You may have known Lil Duval for years as a stand-up comedian, but now he’s a proper Pop star. As of the writing of this profile, his song “Smile (Living my Best Life)” featuring Snoop Dogg and Ball Greezy is climbing the Billboard Hot 100.
Duval, whose real name is Roland Powell, takes his stage name from Duval County, Florida where he was born and raised. He later moved to Atlanta where he started doing stand-up. He was a finalist on BET’s Coming to the Stage comedy competition and is currently a series regular on the MTV shows Guy Code and Hip Hop Squares, as well as being the host of the viral video show Ain’t That America on MTV2.
“I hate dating,” he tells an audience. After he asks where the single women are in the crowd, he gets a cheer. “Y’all ain’t happy. You’re happy being single right now, but you’re going to go home and put up lonely tweets: ‘God’s going to find the right man for me.’”
7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday (Nov. 23); 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 24) . $35-$45. Funny Bone Liberty, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty.funnybone.com.
This article appears in Nov 7-14, 2018.