Marlon Wayans Opens Up on Battling Depression (“I Broke Down & Cried On Stage”)

My mother's death shattered me into a million pieces. Really? Break his heart, break my life. I was rescuing myself with my comedy. The expression became different. Expression became therapeutic. I'm bleeding inside, but I'm literally pulling myself from depression. I'm back with my buddy Marlon Wayans.

Actor and comedian Marlon Wayans has been.

Performing standup since he was a teenager and has starred in dozens of popular series and movies. Please welcome Marlon Wayans. I got people cracking up right through 57 minutes. And then, whew, it hit me. One stage, after a pod broke down, I cried, 'cause the reality of my parents being gone hit me.

If you could hear a message from your mom, what would you want that message to be?

Big boy, you did good. You did right by our family. You showed the grandkids and the great grandkids that everybody was good. You took care of your brothers and your sisters. Always, we would.

What do you wish more people would ask you?

Probably what I'm afraid of.

What are you afraid of?

I'm afraid of.

Hey everyone, this is Lewis Howes and I am so excited to invite you to the Summit of Greatness 2024 happening at the iconic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. This is more than just an event. It's a powerful experience designed to ignite your passion, boost your growth, and connect you with a community of other inspiring achievers. Join us Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th for two days packed with inspiration and transformation from some of the most incredible speakers on the planet. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your life, unlock your potential, and be part of something truly special. Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com/tickets and get your tickets today and I will see you there.

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The School of Greatness is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. As Amica says, Empathy is our best policy. That's why they'll go above and beyond to tailor your insurance coverage to best fit your needs. Whether you're on the road, at home, or traveling along life's journey, their friendly and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to ensure you have the right coverage in place. Amica will provide you with peace of mind. Go to amica.com and get to quote today. Fuel your greatness with wonderful pistachios no shells. Wonderful pistachios is a great source of protein with zero guilt. Each one ounce serving has six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value. Pistachios are known for their protein power, fiber, and better for you unsaturated fats for a combination that may help keep you feeling fuller longer. And now there's a new way to snack strong with unsalted no shells holding the salt. not the flavor for a snack that packs a protein punch. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Marlon Wayans in the house. Good to see you, sir. Good to see you. Very excited that you're here. Just for people that don't know, you are extremely talented not only as an actor, but producer, director, creative, writer, standup icon, and your films have done over $1,000,000,000 globally over the years.

Crazy.

And we were just talking beforehand about you've been in this industry. I asked you, when did you start making your first dollars? And it's been over 30 years, three decades of you in this kind of world of entertainment, writing, creativity, and expressing yourself. And there's something crazy because I only look 30. I do look 30. You were born.

Exactly.

And something I, I read about you recently. that I think is really cool because I think a lot of people think of you only as, well maybe not a lot of people, but I think a lot of people might assume that you're always out for the joke. You're always out for writing the best joke and getting the laugh and whether it be on stand-up and the movies that you're creating. But I saw something recently where you talked about wanting to bring spiritual growth to audiences. And I don't know if that's over the last few years that's come to you or if you've always had that, but when did that start to become a focus for you saying, I want to obviously bring laughter because laughter is healing, but how can I help audiences grow spiritually through my creativity?

I think that started for me. I think stand-up has developed me into that. I think that was always there, but I couldn't hear it because I was too desperate for the joke. But then life happened. and you understand, for 47 years of my life, 50 or 48 years, I had an amazing life. I say it to them. I'm like, if you people could die and come back as anybody, please come back as me for my first 48 years of life.

Really?

Magical life story existed. My mother will love me. My father who protected us and stayed with my mom and brothers and sisters when they wasn't trying to kill me. They were great, you know, great role models. And they poured into me, uncles and aunties that loved me. And I just had a beautiful time. I, I, a career. I had, I grew up in a house with my Legends. You know how crazy that is? Wow. The people that you want to be like, they're sleeping in the bed above you.

That's crazy.

On the movement, but underneath you, everybody, you grow to be like, and then they become Superstars. And then you meet Eddie Murphy when you're like eight years old. And Robert Townsend when you're like six. And guys like John Witherspoon, another comedian giant when you're like 12. And then you go on a... your brother creates a living color and you know Jim Carrey and Tommy Davidson and J. Lo and all these great... David Alan Grier, all these great people. I had a great life. And then what happened was my parents died. and 57 people I love died. 57. 57.

Wow.

You know, and that's the sad part about getting to be my age is people die. It happens to them. And, you know, and not to be a hater, but you better hope that you watch people die because that means, like, you're still alive. You know what I mean? I'm gonna miss you, but I don't want to go. I want to be here forever, so. you know, I started having this different vision of myself because I was rescuing myself with my comedy. The expression became different. Expression became therapeutic. I'm bleeding inside, but I'm literally pulling myself from depression because my mother's death shattered me into a million pieces. Really? Break his heart, break up my life. Yeah. And my father's death, I started putting myself back together piece by piece. And with that piece, my dad was a very religious and spiritual person. I realized that when I did my last special, Good Grief, and even the special before that, God Loves Me, I realized that it's not about the joke. that it's about the story. If I could bring story to stand up, I can do something different that no, that would be my voice. Because I've been doing movies and TVs for 30 years, and now I'm like, oh, wow, I only been doing stand up 12. And I'm like, oh, wow. If I put all this knowledge that I have these together, I could create something that hasn't really been done. And then that's what left me with the spirit. Because when I do stand up, it's like a character that has in a movie, a hero, that has to find an elixir. That elixir for a lot of times is not the laughs. Laughs are the things that keeps you entertained. The elixir for me is always going to be love.

Right?

That is a universal thing, love. So if I put that, whether it's love of self, whether it's love of a girl, whether it's love of my family, whether it's whatever it is, healing, right? Those things, and that's what I'm trying to get at the end, then beyond the joke, because if I tell you a joke, I could change your mood, but I'm not going to change your life. Now, if I tell you a great story that affects you, now, I left you with a jewel that you can actually change your life with from watching me tell you these jokes and these stories. And that's how I think I'm gonna be a very effective communicator and brand. It's like a rebranding of myself. I have all this time. Me and my brothers did all these great things and I realized the individual that I am and I'm now I could do Marlon, right? Take Wayne's and put over there for a second. Let me fly around as Marlon and find my voice without having to answer to without having to, you know, do things that everybody, the older brothers say, I could just do me. And then when I learned all of me, I could come back to Wayne's and be like, guys, let me tell you how we can build this brand. And so that's why I, that's what I'm finding, that my voice is more than just telling jokes. Telling jokes is the smallest part. Telling you a great story and changing your mood and changing your life.

Who taught you how to tell stories better? Or when did you start to really master the art of storytelling?

I'm still working on it. You never really master the art of storytelling. There's different kind of storytelling. Storytelling with stand up. And then there's just storytelling, I think, that best book about writing and storytelling I ever read was probably the Writer's Journey. I think it was the Hero's Journey.

The Hero's Journey.

The Hero's Journey.

Hero's Journey.

You're right. I think it was Chris Vogler.

Is that Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey or different?

No, Joseph Campbell did, I think he did. Hero has a thousand faces.

Yes, yes.

Right?

Yes.

I think, I mean, it was Chris Vogler. I think it's the same that did myth in movies, whatever. Heroes Journey, sometimes they call it either. That book really made me look at, when I watch movies, I look at them differently. I see scripts, I see characters, I see journeys. What does he want? It made me look at, I'm not entertained by movies anymore.

You're studying and stuff.

