as one of the few "clean" African American comics, preferring to use humor rather than vulgarity to get laughs. His original comedy routines often feature the role-play of fictional characters such as "Bernice Jenkins" (AKA 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". He is referenced in "Two Of My Toes Fell Off" and another prank phone call where Smiley calls a pharmacy.
Smiley was born in Birmingham, Alabama He also has released several humorous songs based on his bits, such as "Roll Tide" featuring his redneck character Buford, and "We Miss Robert" based on a routine of his 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, performed in hopes of landing a record deal. He currently has a morning show on a Baltimore, Maryland radio station.
Smiley had a starring role in Ice Cube's Friday After Next.

 Filmography

• "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson"
• BET Comedy Awards (2004)
• Super Secret Movie Rules: Sports Underdogs (2004)
• All about the Benjamins (2002) uncredit
• Friday After Next (2002) ... Santa Claus
• BET's Comic View (1992) TV Series .... Host (2000–2001)
• Def Comedy Jam: All Stars Vol. 11 (1999) (TV) .... (Show 2)
• Airline (US TV series)
• First Sunday (2007) Bernice Jenkins

Discography

To date, Smiley has released five albums of his renowned 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 (spring 2006).

 Trivia

• Smiley is a graduate of Alabama State University. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and is known for informing audiences of his membership in his acts.
• Smiley is also a pianist and often plays the piano in his shows.
• Smiley also plays the organ and sometimes refers to himself playing it at his home church

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 bit of a reverse prank (similar to the ones the Jerky Boys innovated), a hapless caller known as "K.D." calls 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 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 that "my grandmama over here too...she a real freak." K.D. then speaks to the grandmother who demands "I want you to scrub my head to the white meat" and 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 in this call, both of whom call Church's Chicken. One is an elderly lady who wants to know "what time do y'all start service" and asks "who is y'all pastor"; when 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") and who constantly requests delivery of food to his house.
• "Pray For Me" - Using his "Granny" voice again, Smiley calls "Miss Ola Mae Benton Carter Jackson Glenn", and asks her to pray for a member of her church, who had been:
  • 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 then gets the woman to lead her in several verses of "Walk With Me, Lord", each verse increasing in silliness.

• "She P-E-E-D" - Smiley prank calls an elderly woman using his "Granny" voice; the aftermath of the call causes the woman to laugh so hard that she ends up urinating on herself.
• "Is My Daddy Over There" - Smiley plays Lil' Daryl and his brother Brandon as they call a lady claiming their father was supposed to return home with milk for their cereal.

To see more of Who Is click here