Marlon Wayans Part 1

Marlon Wayans joins Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for an honest conversation about life, comedy, and family. Marlon, the youngest of the Wayans siblings, reflects on growing up as the "butt" of his family's jokes. He shares how his childhood was shaped by his mom's hands-on approach and his father's strict religious beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness. He talks about how his mom foresaw New York real estate's value skyrocketing and recounts wearing hand-me-downs from his brothers—a habit he's kept up even today.

Marlon dives deep into his upbringing, recalling how different his family was from others in the neighborhood because they had both a mother and a father. He recounts having legendary entertainers like Eddie Murphy and Robert Townsend visit his home, and how he was writing sketches from a young age. Marlon also discusses the tension with his father over attending a performance arts high school and eventually leaving Howard University because of his experience with professors treating him differently due to In Living Color.

He opens up about his career in comedy, from his early auditions for his brother's movie Mo' Money to the creation of The Wayans Bros TV show with his brother Shawn. Marlon reflects on his family being labeled with nepotism despite their immense talent and discusses the challenges they faced with networks, including their decision to leave In Living Color when NBC attempted to blackball his brother Keenen Ivory Wayans. Lastly, Marlon reminisces about an In Living Color special that led to the invention of the Super Bowl halftime show and the history of his family on Saturday Night Live.

#Volume

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Marlar, you've been at the Hollywood party? What going on
in these Hollywood parties?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
I left early. I've been to plenty Diddy parties. I
left early. I'm like, when I hear about it, when
did that happen? At what time did this go down?
Because I was there two three thirty you mean three
thirty two, So they waiting for me to leave, Like,
all right, good that Wayne's Nigga's gone. He talked too much.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, pet Price,
Want a slice? Got the Brother Geist Swap all my life?
I be grinding all my life, all my life, grinding
all my life, sacrifics, hustle, pet Price, one slice, Doctor
Brother of Geist, the swap all my life. IP be
grinding all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shape. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Sha Sha the guy that's stopping buy for conversation
and the drink Today is one of the most recognized, respected,
and successful comedic actors of his generation. He has over
thirty years in the entertainment industry. He's contributed to several
iconic movies, cult classic and TV shows. We're going to

(01:11):
discuss those. He's a bankable star. His films have grossed
over one billion global box office dollars. He's a writer, producer,
stand up comedian, and a Hollywood actor. He's an all
around entertainer, top rated comedic icon, a member of the
legendary He's the youngest member of the legendary Wayne's family
empire that revolutionized the world of entertainment. He's an og

(01:32):
in the game her Heels, Ladies and gentlemen. Mordern wayan.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
That just damn after that enter, I'm ready to retire.
I ain't know I did all that, you did all that,
all of that.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
It's crazy, brother, Thanks for coming on, man, I really
appreciate that. You know, when people come on my show.
I have my own knyact Yeah by Laporte and this vs.
Op Yeah one Best Best too, a couple of several awards.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
But uh, I've seen a lot of people drink that
ship and start talking crazy. So I'm a wait, I
call it crazy juice. I'm a way a second. And actually,
now you know I have one with your brother. Here
you go, you promote your product. I have to take
a sip let. People know how they mm hmm, that's nice.

(02:22):
You know it's missing missing some cigars. So I figure
I bring you some of my cigars, brother, because I
know you black, black and miles, but we gonna get
you off them in black and Miles.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, this this you just me.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Legal Tridentes' one of my partnerships right here, got into
the cigar game and uh, you know some a beautiful box.
This is the the nice uh. Yazaki's right there, Yaks.
So that's for you, brother.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I appreciate smoked one.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I've seen you a miledbox too. Make sure you check
it out and do it with this parent with this
is a great pairent boom. Look at that to success
for black men doing successful things. That that's crazy that
you was hitching the chest boy man, but that a
little bit. It's fired it up later.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, you're the youngest ten. Yeah you mentioned that how
you grew up. Your family is very close there every.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Ten comedians, so basically I'm the butt of all.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
So they worked on the material on you.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Hum, I know how to take a joke. That's why
I'm so patient. That's why I'm like, you know, I
don't get in no trouble or nothing, because I know
how to like, I could take it. I could take ahead.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
So with all ten of you guys, because I know
Keenan is the second is what they call the knee baby,
he's the second oldest. Yes, and then excuse me.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Keene was so successful. He me and my oldest brother,
we discounted that niggas nobody was listening to doing. Just kidding, No, Keenan,
Keenan Keeny was my my parents, my mom called he
was We called him John Boy because you know, he
was that that pioneer that came out here and set
the trailer blaze.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Follow us to follow, right, So what was it like
when all with all ten of you guys at the
house at one particular time? Because I know Keena was
about fifteen years older than you, I don't know how
the oldest brother.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
I was the baby, so I don't And we only
had a four baron apartment in the projects in New
York and my parents, I think my mom didn't want
to get pregnant no more. So she was like, Negro,
you sleep in that room, I'm asleep in this right.
So then it was me and my brothers and sisters
and boys in that room, girls in that room, and
monk beds. It looked like a modern day slave ship.

(04:29):
And and so I don't know if we as I
mean in a black family, you don't know if we're
all there. At one time, I had sisters that you know,
somebody got arrested. I got sisters that was having babies.
So they moved out, and then Keenan went to college
and Damon, who knows what Damon did. Damon probably ran
away and did something crazy. So it was like in

(04:50):
and out. The family home was always there.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
So what was So what was it like for you
being the baby, because there's a spectation the mom's like, okay,
well you have old, older siblings. They look after the baby.
They basically raised the baby the older kids. Was it
like that for you and your family?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yes, but no, my mother was very you know, hands on,
but there was certain things like she didn't do Like
my mother at the point she stopped cooking, we became
like elves. Like she stopped cooking, she stopped cleaning. Everybody
had a day, you know, my mother had it basically
a cleaning service. I had to do laundry. I would
take all the family, ten negroes laundries on my back. No,

(05:32):
we didn't have a cart the laundry. It was like
five blocks away. My friends used to call me black
Black Santa Claus because I would have this laundry and
I would take five trips, ten trips back and forth,
back and forth doing the family laundry. Right. My mother
raised us to be independent. I had a day in
the kitchen. You know, it got to a point. I
was like a gold main chef. Keenan and Damon would

(05:53):
come home California and I'll run to store. My brother Sean,
we go get food, and me and my if to
my brothers for being so good to us. I would
always cook them something. I had my daddy's big draws
on because we were poor, and my brothers to Keenan,
you could see a little thing then through the hull
because my father had we had a safety pin right

(06:15):
and came he was poor, and I would just be
in there chefing up and cooking them French toast. And
and Sean would always have that seat right next to Keenan.
And I used to be so jealous because I used
to want that that seat, but I was I was
busy cooking, you know what. I mean, that was That
was my contribution.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
What was the typical meal like for ten or twelve
because your mommy and daddy and you got ten brothers
and sisters in the house. So how much was being cooked?
What was being cooked?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Whatever we had.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Depends. Some days he had steak, some days we had chuck.
Come on, man, it wasn't no surline, ain't no eighty
five one nine.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
It was chuck ground chuck and put some peppers and
onions on it. But most of the time it was
what we had. My father was funny. Me and my
brother's be teasing because my dad my sister became like vegan.
She went to Wesleyan University. She came back and she
had this vegan diet, and my father's like, gosh, a
great idea. So now we was vegan and everything was rice.