I'm studying. It's crazy. When me, I'm watching a movie, you guys are. No, I'm watching the construction. I'm like, oh, my God. Good news, bad news, worse news. Indiana Jones is an hour and a half, two hours of good news, bad news, worse news. Something good happens, something bad happens, something worse happens. I escaped that. And good news again. And that's bad news. Good news, bad news, worse news. I get this, the thing from the statue, from this. this egg or whatever, it's a valuable egg, it unleashes a boulder. Oh my God, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. I take and I jump and I get to safety. And when I land from escaping the boulder, I'm in a pit of snakes. My worst nightmare. I escape. So studying story, studying character, studying what a hero goes through, studying how other characters help this, the hero or try to hinder the hero from getting the Elixir. Right. Those are obstacles in his way, insurmountable odds, and every scene has to be like that. So I learned from that book, and I also think I took Robert McKee's story, story by Robert McKee. He had a seminar that he did and I went five times. First time I went, I didn't understand the word he was saying. I swear to God, I cut English, you know what I mean? Like, even when I write, I'm like, look, I'm not great with Ram. Where am I? I'm not gonna word this good, but here, and my writing partner, Rick, he's a stickler for that. So we work. I'm like, yo, here's this funny. Yo, make it work. What it was, this character with that cut, let's write that, and then we collaborate on that. He is never gonna be able to give the flavor and them jokes like I could give. So we have a great collaboration. But taking that course the first time, I didn't know what he was saying, but I kept going. And now on the fifth time I took it, I was like, I don't even take it no more. I understand everything that man is saying. I understand everything that man is saying when it comes to writing a story. crazy enough parody of which I came up with in stories like the least important thing. Really, it's all about the jokes, the desperate media. The story is not important, a thin one. But the jokes, everything, the timing of.

The jokes, gotta be funny. Really?

When you write a script, when you're in a parody, unlike any other genre, Right? Everything got to be funny. The slug line. Okay, where am I? What's funny about where the person is? What is the people doing? They got to be doing something funny. Who is saying something funny? Who is the character? They got to be funny. Their interaction with the next person got to be funny. The dialogue. What's funny about the dialogue? What's funny about the world? Everything the joke.

The whole movie.

The whole movie.

Wow.

It's a desperate medium. That's why not a lot of people can do parody the way we can do parody. Because we have such a well and a knowledge of great characters and our experience and, you know, through Wayne's is telling jokes. And for years and it's, you have to master the art of comedy. It's its own art, and there's different forms of Comedy within the art of Comedy. There's different Different genres, right? Sketch. So, I'm sorry, I talked a lot.

No, it's great. Outside of your own movies, what do you think are the three best parody movies that you've seen that have done it incredibly well?

Airplane, Hot Shots, Blazing Saddles. I think they did it great.

Why?

They, they, they. Those guys, the Zucker's, no Brooks, you know, they're the forefathers of the, of the genre. So, you know, respects, you know, without them doing it, we would have never, we probably would have come to it. Right. But they gave us the blueprint. Yeah.

And they showed you how it works.

Yeah. Yeah. We just remodeled the whole thing. He was like, that's, this is the old Ford car, and it runs on gas, and he was like, nah. Take all that off. We're gonna make it electric. We're gonna put the exhaust system on there. This car is gonna go zero to 103 seconds. Like we just changed it up. And put the flavor on it. Put our urban voices on a white genre, which gave it flavor. And it was like, oh, we never seen that before. And it's hard to replicate. because it's based on our experience. That's why we like, somebody wants to do Scary Movie 5. We're like, okay, go for it. It's not gonna do well.

It's hard.

Yeah, it'd be hard because you don't, you have to know what you're doing and nobody, you have to love the art of parody. All right? Parody is its own beast. Now, as a writer, I understand that story. So next time I write a parody, it's gonna be way better. than the parody as wrote in the past, because now I understand story.

But you said story doesn't matter as much as jokes and parody.

It doesn't. But I still think if you could marry the two, you've done something great. So that's what I'm looking forward to, is writing the next thing that's gonna be, I'm putting it all together. Everything is coming all together.

You're working on it right now?

No. Well, I have a couple ideas in my head. Right, right. And I'm, I'm, I think Rick and I are gonna lay into one and then we'll just come home, let it rip.

That's cool.

I had one I was gonna do, but I can't. So I'm not gonna even go there. Because, you know, and then, so I think books helped me tell stories. Also, I think some of the great comedians tell great stories. Like Richard Pryor, great story teller. Dave Chappelle, wonderful story teller. Dave is masterful. You watch Dave, man. Dave is like, it's like going to school. He's like a science professor, you know, I mean, our English teacher. Like he's well, well read, well spoken, knows how to put it all together. My brother Damon, great storyteller, great comedian like this. So I'm I think you have to steal fire from the gods. Yeah. And what you learn is you don't steal jokes. I never want to tell anybody's joke. I would never have to accuse me of. I'm a writer. I'm a writer, not just for myself, but for others. You know what I mean? Like, I'm a creator, so I don't want to hear you steal. No, no, I don't do that. I look at things that they do that are inspiring, and I go, I like this element, you know what I mean? Like I like that Dave can educate you with his humor. I love that Kevin Hart could sell you a joke. That's a great salesman right there. Well, this is good or bad. He knows.

It makes it sound funny either way. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Rock, I love his artistry. 'Cause Chris is a perfectionist, you know, and these are like guys that's been doing it before me. Like I just, I'm newer to stand up, so they're kind of like the big brothers. For me, even though some of them were younger or my age, I just started taking stand-up really serious the past 12, maybe 14 years. So I've been, but now I'm progressing at a crazy rate because I write, produce 30 years of material, I write TV, I know how to direct. So when all these things meet the stand-up comedian, and the reason why I started doing stand up, because I was a star for, like, 20 something years. I've been a star.

TV movies. Yeah.

I'm not. I'm not content.

Really?

I want to be a superstar. In order to be a superstar, meaning when the best scripts come in, I want to be one of the 10 guys that they're sending those scripts to. I want to be one of the 10 guys that get the best scripts to work with the best directors because they want to collaborate and we get the best budgets. And then I go on a worldwide tour selling out of this movie. But I need the fans to be like, I trust him. So, see, standup has made me a professor in comedy.

Really?

Now I understand. And I know how to sell a joke. And I know how to. When I'm on these talk shows, I've been lighting them up. I like Jimmy Fallon up. Jimmy Fallon, go on the show. He's like, oh. Oh my God, it's always a seven minute vacation when you come on. You're not gonna ask me questions. I just rolled and ripped, 'cause I got 300 people in front of me and I'm gonna make 'em laugh, and then I know how to make 'em laugh in the morning. So when I do Kelly and Ryan or Kelly and her husband, what's her name? Damn, I'm bad. Kelly and Mark, you wanna do that show? I know how to, I'm appropriate for who's watching. So females in the morning, I'm not gonna curse, I'm not gonna be too edgy. You read the room. Yeah. read the room, know who's, you know, I mean, there's a morning talk shows in the afternoon drive. Yeah. If you're doing knowing who to sell and how to sell. So me doing stand-up I was like, I'm gonna get people to pay fifty dollars in ticket to come see me. And one day I'm gonna sell out the garden. And if I didn't get sell out the garden and they're paying 50 to 100 something dollars to come see me there, or maybe a couple hundred, I don't know. then when it comes to movies, they're gonna pay that twenty dollars to come see me in the movies because I have been working to be a huge International star. And everything is what is being created through just me working. I don't even look up and see what I've done. I just love the work. And now I'm starting to look up and go, okay, you have pull out of the micro and you have to be macro. Now look at yourself and how do you build this artist into this wonderful business? But I have the knowledge and the skill set and I used to be very humble because humble people want to learn. I've just gotten confident.

Really?

Because I know I did the work. I can talk to you about how to write a... you want to know something, I have an excellence in something. I have a skill set. I have a knowledge of something that is like, oh, how did you put that together? Right? And I could sit there and I could tell you how I did it. I know the science behind comedy. I know the math behind comedy. I know this. I've done it my whole life. And now I'm learning sales and now I'm really want to learn business, you know what I mean? So I'm gonna surround myself with people that can Teach me about that so I can apply all those things to this thing called comedy and built out of Marley.

But for so many years you had movies that people were already coming to the movies and watching you. They're already paying 20 bucks to come. You're, you know, you're selling billion dollars at the box office globally with all your movies. Most comedian, most stand-up comedians, it seems to me, do stand up to try to get big enough to be able to then go movies. You started in movies and you're going backwards. Why go backwards when you've already been a star?

