Roderick McDaniel the Rib Tickler

Long before the com­e­dy tours, com­pe­ti­tions and albums, Rod­er­ick McDaniel was slay­ing at fam­i­ly gath­er­ings. ​“My dad at one point grabs his ribs and he said, ​‘You got to stop. My ribs hurt.” This was at a fam­i­ly tal­ent show one Christ­mas, and McDaniel had done a bit call­ing out his dad’s side for being ​“black red­necks.” Although he didn’t real­ize it at the time, he’d just writ­ten and per­formed his first standup set. 

But how McDaniel end­ed up in the Austin com­e­dy scene is not so straight­for­ward. He was born in Lufkin, Texas. His father was a provost inves­ti­ga­tor for the U.S. Army, so they moved around through­out his child­hood, spend­ing time in Nacog­doches, New Orleans and Mon­roe. He joined the Navy after high school and lived in San Diego until he set­tled down in Amar­il­lo in 1995.

McDaniel grew up around fun­ny peo­ple. It’s genet­ic. Grand­ma rel­ished prank­ing the grand­kids. Mom was wit­ty and smart. He and his dad were a com­e­dy duo, tag­ging each other’s jokes any chance they got. Today he’s the father of sev­en chil­dren and admits he may have inad­ver­tent­ly raised a new gen­er­a­tion of comics. ​“Not one of us is seri­ous? Oh, gosh, what was I doing?” he asks, ques­tion­ing his par­ent­ing skills.

Once in Amar­il­lo, it still would be a long time before McDaniel would take the stage. He was busy rais­ing his fam­i­ly. He also had health issues, suf­fer­ing a heart attack at 26 and then again at 33. Two heart attacks would make any­one eval­u­ate their lifestyle. For McDaniel, this wake-up call was a dif­fer­ent call to action: ​“You’ve almost died twice. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna exer­cise and eat right? Nope. I’m gonna tell jokes.”

So after the Christ­mas tal­ent show when his broth­er urged him to try an open mic, McDaniel final­ly felt ready. One week lat­er, he’s at the Amar­il­lo Com­e­dy Club. 

Broth­ers Kel­ly, Ken­ny and Kevin Moran had come down to Amar­il­lo from the Com­e­dy Store (Los Ange­les). They ran the club like a tight ship. At his first open mic, McDaniel was ner­vous, but he killed. When he got called to the green room for a chat, he assumed the worst. Instead the broth­ers were so impressed, they asked him to return the fol­low­ing week with a new five-minute set.

From that point for­ward, the Amar­il­lo Com­e­dy Club became his ​“com­e­dy boot­camp.” He came back week after week, hon­ing his craft. He opened for oth­er comics, includ­ing the Moran broth­ers. Then came the cor­po­rate gigs, Christ­mas shows… even moti­va­tion­al speech­es for chil­dren and teens. He start­ed tour­ing ear­ly in his career. He went on to record his first com­e­dy album in Amarillo.

In 2014 McDaniel was on the road when he got a call, ​“You got to come home.” His father was sick and didn’t have much time left. After his dad passed away, McDaniel stayed in Austin to take care of his moth­er then decid­ed to call the city his new home.

Austin has treat­ed McDaniel well. In 2016, he was a semi­fi­nal­ist in the Fun­ni­est Per­son in Austin con­test. Thanks to a friend, he secured a dream job at Elec­tron­ic Arts. He record­ed a sec­ond com­e­dy album. Final­ly, McDaniel was able to quit his day job and pur­sue stand up com­e­dy full time. So he did. ​“I had this whole tour booked. I called in a bunch of favors, and I said I’m just gonna get out on the road and just prove I’m ready.” That was Jan­u­ary 2020.

On March 12, the can­cel­la­tions began trick­ling in. ​“My phone did­n’t quit ring­ing. It was call after call, and I watched my entire tour that I had built dis­ap­pear.” Despite this minor set­back (COVID-19), McDaniel was deter­mined not to give up. Months lat­er he was back on the road.

To McDaniel, the future looks bright. He’ll be back on the road again soon and is work­ing on his third com­e­dy album. He’s also in the process of estab­lish­ing a Patre­on where fans will have access to exclu­sive con­tent, like old shows. 

In the pod­cast, Rod­er­ick McDaniel’s ener­gy is bois­ter­ous, warm and — unlike his standup mate­r­i­al — maybe even a lit­tle whole­some. He’d prob­a­bly want you to believe it’s all the ther­a­py, but real­ly, that’s just who he is. He goes on to share sto­ries from the road, his hilar­i­ous fam­i­ly, and his career tra­jec­to­ry so far. 

He also says his moth­er was right to be hard on him. ​“All I know is you’ve nev­er spent a night in jail, and you’ve nev­er spent a night in rehab. My work here is done. You’re wel­come.” He can’t argue with that, so we won’t either. 

Fol­low Roderick

• Link­tree — link​tr​.ee/​r​o​d​e​r​i​c​k​m​c​d​aniel
• Insta­gram — @coachsilky
• Face­book — Face​book​.com/​r​o​d​e​r​i​c​k​m​c​d​a​n​i​e​l​c​omedy
• Tik­Tok — @tdfakes
• Youtube — Youtube​.com/​@​l​i​v​e​r​i​g​h​t​s​t​i​lldie

Rod­er­ick can be seen and heard:

• Per­form­ing all over the country
• Launch­ing the pod­cast Wel­come to the Trash Heap
• Com­e­dy Albums
  • Live in the 806 (2010)
  • Mind Ya Busi­ness (2021)