(07:18):
And he would look in the closet and there'd be
nothing in there, and he'd be like, whatever it was,
we gonna have some string beans. We got some corn bread,
and we got some lard, all right, and rice. We're
gonna have a nice corn bread string being lard rice,
And that was it. Mixed it up. Me and my
brothers are so poor. I remember one time, my sister

(07:42):
Nadia created this meal called mullah mush and it was
basically flour, salt, pepper, water and lard and you cook
it up and you make it like a little pancake
and we call it mula. We have. We didn't have

(08:02):
the good cereal moment that you have, like you know,
Nigga puffs meat puffs, Like it wasn't a bad Chris
in the bag, the big gass bag. It wasn't sugar
super sugar cris. No. We had the dry ones that
you had to add the sugar in to your walk,
to your milk got gray. Like we grew up poor.
I wouldn't take back my childhood for nothing, as hard

(08:24):
as it was. You know what we had. We had
love and when children have love and they have that security.
And I had something that a lot of people on
my block didn't have. I had a mother that cared
for us, and I had a father. The importance of
a father, a man that is there. There was times
I'd be like, Nigga, why don't you leave christgro out?

(08:48):
Every day? I thought my father's name was motherfucker til
I was like nine years old. But hey, motherfuckers got
get some money for school, please, my mother frustration popery,
a lot of arguments. Was poverty make people argue? So
it was the security and my mother wanted was best
for children. I'm not mad at my mama for arguing
with my daddy. I just except on school night, say.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
This shit for the weekend so I could good night,
resting school and you wonder why I'm bringing home these
And so my parents argued a lot, but they stayed together, and.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
I think that that was important for my family growing
up in the projects where there's a lot of broken families.
The difference between my family and a lot of families
out there. We had a father and a mother. My
mother used to watch us from the window sill. There's
a black windows and my mama had black elbows. Light
skinned woman, black elbows. Why because my mother would sit

(09:47):
there on the window sill with her elbows and watch
her babies play all day, all day.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
Kennan, I don't do that. Don't cross that street like that, Sean.
Don't you fight that boy? You know he too big
for you. Damn don't you kick that cat? What if
that cat kicked you?

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Would you like that? My mother would discipline us from
the window because she can't my father. We knew we
had the answer to two things. We had the answer
to my father and God. And we feed my father
more because God don't have a belt. My father he

(10:28):
whip by that so bad that his belt was tired.
His belt was like and I hate when he pulled
out that that ironing court. I used to hate that.
But we used to always laugh. We used to listen
to get our ass well. And then my sister we
come out crying and we have welts all over us,
and my sisters be like, well, that's all I got
to say. Hey man, this is a real fire. It's hot.

(10:53):
I didn't know it was a real fire. I thought
that was like one of them bullshit ones in campus.
You got a real last fire.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Here's the end and this what's this called shave Botier.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's the shave Balleportier, That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Let me ask you this, yes, how different do you think?
How different do you think your life would have been
had you not had nine other brothers and sisters, including
to yourself. Let's just say, for the sake of argument,
you got four. Do you think because I think it
was really hard your dad probably, you say they argued
a little bit. Y'all don't know how much, but let's

(11:26):
just say, for the sake of argument, there's only three kids.
Do you think it'll probably been easier with the argument
your father to leave, but because he's like, I can't
leave this one with t.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
My father wasn't left with three kids. My father, my
father was a God raised my father, and my father
didn't have a father like that. Okay, you know, God
raised my father to the point to where my father
knew the Bible so well he could quote a scripture.
I need a scripture on love Corinth in thirteen seven,
chapter four, Love is patient, love is kind love. My

(11:57):
father knew that book because and I'm why he said,
because God's in that book. And my father died. He said,
if you ever want to know me, get to know
my father. Whenever you miss me, I'm in that book
right there. So sometimes at night when I can't sleep
because my daddy gone, I picked that book up and

(12:19):
those words screamed to me as my father talking to me.
And my mother was different. My mother was like she
wasn't real her witness. My mother was like she's Baptist,
and Mamas would tell me no let me tell you
some God ain't just in that book because she his
Bible was like the King. Now it wasn't like cause
you know the Joe Whitness got their own version. Yes

(12:41):
you know it's translated. My mother's like, no, the King,
James Virgin, what about the Koran? What about? There's God
in every book? So if you ever want to find
me and I'm gone, I ain't just in the Bible.
I'm in every book. So now I can't pick up
green eggs and ham Ma man in that book too. Yeah,

(13:04):
mos spelled backward when I look at you got for
the most part. So my father wouldn't have left no
matter what matter what one kid, ten kids, fifty d
Let me tell you something. My daddy, Hawi Wayane's was
a man, so much so that my daddy raised kings.
You know, we are successful because we was raised right.

(13:25):
We had a mother that loved us and a father
that protected us and respected and we had something to
answer to besides them God. My parents did a great job.
How do you get all these successful children? My parents
did a great job. And then Keenan was the pioneer
to go this is what we could do. But my
parents Hawiwan's and a viral wayns they were them. I

(13:49):
have a special good Grief on Amazon Prime right now
where I pay homage to my parents. And you know
that was a very hard time. Losing my parents kill me,
broke me up.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
How about this? Did you have an appreciation for your
parents then like you do now, because a lot of
times when you're going through it, you then they're telling
you things. Man, you don't know what you're talking about.
I'm you know, so forth and so on. I don't
think I had the appreciation. I understood what my grandmother
my grandfather was doing for me, but I don't I
didn't get an appreciation of true appreciation till I left

(14:21):
the house and I got on my own, and I
could hear everything they had ever said to me as
a child being replayed in my head.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
I think in some cases, yes, I think that, Like
my mother's always give us business advice. Okay, my mother
would be like, you gotta buy this, you gotta buy
real estate you have and my my mother talked, she
told you like this. Something about the way my mama
talked it was just very annoying, and I'd just be like,
I don't like the way you said it, you know
what I mean? Like, you know you right? She'd be like,

(14:50):
you see that house, that the abandoned building, Kendan, you
need to buy that, Molly. You see that crack house
right there, That crack house is gonna be worth millions.
You see that abandon building where the prostitutors coming out
of damon, you need to buy that. She tell us this.
In New York City and the meatpacking district, do you
know what them crack houses is now townhouses worth fifteen

(15:14):
million dollars? You know those buildings that was probably worth
a million dollars that the prostitute was sucking mingling in
that buildings probably worth fifty million dollars. My mother was brilliant.
My parents were very smart, and I always respected my
parents because my daddy taught me a scripture in the Bible.