Because I don't want to be a. I want to laugh at a billion dollars in box office. I want 100 billion dollars in box office. Why do you want to hire Tom Cruise? Because I know I can do it. I have an amazing skill set, not just comedy like. drama. I went to film arts high school. I'm really, they don't even know. I'm a really talented, dramatic actor. I know it. I know it. And just got better. And, you know, this year I got Bella, I got two episodes of that, and then I have a movie with Jordan Peele, him and that Justin Tipping director, who's an absolute Visionary. And I'm telling you, man, I'm, I I I'm just in. I'm in my bag and I can finally say it. You know, when you, you, you know.

Put the reps in. You got the reps.

I got the reps in. I did the work.

What do you think is holding you back from the next level of those results that you want? God. This episode is brought to you by Square, your favorite neighborhood spots run on Square. And did you know Square can help you turn your small business idea into a big success? Yes, even that wild idea for Squirrel Fuel, your squirrel themed coffee bar. Square is so much more than just a point of sale for local businesses. What started as a little white card reader is now powering things behind the scenes, helping you manage finances, schedule staff, and cover cash flow gaps. With Square, you could keep things at squirrel fuel running like clockwork, no caffeine needed, well, except for your baristas, and good luck finding ones willing to wear a squirrel costume. Square gets it. Local businesses can be big business. Yet with growth comes complexity. But whether you're expanding to new locations or building your loyal following, Square meets you at every opportunity. Square helps you handle today and dream bigger for tomorrow. Go to square.com/go/greatness to learn more. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash G-R-E-A-T-N-E-S-S Square meet you there. When I got injured playing football, everything in my life changed. My dream disappeared overnight. I was broke, crashing on my sister's couch, stuck feeling sorry for myself. But then I made a choice, stay stuck in that pain or adapt a no bull mindset and build something new. And that choice changed my life. The no bull mentality is what no bull is all about. No bull is the footwear brand for those committed to getting stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. Known for their award winning shoes, no bull continues to raise the bar with the all day rip stop. I am a huge fan of these engineered for versatility, The All Day Rip Stop is designed to perform from early workouts to late nights and everything in between. With a soft foam midsole for comfort, targeted breathability, and a Rip Stop upper for extreme durability. They keep me moving comfortably all day long. I am a huge fan of these shoes. No shortcuts, no excuses, just commitment. That's the no Bull mindset. Exclusively for our listeners, no Bull is offering 30% off your order. Visit nobullproject.com/greatness for 30% off your entire order. That's nobullproject.com slash greatness for 30% off. Haven't you heard? The newest fashion trend is finding clothes that feel good and last. And that's where Quince comes in. Their lightweight layers and high quality staples will become your new everyday essentials. Quince has all the things you actually want to wear, like organic cotton silk polos, European linen beach shorts, and pants that work for everything from backyard hangs to nice dinners. Everything I have from Quince is such good quality and it's so comfortable. And the best part, everything with Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury pieces without the crazy markups. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. Stick to the staples that last with elevated essentials from Quince. Go to quince.com/Lewis for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's quince.com/Lewis to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/Lewis. Why do you think God is holding it back?

Because I think in order to make the kind of sword that I'm gonna be, I have to go through a lot of fire. I had to go through a lot of fire. So everything is building me. God is not breaking me. So every time, every milestone that I don't reach or I get close to, I'm still hungry. I'm still thirsty. But I'm better.

Wow.

I'm better and more skilled right now. God I was too young to headline movies. I couldn't get the girl and save the day. I just started putting muscle on my body and getting the beard and knowing having the poise to stay still in the scene and be charming. Not funny.

You were the funny guy.

Yeah. And now I'm the off the friend. No, no, no, no. Now I know how to be both. Now I know how to be Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool. I'm ready for those kind of things because this is what I have. and say, like, there's only Jordan Peele told me, he said something funny to me. He came to set and he was like, let me take 15 minutes and just talk to you about how special you are. Yes. He watched my performance, watched my daily. Like, I gotta say, there's nobody like you. He said, you're one of one. anybody that's like you is either dead or crazy. But the world you can come from dramatically and dramatically and comedy at the same time. He's like, there's only been, like, Robin Williams, like Jim Carrey. Like, there's not a lot of guys that can hit that high note. The high note. There's one thing, like, Will Smith can do both.

But he's not a stand-up guy.

And he can hit the. The low point, the drama.

But he wasn't a stand-up guy, though.

He is. But that's what I'm saying. See, well, when it comes to the comedy, not that he can't do it, but he would have to study a little bit more to hit the high notes that Eddie Murphy has hit, that high note. Yeah. I mean, it's different. It's like Beyonce versus Jennifer Hudson. It's that high note. Beyonce Superstar, right? And she's amazing. Damn high note. Jennifer Hudson is so I can never. Right. That's the level of funny. Like a Jim Carrey. That's the high note. Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, you know, Martin, those are the high notes. Like, you know what I'm saying? For me, Marlon, I'm trying to hit the high notes like Dave Chappelle. High notes. And then they hit every level in between, and so I'm not. comparing myself. And I have nothing but respect for all those mentioned and love for all those mentioned, including Will. I think Will has been an amazing star and an example for years. I could look at that and go, yeah, he broke the mold. Eddie Murphy, he broke the mold. You telling me black don't travel and black ain't overseas, but yet the box office saying different. Yes. And same thing with us. There's like black and comedy don't work. Yeah, we give them a movie called Scary Movie. that makes 300 million dollars worldwide.

Wow.

And we get part two, makes 100 and something million dollars worldwide. Then we do white chicks. It makes 100 and something million dollars worldwide. And you're telling me black don't travel. All my movies on Netflix have been number one in every territory around the world. Number one. They don't tell you this, but it does travel. And now I know I want to be able to do it all. So I want to be able to do the Romantic comedy. I want to do the action. I want to do the action comedy. I want to do the buddy action comedy. I want to be able to do You know, a drama, I want to be able to do all of it. And I want people to go, that's the guy. And I want to sell the out of it in every market. And along the way, align myself with great brands. And, you know, I've managed myself pretty good. I grew up in the projects, trouble all around me my whole life. I've never been to jail. I had fights. I could scrap. I never been to jail. I never got a DUI. I don't do dope. I never disrespect women because I know where I'm going. And in order to get there, I gotta keep it clean. So, you know, I behave myself. I'm appropriate. But, I mean, I talk a lot.

No, I love it, man. This is beautiful. You know, you mentioned, like, I don't know if you said God is like holding you back or you still need more connection to God to get to the next level or whatever that is.

God made me, I have to do the work.

Do you think God is-- what do you think? What is God speaking to you about how to get to the next level of service through your creativity to be able to create the results you want?

Keep working and keep building and keep stay on your path. You're doing great. And I see it now because my last end of good grief was about my parents dying. about how to grieve, how to get through it. Minute 57, I'm making people laugh, talking about changing my pampers, my daddy's pampers, my mom's pampers, talking about that private parts, and I got people cracking up, I got all right for 57 minutes, and then it hit me. I was running from my own pain. And I was talking about my mother, and I just started I broke down on stage at the Apollo. Broke down. I cried. I was just like, because the reality of my parents being gone hit me.

Yeah, I didn't hit you until then.

It did. But it wasn't supposed to hit me in a show. Right. Well, I'm filming a special, and it did. And I was like, all right, cool. And I was gonna cut that out, but I was like, no, keep it in, because I need people to understand that. I like you, I'm hurting. But life goes on and we still look for smiles. And I get so many messages in my inbox about good grief on Amazon Prime about how it affected them and how it helped them, helped them grieve. They lost their parents too, we're in the same club, gang gang, and how they cried with me. And they thanked me because they were in a place of depression and I helped see, help them see their way out because I showed myself my way out. So that's healing.

Yeah.

