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If anyone knows comedy, its Marlon Wayans.

After screening his latest gut busting film “A Haunted House 2″ to a packed audience in New York City, GIANTLife.com got an opportunity to chop it with the funnyman. We touched on everything from the state of black comedy, to what keeps him going as a comedian and the one topic he just won’t touch.

We only had 10 minutes, but boy I tell ya…

Ladies and gents, Marlon Wayans.

So, what keeps you going?

My passion for the art of comedy. My want to make people smile stays with me. I still love it. I always feel brand new.  I keep it fresh. I learn new things. I try to add new things. I just started doing stand up. I do new things to keep it fresh and now I’m at a different point in my career where I’m creating more and producing more and I’m more hands on. There’s always something new to strive for there’s always a new quest. If you do stand up, your first five minutes could rock and then you have a dead next 20 minutes, you’re just as good as your last joke. It’s always interesting to continue with comedy because you’re as good as the last thing you did.

What’s the one topic in comedy that you will not touch in comedy?

There is no one thing. I don’t think anything is taboo. There’s nothing I wouldn’t touch.  There’s things I can’t find funny and I don’t have the mathematical skills to put together. Kids getting shot up in Connecticut. I wish I could find that funny so I can enlighten people who’s heart was heavy. Maybe one day I’ll be able to gather the skill set to be able to bring light to those kind of situations and ease a bit of the tensions. But regularly, I don’t like offending or hurting people.

You don’t like offending or hurting people? Really?

Yes. But that’s why I’m an equal opportunity offender. You see, I don’t go for the “oos” I go for the “haha” If I play a theater and I have 3,000 people laughing and 10 people aren’t laughing, I’ve gotta go with the majority of the people. When I say I’m an equal opportunity offender I don’t do comedy to offend people, that’s not my intention. I do everything with kids gloves.

How do you feel about the state of Black comedy?

I think the one thing black comedy needs is diversity. We need complexions. One of the things we have to aspire to is to just do comedy. When they label it a “black comedy” they put a certain amount of marketing behind that. They sell it to a certain kind of audience.  They put it in a certain amount of theaters. When I’m writing a joke, I’m writing a joke to make the world laugh. Now, of course my audience is black , but there’s a cap that comes with that. I think what we have to do is to continue to just do comedies. Funny has no color. Comedy has no color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 10, 2014  
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