(15:34):
And I'll actually get a tattoo across my chest. You
honor thy mother and father for thy days on this
earth will be longer. And what that scripture means is basically, man,
trust that God gave you great parents. Trust that whatever
journey they gave you, that you got to honor them.
I don't care if your daddy wasn't in your life.

(15:55):
Maybe your daddy knew he wasn't shit and he decided
to go, But he at least he made you. Even
in that case, I'd be grateful for my father. The
scripture is just about being grateful and honoring. I honor
my parents now with my walk as a father, I
honor them. I take care of my kids. I'm a man,

(16:16):
I am a man. My brother's a man. My father
raised good men, my mother raised good women and good men,
and we take pride in our family, you know what
I mean. And I honor my parents and I always have.
To the point, when my mom lived on the West Coast,
I'd fly home every Monday after a gig. I don't
care where I was in the world. I fly him

(16:37):
after that gig. I'd be tired of shit soon as
I get off the plane. Hey woman, good dress. We
going on to day? Oh where we going? Don't worry,
We're going. I want some steak. All right, Well, let's
go get some steak. I want that wat gous. I
don't care what it is. I know it's two hundred
and fifty dollars a steak. I go take her to eat.
I pick her up and my mother, will you put
her walk up down? And she put all that two

(16:59):
h then send the pounds on me. And I'm walking
lopside it, and my mother's walking with pride, like my
baby got me. I put her in the car or
I throw in because she was heavy, and then she
would laugh. She'd like you always throwing me in the car,
and I put my mother's seatbelt on her. I would
snap it. I drive to the restaurant. I hold my
mama's hand. We'd laugh, we talk. We'd get out that car.

(17:20):
The valet would come and to open her door and
pull out her cane. My mother said, noah, no, don't
do that. My son likes to take care of me.
And then I would open the door for her, and
then I would grab her. I would tell and she
hold me. We walked to the restaurant. We'd order her food.
I'd order her a little bit of sugar just to pinch.

(17:40):
I order something healthy because she had diabetes. And then
I take her home. And after I took her home,
I drop her off. She make me go get a mail.
My mother, she walked, she walked the wheels off your floor.
Don't get my mail, Come on, mama, you ain't got
nothing but sweepsteaks and bills, I know, but I could
win something one day, so I get her her mail,

(18:00):
and that would frustrate me. When I take her, she'd
get in the elevator and tell them when she get home,
I'll say, when you get on that balcony, you come outside,
let me see your face before I drive off. And
I would sit there and I wait till my mother
came out, and she'd be on the balcony like the
little school girl. I'm safe, and to see her glove
that she went on this date, in this romantic date.

(18:23):
Because my mother was romantic. My father unfortunately wasn't. But
her boys, she raised us to be romantic. As soon
as I pull off, i'll get that phone call from
my mama. I had a wonderful time. You sure know
how to date a gal. You must get you a
lot of ass, boy, I do, all right, mama.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
So let me ask you as far as dressing, because
both of you guys are kind of very similar in statue.
It's not like one is it's six five three hundred
pounds and the other nips five seven, one hundred and
thirty five. So you probably would.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Wearing Dwayne in keenan day. But so did you get
any new clothes? And this Damon's right here, this Sean,
this keening shoes. I feel ain't got motion. No. Sometimes

(19:20):
I would my mother on Easter, she would scrounge up
some money and give us like one hundred dollars to
go get our own little east house. Okay, so that
and then my dad will give us a little bit
of money for like school clothes, but only in the
beginning of the school.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
And it was like he give us like thirty two
dollars and we have to go get three outfits. I
mean one time me and Sean's is like, forget the albige.
This one shell told Didas was back out. We came
with our shelter, Didas. We were so happy, and my
dad says, therestion to clothes. We wear what we got.
We always went hand me downs anyway. But all right,

(19:57):
it take throws back to the store. Now, going back
to this story. We came back with the dads with
no shells, and we had a pair of pants and
we had you know, we feel ourself. We had a
shirt now okay, and we thought my dad be happy.
Where's the rest of the clothes that we got, the clothes,
this is all the outfit we need. We win this
five days a week. Would swap me in sean.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
No.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
He took us down to the supermarket, got us those
freezer sneakers, you know, the ones that be by them
in the meat section. Them big boys, they said, sneakers
in the super market. And these had no grip and
they had man we man, they had no we, no
no art support these shoes and we would breaks off

(20:44):
these shoes. And when he bought us corduroy pasts, we
had like thirteen outfits and some shitty shoes. And so
that's why as a grown man like I don't I
don't own a lot of like jewelry and things like that.
You know, a lot of clothes. I buy clothes and shoes.
I own fifteen hundred pair of sneakers, and I own
a lot of clothes. I used to work in clothing
stores because I used to dream. I worked in Barnie's

(21:06):
New York. I worked in foot Locker, I worked in
US Athletics. I worked in athletes for I loved clothing
right my whole life. I loved clothing because I was
like one day when I get money, I'm a dressed
nice and then and now I have like a lot
of clothes. And now I'm fifty two, and I'm like,
I don't want none of this shit. I'm selling all

(21:28):
my clothes. I'm getting rid of all my sneakers. I
want to live a minimalist lifestyle because I just want
to enjoy the really valuable things in life, which is life,
not stuff. I can't take stuff with me, and none
of that I could take to heaven. I just want
to enjoy collect as many smiles as I can, do

(21:50):
as much great work as I can grow as an artist,
a man grows spiritually, and just become the best version
of Marlin that I could be.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
When did you realize that all those sneakers, those clothing
didn't really make Marlon Walliams happy? When did you have
that epiphanty? Where were you at when you saw it?

Speaker 2 (22:06):
That?

Speaker 1 (22:07):
As like, damn, I got all of these shoes, I
got fifteen hundred pair, I got clothing, this got this whatever.
I ain't happy with this issue.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think when my parents died. When my parents died,
it gave me a clarity of what real yeah, what
life really means. None of that stuff means anything. You
can't take it with you. My parents, my mother collected everything,
she has, all the pictures, she can't take it with her.