That's why doctors make a lot of money. That's why. That's why pharmacies are the a huge business. Because they help people feel better. Well, so can comedy. I want to help people feel better. I want to heal. so the stories I'm telling now, my next one that I'm working on, I have a trans child, daughter turned into a son. And I talk about the transition, not their transition. I talk about the five stages of grief, storytelling that I learned from those books, the five stages of grief to get to acceptance from Defiance to accept.

Resistance, frustration, anger, upset.

I was fine. I was like, no, you're not doing that. And then I went through the five stages of grief. Now, I'm proud to say it only took me one week. I'm sad to say that there's a lot of people that it may take them a lifetime, and they'll never get to beautiful place called acceptance. And so I find God speaks to me. I need to talk about this in a funny way with truth because there's people out there that need some healing.

Yes.

There's people out there that need to hear this to know that, oh, I identify with you. I got people coming up to me crying. I'm like, my child is going through the same thing and I just want you to know once again, I'm taking my art of Comedy, and I'm helping the heel. And I think that's something different. Different. I want to make you feel good, not just on some silly. I don't want to punch down on nobody. When everybody feel good, I'm gonna punch down on me, right? I'm the joke. I'm the butt of my jokes. And if I'm gonna tell you a good story about how to be better.

I was telling my friend this morning at the gym, 'cause he was asking me, I lost my father a couple years ago as well.

Sorry.

And thank you.

Gang gang.

Yeah.

You lost your dad?

Yeah.

Mom's still here?

Mom's still here.

Man, yeah, yeah. Lover.

Yeah.

Lover. Let me tell you something. I love my daddy, but if I had to choose between him and my mama, bye, howl.

Bring your mom back. Yeah, yeah.

Mothers or something. You see, your dad always prepares your boy for, you know, when I'm gone, you know, your dad, especially if you're close, your dad gives you those lessons of. And that. That. The guide on how to be a man. When your mother goes, it rips your heart. That should. My mother died, Blended my heart into pieces, and she went first. And so love them if you don't. And once a week, go take your mother. on a date. Go take her on a date. I took my mother once a week. I didn't care where I was. My father too, take him out for a drink. I don't care where I was in the world. If I'm in Ohio, I'll fly to New York because they live separately. I fly to New York, hang out with my dad, take him to dinner, laugh with him, have some wine, and I get on a plane Tuesday, pick my mother up, go take her to dinner, go on a date. And I did that because I knew one day they weren't going to be here. and so it's important to give them that time, because when they go, yeah, you're gonna be sad, but I have no regrets.

Yeah. Yeah.

I have no regrets. I was a great son.

That's good.

As I was a great brother, as a great friend and titles that really mean something to me. Yeah. I've been grading. And so make sure you.

That's beautiful. Yeah.

Go take on a date.

Since their passing, what's been the biggest lesson is you can reflect back. that each of them taught you about life?

My mother taught me to always learn, try different things, find joy even though your situation may be bad, whether it's poverty, whether it's, you know, grieving, always find the funny, right? And to love hard. And to be affectionate, to let it all out and not be afraid to be vulnerable, let it all out. And some of it I learned is from watching her. It's not letting disappointments or failures make me bitter. negative and too afraid to be vulnerable. Right? So really watching the journey, the good, the bad and the ugly, you can't, I think people spend so much time worrying about what their parents did wrong. I study what they did right. When I watch movies, I remember one time we was watching Men in Black and my brother was like, you know what's wrong with this movie? I said, it made $400 million. Nothing. It's perfect. Right. So here's what they did right. so. And my dad. So that's what my mom taught me. My father taught me, and I will say, and he would be so proud to hear this. My father taught me God. Really? My father taught me the importance of God's Journey, the importance of that Bible. And I need to read it more. I need to study it. My dad could tell you the scriptures. He know only one book Bible. wow. You ask him a verse about love. Corinthians 13, 7, chapter 4. How do you know he studied the Bible? My dad would wake up in the morning. First thing he did was he got up and he studied the Bible. Then he closed that book and he would say a prayer. Then he would rub his knees and look up to God. Like, how am I gonna feed these 10 people today? And he go, let's go. And he come back with dinner. Wow. so my father taught me the importance of God and the importance of working hard for your family. And don't be afraid of hard work. If you're gonna clean a toilet. No, don't do that. No, no. Get up underneath it, right? Get in the ball. Getting them. When I was working in sneaker stores and stuff, I was a great employee. That's why when it comes to me doing movies, I've always had great experiences. All my directors love me because you don't have to tell me, hey, can you learn your lines? No, no, no. When I leave a set, I don't care where we had a 14-hour day. I got my acting coach that I pay for this. They pay for it. I'm like, all right, let's work. We're gonna work three hours in the morning, and then we're gonna work an.

Hour before after I work out.

Come back. Because when I get to set, I want to be prepared. I'm gonna be prepared. So now I'm not sitting there learning lines. No, I got it all packed in. I'm ready. I'm ready and you can move me any kind of way and oh, and I can adjust because I'm not worried about gathering lines. So I do more work than you actually expect or I'm expected to do. I don't give less, I always give more. If I'm writing movies, if I'm doing, I love to do it all. I'm all the meetings, I'm there, I don't follow nothing in. I do all my writing, all my stand up. They're like, Bid you, how are you dropping a new hour of material every year? And I'm like, because I'm a writer and I don't write it down no more. The audience don't even know. You're basically coming to watch me write live. Live.

You're creating a live.

Live. I don't do that in town. Five minutes here, five minutes there. I don't have to. I just do a brand. I do my special 11-11. 11 17. I was in Baltimore or I forgot Baltimore or somewhere else with a brand new hour.

Wow.

Not one word from the special. Brand new hour that I'm where I worked through, right? That I. And I. And now. Wow.

How'd you do that?

I'm a writer. I know. And I challenge myself. I challenge myself. I already know what my next special is. I know what my next three specials are. Wow. Now I haven't worked on all the material, but I know.

You have the idea of the journey of where it's going.

Yep. I know with the next one, Ugly Baby. Skittles is this one, next one's Ugly Baby. Ugly Baby is my journey with my brothers and sisters in my household. And then after that, talk about relationships. Like, I know them. I know them. 'Cause life has been my greatest writer, the journey. and now I can apply it to my business, right? So my last three specials, my last two, or maybe my three, I paid for them myself. I was like, no, no, no, no. They were like, oh, yeah. And we don't, we don't have the budget for it right now, or, you know, we're slotted through till 2026. And I'm like, okay, that's cool. But I'm ready to film my special now. So I filmed my special, and Then I licensed it to HBO then to license it to Amazon and now I still have my special Wow because I know I'm not waiting for somebody or anybody Hollywood to tell me I'm ready. No, no, no, no I know when I'm ready. I know when I'm making people laugh Now either you're gonna bite down and you're gonna give me the budget go market the hell out of this and bring people to your site and this was gonna cost But I'm not waiting on you to tell me I'm ready. I I know how good it is. I'm getting sand novations everywhere I go. Wow. I know. I know how good it is. So I'm gonna film it in a place that I desire. I'm gonna give it my all, and then I'm gonna cut it together, and hopefully you like. And then if not, then I'll sell somewhere else. I gotta.

Or I got a write off, you.

Know what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah. Or you sell it online or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I'll sell it. I'll create my own website. Everything is God, and they don't want to buy it.

They don't want to license it.

That's God. God saying, okay, well, then you got to create your own business.

What do you mean everything is God?

Whenever you. There's no failure, there's no wrong. Whenever something doesn't go my way, it's because it wasn't supposed to. So when I say everything is God, you trust God. You think of the positives, not the negatives. If it didn't happen. My brother told me, if one door closes, if you sit there and you stare in that. that one door. You're not looking around. A thousand other doors have opened. All you gotta do is look around. You staring at the door like a dog stares at a. A tennis ball. Say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And there's a wall. And you're trying to get somewhere. Sometimes you're gonna kick a hole through the wall and the door. I'm gonna kick a hole through that war. I'm a wall, and I'm gonna make my way, because that's what I have to do. God is telling me not to just open that door and go through it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I really want to be master before I got knocked my way through there.

