He may be one of the funniest men in America, but Marlon Wayans is pretty serious when it comes to his career goals.
“I want to be a force of nature,” he says. “I want to be top of my game. I’ve been a star for a long time, but I’m trying to get to superstardom.”
The youngest first-generation member of the Wayans family (his siblings include Damon, Shawn, Dwayne, Kim and Keenan Ivory Wayans), Marlon was part of the family’s groundbreaking TV series In Living Color. He co-wrote, produced and starred in the Scary Movie and Haunted House movies, along with the seriously twisted cult favorite White Chicks. He got raves for a dramatic turn in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream and played a comic book paratrooper in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
His NBC sitcom, Marlon, was recently renewed for a second season.
Still, Wayans wants more, which is why he’s on a solo standup comedy tour. Check him out — in living, breathing color — Jan. 19-21 at the Tampa Improv.
“I think sometime you go backward in order to take a huge step forward, and I think standup is making me a better artist,” explains the 45-year-old New Yorker. “So I’m allowing myself to do the work and refine myself. It makes you a better writer, a better producer, a better star. It makes you a better ear for your audience.
“It teaches you heart. It teaches you a lot, so I just love doing standup. I think I’m getting better, and it’s preparing me for my next 20 years, which will hopefully be my most successful. You know, that 20-year run you look for.”
A few months ago, Wayans taped his first-ever standup special. It’ll debut this spring on Netflix (which is currently showing his most recent film, the bad-dream comedy Naked).
His standup palette includes storytelling, characters and voices.
“I’m all over the place,” Wayans explains. “It’s not just me sitting there telling jokes. It’s a show. It’s edgy but it’s funny — it’s edgy with kid gloves, so everybody can enjoy it. It’s a good show.”
He does, of course, touch on current political and social events. “I would be doing my audience a disservice if I didn’t,” he says.
Wayans says everyone in his family has an advanced sense of humor.
“We grew up in the projects, poor, and we share that funny point of view of the world. But my nieces and nephews, and my kids, grew up in private school, and well-off, but they’re still really funny. So I think it’s in the genes.”
Growing up, he and his brothers used smack-talk and jokes as a defense mechanism.
“Dad’s whoopins hurt, you know?” Wayans says. “But you know what really hurts? Words. And so when we found the power of words, that’s when people started either really messing with us, or leaving us alone.”
The other kids often didn’t know what hit them.
“They beat our ass, but we hurt their feelings,” Wayans laughs.
It’s a talent he continues to refine to this day. “Everything is funny,” Wayans believes. “It just takes time for you to find the right formula.
“I’m not saying that everything out of my mouth is going to be hilarious. Sometimes it’s going to be offensive. But there’s no area I’m afraid to talk about. It takes time, but you can find the funny in anything. You’ve got to dare to find the funny, and don’t let people silence you. As comedians, that’s our job, to into the dark caves and pull out some light. You’ve got to be fearless.”