(22:38):
The only thing she could take with her is the smiles.
That's all the love. That's all that stuff, and don't
mean nothing. Who were trying to impress? That's not gonna
do nothing. You know what I'm trying to leave behind
I smiles. So that's why when I'm on a set
and I'm doing comedy, yeah, I will do absolutely anything.
Damn there, light myself on fire for a laugh, because

(23:00):
when I'm gone, I'm leaving behind smiles. And every time
somebody smile on something I did that was classic. That's
why I don't make comedies. We try to make classics.
Thirty years later, you could watch Awayn's Brother something and
you still gonna laugh like it's your first time seeing it,
because we don't do jokes. We do classics. I want
to leave behind that is the legacy smiles. I watch

(23:21):
I Love Lucy and I smile. I watch the Honeymooners,
I smile. I watch you know, all these great artists
you know, and I prior I watch his specials and
I smile and I laugh, and they're living through that.
So those are the things that's important to me, not stuff.
To the point, Channon, I got robbed, and it's funny,

(23:49):
I realize I ain't got shit. There was nothing to take.
The nigga should have bought me something, came over and
gave me here at least take this bottle, man. I
didn't have shit. They they you know what they took
my guns. That's all they took was my guns. The

(24:11):
guns I would have shot them with.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
As you've been I've been on.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
It's the only thing they took because I ain't got shit.
I ain't got no watchers, I ain't got no change,
I ain't got you. Everything in my house that's valuable,
it's heavy. You could take the house, go for it.
Put that on a flatbed truck, go for it. You
won my ja. But I ain't got shit. But the
only thing that's valuable to me is the smiles and

(24:36):
the lives, and those are things I'm gonna die for.
I don't care about the stuff. Take all them sneakers.
I don't give you hel I'll put them in boxes
for you. Leave them by front. Take them. Trying to
get rid of all this bullshit because none of it
means anything. I ain't got nothing. I got the valuable things.
I got these smiles, I got these labs, I got
these jokes.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Well, you guys always funny? Where did you get? Is
it your mom? Is it your dad? Because it's hard
to have so many people for one family and all
of you are comics, comedians? You tell stories? Were you did?
You guys always have disability?

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Honestly, yes, everybody in my family is funny. I got
four sisters. Y'all ain't never seen these women are hilarious,
Like you could just sit around them. They funny as hell,
and they ain't got to worry about getting canceled, so
they say whatever, Well fuck on their mind, they just

(25:38):
say it. They funny, man. My mother was brilliant. My
mother was the funniest person. My mother could walk in
the room, assess the room, and like determinate though, she
sees every flaw that you have, and in a snap
she could talk about you like a dog. She smiles

(26:01):
as soon as you walk away. Yeah, that bit she had.
She had the jokes. And my father was silly, but
he was annoying, but he wasn't funny. He was silly.
And so I think what happened was my father was
being silly. He got on my mother's nerves. She cursed
him out, and that was funny. Then they had sex

(26:21):
and then they made us. Then that's the formula for
how the waynes it was crafted. But then everybody in
my house was funny. And then Keenan showed us he
unlocked the superpower. It was like, oh, when I saw
Keenan on the Tonight Show Johnny Carson, I was maybe
six and my brother. We had a black and white

(26:45):
TV with antenna that was broken, with knobs that wasn't working.
We had to turn it with a can opener that
we put on it or applot yes, and we had
a hanger hanging out of it. My whole family in
the kitchen gather around this table looking at Keenan on
Johnny Carson. And then after Keenan did his set, Johnny

(27:07):
Carson called him to the couch because that's when NBC.
Johnny was like, he's funny, right, And when he called
you the couch, you was getting a deal. So when
Keenan got called to the couch man, it was like
we wanted a lot of We were like, yes, Lord,
it was like like something out of Good Times.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Oh Lord, we don't did it?

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Damn, damn Dawn. And we were so proud. But in
my head as a little boy, sat there and was like,
oh my god, because I used to have dreams of
doing it. But I was like, oh my god, you
mean I could actually have a dream and I can
make it happen. My brother is on TV right now,

(27:49):
and right then and there, it was like I don't
have to dream no more. This is my new reality.
So from there, me and Sean, we've been studying comedy
since we was five and six years old. We watched
The Honeymooners. We watched abern In Costello every Sunday, we
watched The Three Stooges, we watched everything because we used
to dream one day were gonna have our own TV show,

(28:12):
right and one day and we had our own TV
show because my brother showed us that we could do it.
And then the dreams is reality? Simple?

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Was Keenan always one of your biggest role models? Because
I tell people all the time, I never looked outside
of my house for a role model. I had my
brother and I had my grandfather.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
That's what I said.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
So, man, the only man that I ever wanted to
be like was my brother and my grandfather.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Absolutely, I am the luckiest kid alive. You know. I
grew up in the house with five legends. All the
people I wanted to be like was in my household.
Keenan Damon, Kim Damon, my mother, my father, my big sister,

(29:00):
you know, Deirdre, de Vaughn, Nadia, they all Kim, they
all raised me. And I'm so lucky that I had
those examples in front of me, and to be the
baby because I get to go, I'm gonna do like that.

(29:20):
I ain't gonna do that. I'm gonna do that Hollywood thing,
that cracked thing. I don't think that's a good thing.
You didn't work out good for Dane worked it. But
this this acting thing for Keenan Boom. I get to
make the choices of what works and what don't work.
But even my big brother Doyne, we were lucky. All
my heroes was in my household. And I always say,

(29:41):
how lucky am I? If you people can die and
come back as something, I suggest you came back as me.
I had a stellar childhood. I knew Eddie Murphy came
to my projects when I was eight years old. We
sitting there Eddie Murphy, the biggest star in the world
because Keenan would have was working with him on Raw
and he had a deal o Eddie Murphy Production. Right,

(30:04):
So Eddie Murphy was in our house and I'm gonna
be ad these cowskin pants on Nick. And every time
he sat down, me and my brother Chong were going, move,
you're in move for some steak tonight, Sean. And we
cracking jokes, and my nephew Craig just kept punching Eddie
in the stomach and he was like, hey, Kenny, come
and get this kid. And we snapped on Eddie all night.

(30:26):
And God bless Eddie Murphy. God bless that man because
his pants cost more than everything in my household, including us.
But he never struck back. He gave us autographs. You know.
He said to Malon, go be great. To Sean, be
free to Craig. When you get older, I'm gonna punch

(30:47):
you in your face.