What if you spent a million dollars on the production and you spent six months on developing the content and you've had this expectation of launching it into the world and you put all your heart, your life, your soul into this thing and then no one wants it.

Great. Not time.

Really?

I learned a lot though. I learned I could put a movie together for a million dollars. I learned I could put a special together. for a million dollars. And I learned about the locations. I learned how, how much it costs for crew. I've learned about the director do a great job.

Who?

What crew work? Everything is lessons. It's some positives. I'm not worried about there's gonna come a time where I'm gonna be so big that people want to buy everything I have. There's gonna come a time in my life, and, and then I'm building a library, and then when I'm gone, maybe my kids have this thing that dad did that you go, Wow, all these things my dad did that they never saw, now the legend of me, my kids' kids will be able to eat off the things. So there's no failure. Everything is supposed to happen exactly the way it is. When I was 19, I got Batman. I was gonna be the first black person besides Billy Dee to be in one of these big movies was with Tim Burton, and I was gonna be Robin. Then I got a phone call from Tim Burton and Denise de Nove in a letter saying that I wasn't really. And see, I was going to be off to the races, Batman Robin. And then, you know, my career would have been, but it didn't happen. And immediately I was like, I was hurt, but I said, no. I'm gonna start writing these movies. I'm gonna start creating my own show. I'm gonna start doing things that I know put the ball in my own hand. Had that Robin happened, I would have had a different career.

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I don't know, probably cracked out somewhere because I wouldn't know what to do with that kind of success and money. But God put me on this journey to create, look at what I've done, look at what I've, because I took the long route. He didn't want me taking the shortcut. I had to take the long route because there was a lot I needed to learn. There was jewels for me to gather all along the way. No, I didn't go straight to it. I went the long way, but look at all this that I know now. Look at all this that I know. And I'm gonna make my way here. It's taking a long route, a scenic route.

I mean, it's been a beautiful scene. I mean, you've had a beautiful.

But I'm not sitting there depressed that I didn't get that part. When I say everything is God, I'm saying everything is not all bad. Sometimes the things that you think is failure is actually successes. How do you interpret not just the business, but life. There's always good and bad. A bad relationship could teach you more than a good relationship. And maybe that wasn't the relationship for you because that next relationship, you get to apply all this stuff to the perfect woman. And now I am successful, so I'm grateful for the bad. Always be grateful for the bad. And when I say everything is God, you trust God. There's a reason it happened. So just keep doing the work. Don't let it discourage you.

Speaking of relationships, it sounds like you work 15, 18 hour days for the last 30 years, whether it be on a set or in your own mind, in your own creative lab, however that looks, you're always working, it seems like. Touring, traveling, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk.

I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I don't have a desk, I successful relationships when you're always working. Because people that love you.

Understand.

They cheer for you.

Yeah.

They don't want your time like that. They don't want to pull from the thing that makes you you. They want to see you shine. They know your purpose. And I've been lucky. My first children's mother, Angela, is was amazing. Amazing. I never felt like, man, I can't. Do this and I can't do it. No, baby.

Go do it.

Go do your work. Go do your work. They know that this makes me happy and it provides for the family. Go do your work. And to this day she's still my best friend and never bothers me. Your kids, you ain't spending enough time with your kids. My kids adore me. But they know Dad has to work and Dad's doing his purpose and now they're grown and they're like, hey, I want to do my purpose and Dad is inspiring. People that love you cheer for you and they want you to be successful. Or if they want to spend some time, they'll come on the road with you. And even though you're playing these little, you gotta go from this and you're playing a rinky-dink comedy club or whatever it is, if they want to support you and love you, they just care that they're with you and spending time with you. That's cool too. But never let somebody take away from you. this is me. And I'm gonna invite people in my life that get me. I need wrapping paper. Everybody's wrapping paper. And I'm gonna do the same for you. I'm gonna inspire you to be your best self as an individual. I don't want to take your time. I hope you blow up to be a big, huge business. I'm there to support you, baby. I'll get on a private plane and comes to you anyway. You can be. You can meet the Breadwinner. I'm an athlete. A certain amount of time. I'll retire. I'll find you because I want you to be happy. I don't like what people take. Don't take from me. Let me do this. This is my purpose. If I don't do this, then I'm not living a purpose life. I have to make people smile. Like a fireman that goes into buildings and rescues cats and people in a burning building. That is what comedy is. I go into a burning building to find this Elixir called the laugh. So yeah, sometimes you get burnt, sometimes there's casualties, but man, I'm here to try and make people feel good. I have to do this.

When you have had so much success as a movie star and a TV star and a comedian, why go to small town comedy clubs and spend all the time traveling around the country? Why spend the time doing that at smaller towns, smaller clubs, smaller venues now when you've had so much success? Because why not just stay in the big cities and stay in LA and New York and just kind of do your show at three ho in a row week?

That way. That's the short ct and that's the Ego. Hm I don't want him to be surfced. I don't want to be I wanted him being the dude that did the work. Clow, you respect the guy, you know, that had had fifty fights before year or two hundred and seventy fights before he finally got the opa to become a pro, to build his way up to get the championship, at least to bout with the championship. Because there's a lot of knowledge, a lot of licks I gotta take. I have to learn the long way. Well, I'm just gonna be a paper champ.

But you're 12, 14 years in stand up, right?

Yeah, but everything is God. I'm not trying to be regular. I'm different. It's gonna take me longer. Because I'm logging 10,000 hours, you know, outliers. You log 10,000 hours in something and you can be great at it. I've logged 10,000 hours in five different disciplines. So I'm building something different.

It's amazing.

Wow. I'm going to be different and that's gonna take a long time and that's okay and I'm not cheating the process. Nobody could tell me I cheated the process. I didn't. I did the work. I've worked in pizza shops. I could tell those stories. I did stand up at a pizza shop, a Leb's Pizza Shop. It smelled like pizza. Five people in there, mauling way into on scary movie, 750 million dollars a box office. I'm in a pizza shop, really? In a coffee shop, in a dive bar, in a biker bar doing stand-up comedy. And all my peers, you know, Sidney Castillo and Esau and and DC Irvin and all the guys I came up with, I didn't come up with Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle and those guys in stand-up. I'm, this is my, I come up with a different group of people because I started late and so I'm playing catch-up and if I'm gonna play catch-up that means that every weekend I gotta work. I don't care where it's at and you learn in stand-up, give me a microphone, give me the right lights, give me a good sound system, Give me some water. Give me a stool. Let's go. I don't care where I'm at. Corporate event. I don't care where I'm at.

Who's in the crowd? That's what all I know. Are you trying to make money everywhere.

You go or is it sometimes just about the reps? It's about the reps and you make money doing what you love. I love what I do. I'm not going to work. I'm going to play. I get to play every weekend. And you don't care if it's a die bar. I don't care if it's even a little club like a improv, whatever. I have to go the long way. Before I play the garden, I have to do this journey. I gotta play Winky's Hot Dogs. Before I do the garden, I gotta do the Maurice pizza.

If you could pick a date, the garden would happen in your future. What would that date be? Where you're selling out at Madison Square Garden. Obviously it's all God's timing.

I would say 1/55. 55.

Three. Three years.

Three years ago.

55.

Yeah.

I'm gonna make a note of that. What's the date? Give me the month and day that you would want to be selling out the garden for your birthday.

July 23rd.

July 23rd.

All right.

Three years.

Yep.

2020. What is that? 2027?

2024. 2027.

2027. Okay.

We going?

Let's go.

And if I don't make it there, then it'll be 2028. If it don't make it, man, it's gonna happen.

It was keep doing it.

Yeah.

So showing up.

