Best friends, host negotiators and comedy interviewers all know one key fact: good telephone conversations make for good relationships. I was able to talk with Donnell Rawlings over the phone and ask him some questions about comedy, heckling and Antoine Dodson. Rawlings commented that my voice sounded like a GPS device. That's a little silly, I don't think I sound like that at all, turn left here.

Read Rawlings' answers below and make sure to watch his new stand-up special From Ashy to Classy this Saturday, October 23 at 11pm / 10c. Go to Jokes.com for previews.

Who are your biggest comedic influences?
My mother and my father. We never had anything growing up and my mom would always figure out a way to still keep us laughing and entertained with humor in our worst time.

When did you decide to become a comedian?
When I was younger I wanted to be an architect but then I realized it was too much schooling for that. I said I'd settle to become a carpenter, but that didn't pan out. Then I went into the military, I was in the Air Force. Nobody believes it but I was a military police officer in the Air Force. And I probably had the worst record — I made one arrest in four years and that was because there was a young lady that was well endowed on the upper part of her body.

I actually started with heckling in the comedy clubs and I would heckle people. The club owner wanted me to shut up so he challenged me to go on stage and it's what I've been doing for the last 16 years.

What did it feel like getting on stage for the first time?
I thought because I was an accomplished heckler, I would be an accomplished comic. I wrote what I thought was a half-hour worth of material, which panned out to be, like, 10 seconds because there's a difference writing and performing for yourself in the mirror than performing for a live crowd. And the minute I went on stage it's like I drew a blank and I had to resort to some things I did as a heckler. But it taught me a lesson to never heckle a comic.

What was your worst gig?
I think the worst gig I had was when I first started. I had to do a show in D.C. and it wasn't really a nice area of D.C. I think my intro was, "Yo y'all, this next guy's going to try and make you laugh. Y'all can laugh at him if you want to." That was the intro and it was in a seedy spot with horrible sound and worse lighting and it didn't work out well at all.

What was your best gig?
There's a lot. But I think the best gig for me as far as my career was when I auditioned for Def Comedy Jam. The situation was that it was a rough audience at first, I was only doing comedy for five months and it was probably the biggest showcase I had. I think it was then that I started to take it really serious.

If you weren't a comedian, what would you be doing?
If I wasn't a comic, I'm know I would have been some type of blue collar worker: carpenter, electrician, something like that. When I was younger those were some of the things that drew my interest. Either that or probably selling medical marijuana in California. MEDICAL marijuana. MEDICAL.

What's the funniest thing you've ever seen on the Internet?
Lately the funniest thing I've seen would be the Antoine Dodson bed intruder story. It was a huge viral hit. Some guy broke into this apartment and tried to sexually assault this young lady and her brother ran into the room and saved her and ran the intruder out. That's not funny, but you would think it would be this big Suge Knight dude, but it's like this really flaming gay guy. The interview was so funny and they made it a song, The Gregory Brothers, the ones who do Auto-Tune the News, it got like 16 million hits. It was in the top 25 iTunes downloads, performed at the BET Awards. But Antoine Dodson bed intruder story has to be one of the funniest things I've seen on the Internet.

What's the funniest thing you've ever seen in real life?
When you look at everything in life as funny, it's kind of hard to pinpoint one thing.

How do you think comedy will change in the coming years?
I think everything is more reality based and the funniest things you see on TV, I don't think it's going to be on sitcoms or movies. I think it's going to be in reality based television.

Who are your favorite underrated or up-and-coming comics?
Dawn Boatman — she's a comic out of New York. She's been doing it for about seven or eight years. She usually does opening for me. Then a young guy in Harlem, he's 17, his name is Neko White. His delivery and the structure of his jokes remind me of young Paul Mooney, but I think that he's definitely an up-and-coming comedy guy.

What's your advice for someone just getting into comedy?
My philosophy is the same philosophy they do in surfing: "Go hard or go home. When in doubt, don't go out." Stay focused.

Watch Donnell Rawlings: From Ashy to Classy this Saturday, October 23 at 11pm / 10c. Go to Jokes.com for previews.