Speaker 6 (30:49):
I know.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Robert Townsend still like a big brother. I know Robertsonce
I was like seventy eight years old, you know what
I mean. I had legends in my household. Used to
come over and play a fake a fake Trump preparing
the first time I was ever on stage, we was
out in California visiting my brother Keny. He flew us
out UH one one winter on an airline when we

(31:12):
first started getting money. He had a little house in
Hollywood on Fountain, and he put us on this plane.
We ain't never been on a plane before. All we
knew was the project. He put us on this plane,
Seasun Airline. It wasn't niggas put us on Delta, it
wasn't American Airlines. We put us on SeaSound Airline, which
is basically like the Spirits, little broken ass brother. We

(31:34):
get on an airplane and it takes off and the
wing catches fire. Oh and then the other wing catches fly,
and we look. We never been on a plane before.
We looking out the window like, hey guys, look at
the jets. No, we didn't know it was on fire.
We thought that's how it's supposed to be. Were like,

(31:55):
this is a rocket ship. Everybody, But I wonder him
back of Mergency Land.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
That was your first time on the plane, Is that's
what happened?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yes, but we didn't know. We thought that was a
post that but and then we came out to California.
Robert was doing a set at the Improv and he
was doing his character uncle character old man, and he
bought me kid me, my nephew Damien, my nephew Craig,
and my brother Sean on the stage and he did
this sketch with us. And that's like, those are like

(32:29):
great memories. Like I grew up on a set of
Robert Townsend's Partners in Crime. He would give us jobs,
he would let us write sketches. I'm writing sketches at twelve,
thirteen years old. I'm featured in the sketch. We had
easy listening and hip hop.

Speaker 7 (32:44):
You know.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
He let us be in sketches. I met John Witherspoon.
John Witherspoon's playing the drunk in the at the Cowboys
here and he like, nd Of is coming and he
was running. We was like, that's a funny, dude. When
we get a show, that's gonna be our father. I
had a wonderful childhood. I can only do legendary things

(33:06):
because I grew up I was raised by legends.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Legendary people. Yes, NFL Week one is here, and a
new season mean new ways to get in on the
action that Draft Kings Sportsbook and official sports betting partner
of the NFL. Fans have spoken, we want to bet touchdowns.
Draft King hurt us and is delivering Draft Kings Sportsbook
is the number one place to bet touchdowns. Ready to

(33:30):
do a touchdown dance of your own. New Draft King
customers bet five dollars to get two hundred and fifty
in bonus bets instantly plus one month of NFL plus
premium on US Draft Kings Sportsbook app use coach Shannon
that's code Shannon for new customers to get two hundred
and fifty in bonus bets when you bet just five
bucks and get one month of NFL plus premium on US.

(33:54):
Offer ends nine to nineteen only on Draft Kings.

Speaker 8 (33:58):
The Crown is Yours ambling problem called one eight hundred
gambler in New York called eight seven seven eight hope
and wire text hope and wy at four six seven
three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem
gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven
seven seven or visit CCPG dot org eighteen and over
in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility

(34:18):
restrictions apply one per customer enter the Best Ball fifteen
million dollar contest by nine five, twenty four to get
one bonus entry twenty dollars entry fee required. Reward expires
at contest lock on nine five, twenty four. See terms
at draft Kings dot com slash d f ass.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Keenan's off doing this. So Keenan is having success at
a very very young age. So well, actually no, not
too young. Keena was about I think when it all
started happening for Keenan, how much key, how much older
is Keenan than you? Fifteen fifteen fifteen, So he's sixty seven, yeah,
so when you're like, so he's twenty four twenty five
when you yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
He's about twenty seven twenty when he really hits, like
twenty eight thirty when he did I'm Gonna get you sucker.
And then when Living Color, you know, ahead he was
just right off.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
So what were you like in high school? Got a
big brother to make it. But he's having not the
success like he had with Living Color, not the success
that he has I'm Gonna get your sucker, but he's
having some level of success. What were you like in school?
Did you like man my brick brother at in Hollywood
later for.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Y'all, I was cocky. I knew I was gonna make it.
I knew I was gonna make it, like in high school,
especially come high school, and I wasn't performing on high school.
You know, It's funny like my yes, my brothers was
famous by the time I got to high school, right,
they were doing stuff. I'm gonna get. Hollywood Shuffle came

(35:38):
out my freshman year of high school. And I remember
because I went to performing on high school and my dad,
Joe Witness, he was a homophobe. He didn't want me
to go to performer on high school because he was
watching fame. Yo. Okay, his nigga thought I was gonna
be leeroy like. He didn't want me wearing tights and
I don't know, car, aren't you doing that? And he said,
you can't go to that school. And my brother Kenan,

(35:58):
he was about your size at the time. He said,
he's gonna go to that school. He said he's not
going to audition. He said, I'm not gonna let your
homophobeia stop that little man's dreams. He's gonna go to
that audition and if he gets in, he's gonna go

(36:18):
if not, then you're gonna have to answer the me
and I got into school and that was the day
I realized my dad was a bitch ass nigga because yeah,
so yeah, I had a level of confidence. You know,

(36:39):
I think I wouldn't say cockiness. I just knew. I
knew what it was gonna be. I knew my brothers
were successful. Hollywood sheffle. Then I'm gonna get you, sucker.
I'm gonna get you suckle jacket. In school, my friend
Omar Apps used to borrow it from me. You know,
like I remember like going to college. I'm in college.
I'm at Howard University, in being Colors on the air,

(37:01):
I'm in living Color's brother at a black university. Sunday comes,
everybody stops what they doing. We run like roaches. We've
ran run to our TV and watch that TV and
then when it's done, came out laughing and we talked
about it, and those was mine so much so that
the professors sometime at Howard this is why I left.

(37:22):
There's a lot of stress. You know, they be teaching
all these classes and like, you know, let's talk about
minstrels and buffoony. It live in Color is it a
minor day minstrel? You know? Put this is it Marling?
And I'm like, you're putting me on blasts and I'm
in school and I'm like, then after after class, brother
want to hand me a script? Hit? He get that

(37:43):
to Keynan for me. He cloud the plays. They give
me a script. You don't get your ass out of it.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
That's the way you left. I've been I read your GPA.
Wasn't that other?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, First I let me take a shot. I keep
we're gonna talk about some hard questions. Let me get
a shot of there. I will tell you my GPA.
I was very smart until I got to college. And
it wasn't that I wasn't smart. It's just I didn't
apply myself. My first semester I got a one six

(38:17):
in classes one six, but I had had three point
eight partying. I could party in my ass or I
learned how much to drink? How many hits of the
weed before bane the Disney with the combination?