I I'm telling you, I see it, man. But I. That's why I'm able to write materials. I still do the little clubs and stuff. I'm just now starting to do bigger theaters. I'm going on a theater tour, Wild Child Theater Tour. starting in September. Check my website. Marlon. Marlon Wayans official for tickets and dates. Tour dates. Wild Child Tour. So I'm going, doing my theater tour now, and I'm still building it with this new set. I'm telling you now, I got four specials under beneath me, underneath me. Five. Four specials. Five, actually, because I did headliners, which was one I put all my friends on. five specials, and I did this in 12 years.

Wow.

That's like on her, that the space pace. And I already know my next one. And I don't know what's three after that. I'm telling you, there's something special happening because everything is coming together.

What's, what's after 12 years of doing stand-up and obviously 30 years of being in comedy and creativity and Artistry, what is the next level for you to really be at the, I guess you mentioned Chappelle and these other individuals who have mastered standup. What is where you are to where you want to be? What's in the gap?

I think it's the prop. I had to get the right team. And not only that, but I think, you know, for me, I think every Kanye said something, every artist gotta think of themselves as a brand. Mm-. Um, I don't need a manager as much as I do a CEO.

You need a CEO?

Yeah, yeah. I need. I need to start putting together my team of strategists and how we're gonna move right now. It's all over the place. But I know after once I get that big tour and I'm able to go, okay, now let's go. Let's put this in place. This is how we're gonna rock, I'm telling you. Next look, who are the two or.

Three guys or gals right now who are just doing it really well in stand up that you think they've got the right team, they've got the right branding, they've got the right messaging on tour, they've got the audiences, they're just.

Boom, every night, Dave Chappelle. Yeah. Dave, because Dave has the, he's like Bigfoot now. He comes, everybody's going, and you know why? because he's masterful. Because the dude spends his life on a stage. Nobody has more hours long. Dave will do six hours of stand up. He'll be sleep on the stage and wake up and tell you a joke. Like, seriously, I watched them be on stage drinking coffee, whiskey, and sleep for, like, a minute looking down and wake up and have a joke. I think Kevin Hart has mastered the. The science of his business. you know, you know, he, you know, and he's proven that you can do it all. You don't have to just do stand up, which is great for me, because I'm.

You've done a lot already, right?

And now I can put it together like that. Oh, we going? I I'm at the point now, you know, I want to build. I want to really build a real live Studio. I really wanna. Because with my brand of humor. I want a studio. I want, you know, I want, I wanna, I wanna like a Tyler Perry. I wanna mix all these people together to create Marlon, right? And I know I can do it. And that's my goal. And the meetings I'm having, sitting down with more hedge fund guys and sitting down with more people that want to invest money, I have an excellence. And I've made a track record that's crazy. You know, we've made Hollywood a billion dollars. and if the, and that's more than a billion. Look at all the things we've done, all the TV shows we created, you know, Wayne's Brothers still syndicated. Wayne's Brothers, you know, probably cost, I don't know, a million dollars an episode, you know, at so that's a hundred million dollar investment. And over the course of time, they probably made 500 million, 400 million, you know, and, and scary movie, 19 million, made 300 million. Wow, thousand percent. I did a movie for a million dollars called Haunted House. I should have did it myself out of my pocket, but I had to produce it. Partners. OPP.

And how much did it bring in?

Open to $19 million. Went on to do $70 million. Ooh.

And if you would have put the million in yourself, I would have- why wouldn't it?

I still, everybody made eight figures.

Yeah, yeah.

But I probably would have made 30, 40 million.

Why not invest, you know, and make that investment yourself? I don't know.

I think because you, I needed to learn. I don't want to take these leaps of faith without. I'd rather a partner that knows. Yeah. Yeah.

And they can do the distribution and the marketing.

They know the distribution. They, they know the right production team.

Yeah, of course.

You know, they can help me and assist me. I don't need to be greedy. If I own 50 of a movie, it was 70. 70% of a movie, I own 70% of the movie, you know what I mean? And of course we had in game who gave us the money for the promotion, which was about $15 million. And then there was Open Road who distributed us. So, you know, you have partners. So we all made money off of these investments. We all, and I sold the s*** out of it. Put me on a plane.

Let's go.

From, I did a 20 city tour. sun up to sundown and I didn't even have a jet. I got on American Airlines, Delta Airline, city to city, I land, I sleep three, four hours to get up five o'clock in the morning. I'm hitting morning shows, I'm hitting the news, I'm hitting the afternoon drive, I'm going to the basketball game, they're playing a trailer, I'm getting on the last flight out and I'm going to the next city, 25 cities. And then I told them, I begged them, I was like, please, Let me go overseas and do this. And he's like, I'm only gonna see you a couple of days. I'm like, but this is me. I want to sell.

I wanna do the work.

Yeah, yeah. I don't want to cheat nothing. My mother said if I could bottle your energy, boy, I'd be the richest woman on earth. Because I just have good intentions. I'm not gonna cheat nothing. Yeah. Right. If we do it, if I sit across from somebody and I go, I need, I'm gonna, Take your money. I don't want you to make $1 on that dollar you gave me. I want, if you give me $100, I want you to make at least, not, because $20, if you made $20, $100, that's good, right? Someone did it, but if you made 100, you gave $100 and somebody bought you back 500, you're like, what the.

Yeah, I'll keep reinvesting in that, guys. Yeah, yeah.

But what you won't do, if I'm gonna do that, I need to be responsible for my business. I need to do everything in my power to make sure that I didn't fail anybody. And if you give somebody money, that's the passion that you want from somebody. You want to trust somebody. You want somebody to be like, okay, cool, go do it. what was the name? Steve Jobs. You trust them. You build great computers and phones and I trust them. So stock people, people in the market, I don't put my money in Apple. That money returns your investment. When you go, I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars or I'm gonna give you 10 million dollars to do a movie. I'm gonna make sure that the production is great. I'm gonna make sure the script is great. I'm gonna make sure we cast the hell out of hell out of it. And I'll make sure that we market, I sit in all the marketing meetings and that I put this on my back and I get it exposed as much as possible. Now, I need you to make sure that I'm not just doing promotion, that you got marketing beneath it. And then together we can hit this thing, we can make this huge explosion. And we've done it in the past. I've done it in the past, you know? So I'm looking forward now to doing More of that.

Wow. So this is a, you mentioned Jim Carrey. He's a, I'm a big fan of his work, but also an artist. But also when I saw the kind of mini documentary about him doing his art, his art studio, it opened a whole nother level of appreciation for him as an artist. And then kind of his spiritual journey I've been a fan of with his content around that as well, which it sounds like you bring a lot of God into your life. Also. So I respect that in you as well. I saw an interview clip of him about a year ago, maybe it was a year and a half ago, where he said he was retiring from making movies. Unless some like magical script comes to his door that he feels he's called to do.

Jim made a lot of money.

He made a lot of money.

Plus, Jim has always struggled with, I think, depression and other things. You know, he's brilliant, but he always had some kind of torment. And I think he just wants peace.

Yeah.

And he gave a lot to the art. He gave a lot to people. You get tired of being that famous. And that, that, that brother deserves to retire and have his peace. These is his years of peace. Yeah. And if he's happy, then we should all be happy for him. Lead him in until he's ready to come out of because Fame is a 24-hour job. I can't clock out.

How do you navigate that?

I just love what I do. Yeah, I ain't made it yet. I ain't made it. I ain't make it yet. You know what I'm saying? One day he felt like he made it. Yeah, I ain't make it. I didn't make it yet. So when I make it? Oh, yeah, I probably. I don't know if I ever will. I think it's part of my matrix. I just love it. He said, I would vacation more.

You don't do vacation at all. Yeah, man.

Well, I skipped this summer. I was supposed to go to Europe and I was, I was with Lake Cuomo and I was like, no, I'm working on a build this tour because I want to film my next special on 12 12. Wow. Yeah. Because I want it out for next June. In that interview, he said something like.

The interviewer was saying, why are, why you done? And he said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said, I'm going to say something that I don't think any celebrity in Hollywood has the courage to say. And that is, I've done enough, I have enough, and I am enough. And again, maybe he's older now and he has done all these different things, but do you ever feel like you will get to that place, or do you even want that? Do you want to be, do you feel like you are enough?