Speaker 1 (38:30):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Who's gonna give me some Who wasn't I? And I
remember I bought that great home and Keenan said, Keenan
was paying for my college. He said, all right, well,
you ain't gonna mess some my money. You paying for
your own college now, I said, what start sweating. I
was like, oh shit, I got to pay for my

(38:52):
own college. And so from then on I pulled in
three point sixes because it was my money. I wasn't
gonna mess that money up. And the reason why I
left wasn't because first of all, my brother hated the
fact that I went to college. They was like, come
join the family business. Come join the family business. We
have a living color on the air. My brother Sean

(39:12):
was like, Yo, let's do our sketches. Let's do this.
I was like, I said no. I said no. I said,
I love you, but I gotta be me if I
do it, y'all, wig, I can't be me. You know
how hard it is to come after Keenan, Ivory Wayans,
Damon Wayns, Kim Wayne, Sean Wayns and then Marlin, and

(39:33):
the only thing that I had was my own life experience.
I had to do my thing differently. So I wanted
to go to Howard to learn to be a man
outside of my brothers, to be my own. For me,
it was like Michael from the Godfather going to the
Army I know there's a purpose for why I'm going
to do this, but I need to go do this

(39:54):
for me. And I remember I wrote my brother Sean
like a ten page letter. I was so sad because
I knew what we were supposed to do. But I
knew he thought I was going back for a girl,
and I was like, no, I'm going back to getting Marlin.
And so I went back. I got a three six
three point six GPA. I did some film projects and
I was like, then I got more money, and people

(40:16):
think I was gifted more money. I wasn't. I wasn't
even on the list. Damon wanted Kadeem Harnessing. Now mind you,
I'm auditioning for stuff. I'm getting movies and turning them down.
I got like five movies, turned them down to go
back to school. Then that more money audition came and
Damon was like, look, nigga, I don't want you.

Speaker 7 (40:41):
I mean you could work, but I ain't gonna get
your hopes up high and have you committing suicide when
you don't get this part. He said, I want Kadeem Harnesson,
but Kadeen, he's doing a different world and I ain't
got different world money. And then so there's this kid,
Club Brooks. He got little ears, but he looks like me.
He got petzelers, but he looks like me, and the

(41:03):
studio likes him. So if you gonna come in, you
better come with that thunder. And he said, now, I
don't want you to worry about making these white boys laugh.
Don't worry about the studio.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
You worry about making this nigga laugh, because I don't
find nothing funny. And I knew what that meant. In
order to make Damon laugh, he wrote his words. Damon
wanted me to bring the writer out, so I had
to sit there and punch up what he wrote. And
if you look at my script for more Money, I
had all these different notes, never the black, always the red.

(41:36):
I came up with all these improps. I barely did
anything on the script. And when I they and Omar
was on there. Omar Apps, my best friend to this day,
came on the audition with me. He was like, you
got this. He's like, I'm not. I don't even why
the fuck o audition? He's like, this is yours. I
went in the audition, I blazed it and Dan was like,
he never gives you credit. He goes. I said, was

(41:57):
it funny? He goes, We made the white laugh and
you got the part. And I was like, oh shit.
And that's when I left Howard because I was like,
I'm on my way to do what I love to
do for a living, and I'm making money doing it.
And that's why I was like, fuck your school.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
In the beginning.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Did people feel that you got rolls or Sean got
rolls or anybody in the family got rolls because.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Of your big brother?

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Till this day and I laughed, they still don't want
to give you credit for what the work that you
put in. No, they just you know, Hay, this's gonna hate. Hey,
this is gonna hate. Hate is a business. It's a
big business. And hate you can hate. But you can't
discredit my accolades. You don't know my journey. You don't know.

(42:50):
I wasn't just some dude that got put into stuff.
I need you to go look at the credits. I've
been writing movies since I was nineteen years old. Me
and Sean created Wayans Brothers. When we was like twenty
twenty two, Don't Be a Menace scary movie, Me and
Sean and Keenan wrote that Scary Movie two. Me and

(43:14):
Sean and Keenan with a few other writers. But these
are ideas that we came up with. Sean came up
with a lot of these ideas. Scary movies. Was like,
don't be a minute. Sean came up with Scary Sean,
don't get enough credit, scary movie, don't be a minute,
White Chicks. Those are Sean's ideas. Me, I'm an executor.
We executed together. I know funny characters. I know how
to do situations. We all have gifts. In Keenan, he

(43:38):
knows how to put it all together and see it
from a macro point of view and work the shit out.
You let me tell you something. They can hate. All
they want. All my brothers do was len me opportunity.
And that's a gift in a curse because when you're
our age, see they came up. You got thirty years,

(43:59):
twenty years to make it under. In comedy, you found
your point of view. You've been on the stage. You
know how to make people laugh. You could sit on
the couch and you can make people laugh when you're
doing Johnny Carson. You can go in any room and
kill it. You you learn how to act you had
twenty years and now finally you get this opportunity. Me
and Sean didn't have twenty years. We got pushed in

(44:19):
the Hollywood seventeen and eighteen years old, and all we
had was instincts from being from a funny family. And
then over time, that's why first seasons of Ways, Brother,
we were just too We was just gunning. We didn't
understand story, we didn't understand how to fix thing. We
just knew we were funny and we had to make
it funny. And then season three you watch it start, yeah,

(44:40):
because we started getting better, right, And then if you
watch the progression of the movies, we started getting better.
Now at fifty two, I finally have thirty years in
the business. So everything that I've done for me in
all that learning, now is my time. You want to
judge me. I want you to judge me now because

(45:01):
I'm five specials in working on my six one. I'm
a different animal, because I'm not just a comedian. I'm
a damn good actor. I act the shit I could act.
I got pain I could When y'all see my dramatic
work that's coming this year, y'all gonna be like, yo,
I'm telling you now, I have ten thousand hours logged

(45:21):
in five different disciplines. I'm gonna be a I'm a
monster right now, bro like and I see it. I
could do characters, I could do deep character. I can
do characters dramatically, I could do them funny. I can
do so much. And now I'm gonna showcase all that.
Everything else was learning. So yes, my brothers gave me opportunity.

(45:44):
But there was a gift and a curse and it
was a very hard ride for me and Sean. And
you know what got us through is our work ethic
because my brothers wasn't easy on us. My brother we
got to a Living Color. They was like, we ain't
writing for Keenan's little talented brothers. And this is Keenan
Damon saying that shit. I thought I thought we had,

(46:08):
you know what I'm saying. Me and Sean we every
sketch on Living Color, the deaf jam sketch, shopping ranks,
mister ugly man. Me and Sean stayed up, snuffing wrong,
stayed up. We spent the night at in Living Color
learning to write. Spent the night because nobody would write
for us. We spent the night there writing no sketches,
and then when they got on, we had to go

(46:31):
execute them. Nobody wrote for us. We created our TV show.
I remember when we left in Living Color because Fox
was syndicating the show when it was curtin Keenan's pockets
and Keene was like, Nah, you ain't gonna do this
to me, and my family said fuck this money, and
we all left in Living Color. There's an episode of
Living Color where we got black shades on. It's a
Christmas episode. Jamie Fox is singing uh. He's singing, uh,

(46:56):
hang all the miss who toes this Christmas and me
and my family black glasses on, and we're sitting there
like this as a family because we protesting, and we
go on, you ain't gonna fuck my brother. We have family.
You touch one, you touch all your money. I'm sorry.
They was offering us big checks, seventy thousand dollars checks

(47:18):
to stay on that show. I'm still a brother after this. No,
I'm gonna support my brother. And we all left the show.
And that's why season five it got weird, It got
biz Marquee. God bless Chris Rock. He came at the
wrong time, but as brilliant as he is. You couldn't
save it because the eyes of the show is gone.

(47:40):
You understand heartbeat, yes, the eyes the vision. You can't
replicate weighing shit. And anytimes they try, you're gonna fail.
They've done other movies trying. You can't people taste that
shit that ain't weighing. Can't do what we do because
you ain't got my life experience. You don't have my
point of view. You didn't grow up with the people
I grew up with. Dona understand how life has carved

(48:02):
me as a visionary. You can't take the flavor. You
can't run. I could give you all the season in
I give you all what's in it. You don't know
how much to put You don't know what kind of food.
I'll give you the right flour. You don't know how
long to cook that chicken. You don't know how much
of that garlic powder you got to put in there.
I'll give you the hot sauce.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
It's francs.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I ain't gonna make you be able to make my chicken.
And that's what comedy is. And with my brothers, when
we left the Limon Color, I had seven thousand, I
had seven hundred dollars in the bank and nine hundred
dollars rent I was broke, and me and my brother
Sean was looking at each other like, what are we
gonna do now? My brother Sean was depressed. He was

(48:44):
sitting in the room with lights out, and he played
Christmas music because if you get upset, because Christmas is
a happy time. Was when we get him saying, nigga,
play that Christmas music, and I would come down with them.
We always had a bottle of diet pepsi, and when
they had one hundred and twenty, Alex died pepsi and
I would sit there like we did a limit color
and I would He had a brand new computer and

(49:05):
I was sitting there working on Wayne's Brothers. And then
one day he came out the room in his robe
and he said, what you doing, stupid? Said, I'm working
on our TV show. And the first thing he read
was interior outside. He said, stupid, how you have interior
you outside? He said, move over, and then we sat down.

(49:26):
We created our show Wayne's Brothers. Nobody gave us nothing,
and my brothers when we did, don't be this. Keenan
made us do twenty six drafts, twenty six drafts, and
then the director when we finally shot the movie, we
me and Sean would cry, why are we doing another draft?
I'm gonna do it again, and they't rdy yet. Then
the director didn't get comedy, messed the movie up. We

(49:47):
screened the movie, it got terrible ratings. Meri Max was like,
what are we gonna do? Keenan's like, I could fix it.
I need a million dollars and I need ten days
of shooting. Bet Keenan said okay, and I got the budget.
Now know what to do. Now, you guys gotta write
a movie. What do you mean, write a whole no movie?

(50:07):
Fuck this one up? And in one week we had
to write a whole damn new movie. So much so
that I couldn't even think of anything. I took some
hits a weed, Me and my boy got high, like
me and my boy Xable. I passed him to weed
and he took it. He coughed, and he threw up

(50:29):
now and fell on the floor. And I looked at him.
I said, hey, nigga passed that shit. And we put
it and don't be a menace. So we wrote all
these different sketches. The Grandma's breakdancing, all these different sketches
that were getting jumped in that became the movie it
Don't be a Menace. And hadn't we did the twenty
six drafts prior to that, we could have never showed

(50:51):
up to put together that draft in seven days and
do what became the classic Don't Be a Menace? You said,
he damn, I got stories. I need a second down.
That was a I look at my face in the
mirror and I don't know I'm this all.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
You mentioned that Keenan made you write it twenty six
rewrite it twenty six times. Imagine I can imagine the
length of time that you and Sean spent coming up
with the first grip yeah, and then to rewrite it yeah,
and to rewrite it and then say, you know what,
y'all messed it up again. So guess what.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
I got a million dollars from Merril back and we're
gonna do it Againain. Then you like, man, come on, Keenan, bro.
The whole time, you just roll with it. We wanted
to fight this nigga. I was like, Sean, you get
the legs, I'll kick him in the chest. We were
so mad. But you look back and you go, ah,

(51:53):
I see why Yoda made us do those things. And
now with Jedi, now I know how to do it.
Now I know. I sit there and I talk to
me and Robert Townsend we have talked and rob was like, damn,
little bro, you you really you really are on your Yeah,
and he's like, I'm so proud of you when they

(52:13):
hear that. You know for my brother and my brother Keenan,
but I'm proud of you doing great work. You know,
I work my whole lifetime to be able to hear
I'm proud of you. You're doing great work. My brothers
don't they don't give me, they don't laugh. I go,
how'd you like it? I put it on and when
something funny happens, they go, that's funny. Damon just goes hmm.

(52:40):
And to hear them go, I'm proud of you. When
he watched God Loves.

Speaker 7 (52:44):
Me, Damon said, you know, ugly, he did something different.
He took one topic and you went in for a
whole hour. He said, I don't think a lot of
niggas a special, but.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
That was that was special. He said, that made me.
You inspired me. I was wow, And that's how I
knew I was on this. Keenan was like, Damning said,
just special was bringing I watched it. He was right.
We said, good job, beautiful work. And so I knowing
I'm doing the right thing. And it's not like it's

(53:19):
not an accident. I've been trained in ways that y'all
don't even know. They don't even know, y'all, I could
tell you story at the store. I'm this is thirty
three years of cooking. I'm telling you this. This next
level was we were going, We're going for the shiny things. Yeah,
they don't see it.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Let's get back to Living Color. I didn't realize till
we were researching this in Living Color.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Was only on four years.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, that might have been the greatest four year run
ever in their history.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Ever. That show should still be on. That was a
staple that should have been institution. Yes, it's an institution.
You know what's funny is in Living Color. I think
Damon and Keenan were inspired by Sating out Live and
I think Keenan was like, they never have me On

(54:10):
and Damon had just gotten fired from there and he
was like, all right, well I'm gonna do take all
this funny shit that I've had we're gonna do it
on this show. And he took and all these funny,
crazy sketches that they wouldn't let him do on SNL,
and they did it on Living Color. And to this day,
you know, I've never done SNL. Really, I've done Daily

(54:31):
Show never. I guess I'm not hot enough. But you know,
I love the fact that I'm you know, I'm always
gonna be in Living Color alumni, right. And one day
sometimes I look at God and I go, if the
opportunities don't come for you, it's not for you, right,
And maybe it's God telling me create my own show,

(54:51):
do my own sketches. And I could and I will,
and I you know, I just feel like everything is God.
When it don't happen, don't be mad. God's writing your story,
so trust him.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
We had Tommy Davison.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Now that nigga. Now we get into the good stuff.
I need another drink now. He actually he's saying, why
are you not drinking your own sauce? Neil got me
up in here drinking your evil juice and you you
was sitting there watching me. Okay, well that you I
think you wanted, but a little you know, let's I'm
gonna sip this one to success, man to success. Go talk,

(55:30):
Let's have this thing promotion.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Got right, Yeah, Tommy said, Should we light up a cigar?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
It's okay, damn oh good, Tommy said, And I didn't really,
by the way, Love Tommy Davison, big big bro like
he to me, underrated that boy should have been one
of the biggest movie stars in the world. Tommy Davison
is brilliant.