I think it's 70. Pass it on. Today my bank made a big mistake.

But I forgave them. My server spilled water on me.

But I forgave him. My toddler drew lipstick on the wall. Was I ever mad? It got me thinking, I can forgive my bank and my server, but I'm upset with my own kid? I mean, what's most important here? So tonight, the two of us are.

Doing lipstick art on paper.

Forgiveness is in you. Pass it on.

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70. How does Jim?

Jim's probably 65, 66. I think it's 70.

I think it's 70.

Yeah, but see, I still have a young face, right? I could still play 35. You know what I mean? Like, these are my- you- turn the.

Beard up, you know?

Oh, yeah, why don't you take this off? It's crazy. Like, they got the mustache. It's crazy. I don't, I literally don't change, you know what I mean? Like, and my body is still good. I probably got- a great 30 years ahead of me. Wow. Maybe 20. So definitely 20 hard years, 25 hard years.

30 of working. Yeah. So, I mean, you've been in the business for 30-ish 32 years, somewhere around there. If you could give three pieces of advice to yourself right before you started making money, right before you started getting on TV and doing movies 30 years ago, if you could give younger Marlon three pieces of advice, what would that be? of 30 years of experience and wisdom and failures and success and love and heartbreak.

Get on stage as soon as you can. Really? Learn the science behind your art. Stand-up will teach you how to be a writer, producer, director, every night. You learn so much by doing stand-up comedy. Two. you don't worry about Hollywood. You are Hollywood. Hollywood needs you more than you need Hollywood. That's true. Don't worry about so much feeding the business. Become a business.

Be the business.

Be the business. Three, put together the right team. Groom your team from day one. Stay loyal, communicative, bonded. So you have a trust. Make sure that each one of you do something different. When you come together, you learn about each other's art and knowledge, and then you come meetings of the mind and hear. So you don't need to do stand up like I do. But yeah, you need a strategist somebody has to play chess with you. Mm- you- can't it's hard. I tried to do it all.

I can't you're an artist.

Yeah, I'm I'm I was an artist I'm always gonna be an artist and.

Now you're a business mind and artist.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm really focused on I'm got that. I'm gonna continue to work that and I'm gonna build that and I'm gonna build them businesses that go with the business But right now I gotta become the business and I have to, I've learned you have to say it and you have to mean it and you have to walk, work toward it. If you can't say it out loud and God can't hear you, then how are you going to get to where you have to get to?

That's why, like, you declared the date for your, your garden tour.

I'm glad you asked me. Yeah.

July 23rd, 2027.

That's my birthday and my mother's birthday.

Wow.

My mother. So.

That'll be a beautiful 55.

Yes, sir.

That's number one.

I'm a neurologist. I'll be so proud. Look at my baby.

I knew he was going to wait.

You gotta have a photo of her on the screen. Absolutely. I'm gonna cry that night. Not just because I made a million.

Dollars from one show. I can see that though. I mean, I can already see the future three years in the future. I hope it happens and I'll be there. I'll be there if it's happening.

If it don't happen, we'll call back to this moment. Absolutely. I'll come, I'll come do it again.

If you could go, you've been in the business for 30 years and you said you'd want to go for another 30. If you could do a hypothetical for me and you could imagine your future self at 72. And if you can see your life from now until then and imagine all the things are to happen, the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, and if you could give yourself three pieces of advice from then to now, Future Marlon to today, what would he tell you today? Three things that you need to hear to really actualize your potential, your gifts, make sure you're taking care of your heart, feeling the love, being a good human being along the way, all these different things that you feel like, what do you need to hear from future self?

Discernment. Everybody deserves to eat. Not everybody deserves to eat at your table. Who you invest your time with and spend your time with, is it valuable? Or are you just wasting time? Don't waste your time. Time is the most valuable thing that you have. Every moment should be accounted for and you should feel great about. You've learned something. If you're not learning, you're dying. two, don't contain this. Don't be the smallest guy in the world. Not that you're gonna lose your circle, but you could create another ring. So create a new ring of people that you, you know, inspire you. and you can learn from. Three, remember that in branding you can create other brands. So as you create the brand of Marlon, what else is Marlon selling? Well, other than brand, what are you interested in? What's authentic to you? I like smelling good. You need a cologne. I like my skin well. men's hell.

A men's skincare line.

Skincare line. I love good clothes. You need a clothing line. I love smoking cigars. You need a cigar company, which I do have. Ligo trident experience cigars. Check them out. They're delicious. You like to have your cocktails. What's your favorite drink? I like bourbon. You need to. Create a bourbon or get into business with a great liquor company that you can market everywhere you go. Create great partnerships with your brand, with other great brands, and then don't forget that you're the brand, so protect it.

Wow.

And continue to stay out of trouble and stay away from knuckleheads and always be an honorable, considerate person. and to stay humble as a person. Don't be so humble in your business. You have to own it or be humble as a person because you can't bring that arrogance into every day because you're going to offend and hurt people. But sometimes business, you got to be a shart, period. You have to own it.

Wow. This has been inspiring, Marlon. I've got a couple of final questions for you, but I'm grateful for the conversation. It's been really beautiful. If you can imagine all your dreams coming true, which I believe they will. And you get to live as long as you want. But it's the end of the day for you. And if you could hear a message from your mom on that last day of your life, what would you want that message to be?

Big boy, you ain't did good. You made me proud, your father proud. I'm looking at God, he's smiling. You did right by our family. You raised the grandkids and the great grandkids. And everybody was good. You took care of your brothers and your sisters that I told you that I made for you. And you've been an honorable child. You made the world laugh. I always knew you would. Yeah.

That's beautiful, man. Sounds like a beautiful mom.

Your father and I up there waiting on you. You're so... I close my eyes and wake up, holding my parents.

Do you have comments?

I'll drink this water now.

It's beautiful, man. I know the grief is something, again, you're special, good grief. You share a lot of this with the audience and it's beautiful to watch you continue to share openly and vulnerably about your relationship and the sadness and the joys and everything in between.

I don't cry about them a lot.

Yeah.

Just what I think about them. Yeah. What's good is I've gotten through crying every day and now you get to that point. I have to think about it. I have to visit it. What does it feel like? You know, it's funny. Before, I think now I'm ready for whatever I've been asking God for. I know I'm ready even dramatically because I've always been a good dramatic actor. But about. I've been at a very happy life. Yeah. So it's hard for me to manufacture pain and I could get to the tears. But now, since my parents gone, I know I got wings because it's so easy for me to access those. Those emotions. I couldn't before I had to think about it. Why did this and what? Now, just open a safe. Wow. Let it out.

Oh man, that's beautiful. What do you wish more people would ask you? Because they ask you about, you know, all the people you know and you've worked with and the stories of the past and the celebrity and the fame and the money and the success and, you know, all the jokes. But what do you wish they really asked you?

I'm gonna ask pretty much anything. Everything. Probably what I'm afraid of.

What are you afraid of?

Death. I'm afraid of.

Is it dying too soon or dying before you reach your potential or dying.

It's dying. I love life.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

And I have FOMO and I'm gonna be so mad at you. Just being alive and I'm not there. I'm gonna be hating from the ground. These kids. and then I think marriage.

You're afraid of marriage.

Never been married because I never wanted to cheat on my wife. I'm a noble dude.

You never wanted to cheat on your wife.

I never wanted to cheat on my wife. So I never felt like I was ready for marriage until I hit my 50s. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

You feel like you're ready now?

Yeah, I could do it.

You're still afraid?

Yeah, but less. Yeah. Because I'm. I'm much more stable, even though I travel. I'm not in the clubs. I did everything I wanted to do.

Right.

I did it all. And I'm just like, now I just, I wanna do less. And I just wanna just hang out and chill and smile and enjoy my girl, enjoy my kids and my family, and you know, when I have that time.

What do you think is available for you as a man and a human being when you get married. If you get married, what's available for you? What's the next level?

I think it's. I'll have a lot more. I'll be able to accomplish a lot more.

More focused energy.

Yeah. Less distracted energy. Because I ain't. I ain't going nowhere. I ain't mean. I'm not going in it.

You're not texting everyone.

I ain't following nobody on it. Yeah. Yeah. Instagram. I ain't got people DM me. I follow one person. That's all. You know, my wife and, you know, just being focused on my family, all the other noise and all the other stuff, I want to. At that point, I'm probably gonna get a farm somewhere far away, like Chappelle.

Living in my home state, you know, in Ohio.

I've been to his place.

Have you? It's a nice small town, Ohio, man.

He will not. Oh, I'm like, you're so rich.

'Cause he doesn't need to, right?

At least get a $10 million house.

You can't do it, Dave.

You're rich. I have to, he has this sh, little place that he hangs out.

In a little town?

Yeah, no, his own little town.

On his house.

Yeah, by his house. We call it the shack. And this didn't have no ice. He had like an ice machine that was spitting one thing, one cube of ice at a time. I'll be like, yo, Dave. I said, I love you.

I get a $200 ice machine. Let's go.

Yeah, yeah. I went and bought him an industrial ice machine. I sent it to the damn Shack.

I was like, I can't let you live like that.

I can't come here and visit you without giddy ice. Yeah. Yeah. So he's like, Marlon, you're a gentleman. The only thing that bought me something. That's funny. So, you know, I I think it's, it's. I do want to, like, a farm. I want a big palatial estate and put all my family on it and just have all these little, all these houses and. Just make everything my family, my office and work. Everybody right there, all my friends on a big pleated, big land where we grow our fruits and our vegetables, live off the land and just kick back on the porch until it's time to ride out, man. Wow.

It's beautiful. Any other fears? Death, marriage, skydiving? Yeah, man.

Water.

I haven't done that.

I don't like, I do not like the ocean. drown me three times. I'm good. Unless I got life vestle.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think my fears. I've always feared disappointing people, but I don't anymore. Yeah, that's part of life. But as long as I do everything in my powers not to. Yeah. Then as long as I'm doing my best. like some type of business. You do a movie, put all this stuff into it, and then movie doesn't perform. Well, sometimes it's not your fault. Did you do everything in your powers?

Yes.

To ensure that it was successful. Because if I did, then maybe somebody else failed. But I don't mind taking the blame because it's taking the blame. I think that's when you grow. I'm here to grow in life. I'm here to get better. I'm here to improve. I don't mind some criticism. I don't. My brothers, I have the hardest critics in the world. My brothers, I think part of me taking so long to make it to where I want to make it because I got all these different voices in my head and I'm trying to get all this approval from them and then I realized I don't want to do it that way. I remember one time I was, we took Keenan to Mykonos for his 60th birthday and We had a Sprinter van and in the Sprinter van I was talking to my brothers about stand up and the state of business and I was like, I need to talk about stand up specials. And I said, I want to do one like every year, year and a half. And it's like, that's stupid. That's not gonna be funny. Yeah, what kind of special is that? That's a regular. Yeah, that's stupid. You can't, it takes 20 years to put together a special. These are my three brothers telling me. That's it. I'm gonna show y'all something different. I believe that I can do a great special every year, year and a half. And here's why, because I get bored with telling the same jokes. I don't need to perfect the jokes. I don't need that much time to rehearse, because I remember things, I remember scripts. I write, I get tired doing the same material every night. I'm doing something different. I like to do different stuff. I want to hurry up and put this out and perfect it. talk about some new. They're like, that's not the way it goes. You gotta work the same material for five years. You don't have to work the same material five years. I don't have to. I went to performing arts high school. I could, I could, it's in me. I can do a sitcom in three days and kill it on Thursday. So Monday just a table read. Tuesday we do network run through and a little bit of rehearsal. Wednesday we do block and tape. Thursday I'm filming in front of a live audience and I'm crushing it. so if I can do a sitcom where they keep changing the script and I'm learning all these new lines, and I could do that in a matter of four days, why the hell I can't do a special in a year and a half? Oh, stupid. Sean, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. And then my brother, David, he looks bad, you know, ugly. and blew the lid off for me. He said, you know, I ain't trying to burst your bubble. It's damn near impossible. But if you think that you can do it, show her. I hope that's funny. He left. And from that day on, I was like, okay. And I'm not gonna show them in the anger. No, show them you know, I'm gonna show you that it can be done and you guys can do the same thing. And here's how I did it. Wow. That's beautiful, man. That's beautiful.

Where should people follow you and support you online? You got the tour coming out, you're on social media, tour, Wild Child Tour.

Marlowe Wayne's official, get your tickets, hurry up, you can get a discount. I am doing meet and greets. so I'm gonna be doing meet and greets so you get the chance to come meet me, check it out. Probably gonna put an option to get my album. It's the live at the Apollo, which is the taping of Good Grief. But there's a lot of jokes that isn't in there that you can find golden nuggets and also online for Instagram at marlon wayans X or Twitter, marlon wayans Facebook. Marlon Williams. I have two pages. One is personal, the other one's Fan Page, sign up both. And lastly, I'm on Tick Tock, but, yeah, I forgot. I think it's Marlon Williams on Tick Tock Snapchat. It's weird, but find me every now and then, I'll pick it up and I'll do some voices and characters, but Marlon Wayne and. Yeah. And also, uh, don't forget to. I got my tour, my special good grief. on Amazon Prime, my other specials. If you want to find them, Wokeish is on Netflix. And then you know what it is is on HBO Max as well as Good Griefs and headliners on HBO Max. Make sure you check them out. And I got a lot of great things coming for you and 30 something years in the game, and I'm just beginning.

It's amazing, man. That's amazing, man. We'll have it all linked up for everyone in the description as well, but I've got one final question for you, Marlon, before I ask it.

Is this gonna make me cry?

No. No, you already did that.

Before I ask the final question, I.

Want to acknowledge you, Marlon, for what it looks to be, you know, this is the first time we've met, but, you know, I've seen your work online and we've got some mutual, you know, people in common who've said great things about you. But what it looks to be is you've really tapped into a different level of spiritual growth. Even though you've been connected to God your whole life and your father brought that to you since you were very young and that's been a part of your life, but it sounds like you're unlocking a different level of spiritual growth in your creative service to the world. It's not just about how can I be funny and make money and get the laugh, but how can I be funny, get the laugh, and serve and help others when in whatever story that I'm telling, how can I be of service in my art? Yes. And it's something my fiance does really well is thinking about how she can serve in her comedies that she does as well. as a writer and actor. And I'm just really happy you're doing that. I'm really happy that you are using, you know, 50 years of your life experience and talents and gifts that God keeps pouring into you to also think about serving on the highest level, whether you're doing it at a donut shop for five people at a stand up or when you're selling out the garden in three years on July 23rd to 30,000.

Yeah.

I appreciate that you're thinking in that way of service. And it just makes me feel happy to know that.

It's funny, I don't go to church because I realize I can serve service God better by being a church. So when they come to see my shows that I'm giving them God's word without being preachy, you get it through comedy, you get it through, but there's always this spirit And I am of service. I want people to be happy. Happiness is important for me. I want everybody to be happy, including myself.

That's beautiful, man. My final question, Marlon, what's your definition of greatness?

Then your authentic self, point of view and voice, reach the masses. and did everybody trust, does everybody trust from people to fans, to the business, to the money people trust you with your vision of what you see yourself in your business as. Greatness to me is not a destination. I read a book called the Alchemist. and in that book, it's a little boy that wants to see the pyramids. Into the book, you never seen the pyramids, but it's on a road to see the pyramid. And to me, greatness is the road that I'm traveling. The destination is an illusion. As long as I'm walking toward being my best me, I'm headed. toward greatness. And part of greatness is ultimate joy and happiness. And to me, that's greatness.

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