Speaker 9 (55:55):
Let me tell you how dope, Keenan is the fact
that your eyes for talent, that you could make and
see talent and greatness in all these people you assembled
on the cast, Tommy Davidson, Jim Carrey, David Allen Kreer,

(56:17):
Jamie Fox, Kim Wayns, Kelly Colefield, Steve Park, my brother,
Sean Me, even the babies.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
J Lo Jaylo was just like a dancer and a singer,
and Keen was like, you should do more were he
knew she was special, knew it. J Lo carry Anna Knaka.
If you look at all the writers that made it
from in Living Color, and they would complain when he
made them work, But just like when we did those
twenty six drafts, it prepared them for their evolution and

(56:49):
their greatness as writers, because this is what you gotta do.
You got to rewrite. Somebody has to work you and
you may not like it and you may resent it,
but look at how you're eating. Keenan ors a visionary
and Damon that's what taught me the eyes. Damon the
most magical talent, him and my sister Kim. But Damon

(57:12):
as a comedian. I used to watch this man go
on stage and the first only thing he wanted to
do was you go up there, and they'll be like,
and go behind the curtain. I'm doing the invisible coming.
Watch as I scratch my nuts. He would, and he's
just playing with the audience because he don't care. He's like,
I'm gonna use this time to say fuck you to

(57:32):
the audience because now I can create without your Judgment's
the reason why Damon don't do stand up nowadays. He
feels people are too judgmental, and he's right, you can't
say it no more. I need to speak my mind.
Damon could do characters. Damon could do monologues. He tell
you the joke, then show you the joke. He talked
about his pain handicap. Bully came from somewhere. Damon was

(57:55):
born with a handicap. He had a club foot, and
so he came out with Handyman, which is from something
that was painful. He created art. Damon is one of
the most brilliant comedians ever. You don't understand. I got
to watch this. I watched Jim Carrey. Like TV, we
tell them, do Jack Nicholson here, do this character? Do
that character? Du verd Demala used to make us laugh.

(58:18):
Me and Sean we be peeing ourselves. David loonngrere one
of the funniest dudes you ever wanted to meet. Kim
Wayans what a special talent. This is why I'm sometime
in Hollywood. I get a little upset because there's no
way Kim is like black Carol Burnett. She's only marginalized
by what Hollywood deems they want to make or they

(58:41):
feel is a special talent to be celebrated. Kim Wayans
is a great writer. She graduated from what's called with
honors Wesleyan University. She's a brilliant writer, amazing actress. She
has a brilliant one woman show. But I tell you
I came from greatness. I know greatness. I was I

(59:06):
was touched by greatness grew up with, and not in
a perverted way.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Y'all made the man put y'all made fun of David.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Hell yeah, god on, man, the man gotta we call
that shit a hockey puck, a golf club not even
a good one. It's the p Yeah. It was like
a picture of a pitcher wins.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Or the one.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
We made fun of. It's all we do. We talked shit.
My whole family. We make fun of each other.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
That's what we do.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
But we have a great sense of humor. But more
than that, we have a great life.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
We laugh a lot.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Were laughing our way through this lifetime. I hope other people.
Do you know a living color?

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Tommy said, you guys dropped that during halftime of a
super Bowl, got twenty million views, and then the next thing,
you know, the super Bowl of the following you, the
NFL dropped Michael Jackson.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Yes, what happened was what happened was Keenan and Eric
Gold and those guys came up with the idea to
do the halftime show because they was doing they the
bands marching bands playing and Keenan was and there was
like they got with Dorito's and I think Pepsi is
somebody else. And they was like, we're gonna steal the audience.

(01:00:16):
And Living Color was at his biggest yes, and it
was like, we gonna take that audience and bring him
to a Living Color and a special Living Color halftime show.
All the viewers scattered left the Super Bowl, went to
Fox watched this hilarious live uh in Living Color episode.

(01:00:37):
Damon got in some trouble. He always got in something
proud something we're uh. He said some joke about Carl Lewis.
I think to this day Carl Lewis is still mad.
David Grill said, Homie, He's gonna long jump into your asshole.
And yeah, So we stole the audience and the next

(01:00:58):
year that Mike, they was like, y'all ain't never doing
that again. They paid the biggest star in the world
to come do the halftime show.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Was that Do you think that was the beginning of
a halftime show?

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Is we know it for the end of absolutely absolutely?
So Hey man, uh all you guys make usher uh
doctor dre j Lo, all you people that are doing
the halftime show, hope you got a big check. Thank you, Keenan,
thank you Living Color.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Dude, do you think like when I look at Saturday
Night Live and I look at uh in Living Color,
and you said, because Keenan, you know, I think Keith
was on there once, wasn't it that line?

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
I do know? No? And Damon you said, Damon, Damon
was on, was on he got and baby see that's why.
See Damon was bad. That's why when I went to
Ice go to school and they immediately put me in attention,
I was like, why were you putting? Because that's we
saw what Damon did.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
If anything like that, you take that seat.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Damon was bad. And you know, I think on Saturday
Night Live he was bad. He did a character that
he weren't supposed to do and missed the monopoly. I
remember the sketch and he's like, why is David doing
that character? Because he was tired of not being able
to do him and he got fired for that. Wow,
And so I don't think. I think after that he
was actually allowed to host again. And I think once

(01:02:24):
again he did something he wonn't supposed to do. David crazy,
but he's brilliant sometimes man, brilliant people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
It works for him.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
Man, he's brilliant. I would never put a chain on, Damon,
Let Damon be free. Damon is a magical unicorn man.
He's so talented, so funny, his instincts are great. Love
my brother man. He taught me, taught me to stage.
He taught me not to be afraid of that stage.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listened to part one on. Just
simply go back the club profile and I'll see you there.