Marlon Wayans
Appearances
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
You know, Sonny, I didn't go get my brothers when I got here. I would get my sisters. Yeah. My sisters was vicious. Devon.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Devon, one time, this kid, Baldy Joe, was beating me up. And he was like a 16-year-old kid. And my sister had cornrows. She was about 250 pounds. She said, come here. And she grabbed him by his arms like this. And she said, Marlon, punch him in the face. I was like, Devon, he going to beat me? She said, if you don't punch him, I'm going to punch you. I was like, bow.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And, you know, my sisters always had my back in that room. I didn't get my brother because I saw Keenan get beat up.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Yeah, yeah. I live them. Like, with my everyday effort, I try to honor my parents.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
When it comes to loving my siblings. Yep. They're all so different, and it's a lot. But I make sure because I know my mother would want that. I know my father would want that. And so I try to honor them with my actions. I try to honor them as a good father, as a good uncle, with my nephews and my nieces. And it's always an open door. And to honor them with love. Yeah. and to be an example.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
You know, that's why I don't go to parties and things like I used to, you know, because I know I have grown kids. My grown kids are looking at me to be an example. So, and then I have to, I'm the linchpin between our generation and their generation. So as the baby, I'm the oldest of these next generation. So I have to instill all that my parents governed us and instill that into them.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And I think one of the greatest thing my father ever did was besides the fear of him, he gave us the fear of God. And I think that helped us a lot. Recovered it.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I'm sure you had to have a non... I've been working since I was seven years old.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Let's clarify. They were black parents. Like, what you mean entertainment? You ain't never been entertaining and I've known you my whole life. Kenan was like, I'm going to pursue my dreams. I'm not going to pursue your dreams. I'm going to pursue my dream. And that took a lot of courage. And I remember when he did it. And I remember the impact it had on me as a kid.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And it's funny, as a man, Kenan still wants me to now do his dream. And I'm like, no, I want to do my dream. Like you did your dream. But that was very powerful and impactful for our family.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Turn the wheel! Turn the wheel! And I just thought, what happened?
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Bruce Lee is not liquid, but not to take your shirt off if it's a pull-up.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Can you sing? Like Michael Jackson. I saw him do a gerbil in a driver's disposal.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Just because he stole his equipment. He didn't cry at the funeral. They made sure they put him in a real little casket.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I just refuse to. I think of it like this. I think the more I get, the more God provides.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
He's never let me down. So it doesn't matter what people want. No matter what I have to do, I just give. And God is taking care of me every day. My kids are healthy. My kids are eating. They're thriving. I can't ask them. I'm healthy. If I can do anything, if I need to fly home to go do something and not just money. Yeah. I try to be present. I try to show up.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And that's my assignment from God and my parents to love my siblings and my family like my mother and my father would want me to. And that's just what I do.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Make them kiss in the mouth. There you go.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And I think in the spirit of The competition, it's... I just want to... Like, when I do a scene with Damon, the only thing I'm thinking is, I don't want to be funnier than Damon.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I want to make my brother laugh.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I want to break him and break his son because then I know what I'm doing is funny. Yeah. If he stutters, well, he... He's holding back a laugh. I know I'm doing something right. And that's going to inspire him to go, okay, next take, I got something for you. Marlon is a scene stealer.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Sean's magical. Sean is the Jay Pharoah of the Wayans family. That man's impression, he does my father so good, you would think my father. He does my father better than my father did my father. Sean Brant. Sean Brant. He is.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I think my parents taught us to respect their elders. So my respect as the baby, all my siblings, my sisters, I don't care how much money they got. I still got to listen to them. And, you know, I respect them. Damon, Kenan, my big brother, Dwayne, you know, the older sibling sets the example for the younger sibling. My older brother, Dwayne, was a great big brother to Keenan and Damon.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
He was very protective to Keenan. When he wasn't hitting you in the head with a wiffle ball bat.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I love Dwayne. But Dwayne taught, you know, he was very protective of Keenan. And he was kind of like the offensive line to a great quarterback. You know, sometimes it's just that.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
extra block and he just gave him that space and Keenan respected Dwayne and Damon respected Keenan I respect all of my siblings so I think somebody has to set the example and then you have to and you have to teach them respect and and honor and love and that we're all doing this together yeah it's funny it's like even now this is how my family is like I'm 65 years old and Keenan go go get me a soda
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
That's why I love the fact that they have children.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Because I just use that. I go to my theater sometime and little Damon's there and Mikey's there. And as soon as I walk in the room, the youngest one gets up and lets me sit down. Without question. I love that.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Just a code.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Informally. Quiet code. We didn't teach them that. They just watch how we do with each other. Yeah. And it's just a quiet code. Some things you don't have to teach. It's just what you see.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Hey, hey. Those were my friends. My mother and my father were my friends.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
My dad, they had money. My brothers had got them houses. They were tired by the time you came around.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
That was all soggy. Man, if you don't sit your ass down, let's talk about this. All right, I'll come home at 1.30 instead of 2. But, you know, beyond the fear of my father, I respected my father. And it was the man that he was that he showed up every day. That man made sure that he never left us. Never left us. And there was a time when him and my mother was breaking up.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And all the kids was out the house except me and Sean. And my dad moved to Harlem. And my mother, at that time, she had her little schizophrenia going on. So she was cursing him out, calling him all kinds of names. My father left. And then he came back like a month later because he was like, I'm not done yet. My two boys need me. I didn't come this far to abandon.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Because me and Sean started acting bad. And he was like, no, I'm not. I'm going to finish this assignment from God. And he showed up. And that example for me, I didn't fear my father. I just respect my father. And I love that man. That's weird.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Well, it's funny. My parents, they argue like cats and dogs. I guess we was like, we don't want to be like that.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And also my mother buddied us up, right? So it's always like Sean, everywhere I went, that's your baby. He had to take his baby with him.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Me and Sean a year and a half. And me and Kenan were like that. A year and a half. That's your baby. And you just, me and Sean, we dreamed together. Like we used to watch TV together. We used to watch Abbott and Costello. We watched Honeymooners. Because in our little minds at four and five years old, we was going to create our own TV show.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Yeah, because I seen them on TV and I was like, wait, we can actually do this? That's right. So from the young age, like seven, eight years old, me and Sean, we was like, we're going to write our own show. So we just studied. And we had this buddy thing we always did. And my mother made us go, we were frickin' frack. And Sean was there. My father used to call us Ma and Sean. Mal and Sean.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Mal and Sean. We have to go get their coffee. We have to go to a grocery store together. They buddied us up. And so that makes you take care of your younger sibling and makes you responsible as an older sibling.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Or their buddy cousin, like my son and Sean's daughter, Aaliyah. They're 23 years old. They're at my house writing together. They're directing together. They're shooting music videos together. And then Layla, who's Sean's other daughter, is a DJ and a singer and a producer. And so the three of them all work together.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And I cried like a baby because I was like, I... I can't do that to them.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
You don't want to hear. I'm not going to allow you to deflect. I'm on your team. I'm not going to be the obstacle in your way. I don't want to be the fight. I'm here to support you, love you, whatever you want to do. It's your life. I'll pick up the pieces afterwards. I'm here.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
It's funny, I hold my tongue, but I say what I'm going to say. I have to give my honest opinion, but what I'm not going to do is give you like a real emotion that's tethered to that. I'm just going to say what I got to say as an adult. And then whatever you choose to do, that's on you. But I had to tell you what you asked my opinion. I'm going to give it to you straight.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Now after that, I love you.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
You know, would you care to share that journey of... Well, I learned, like, their transition really taught me what real unconditional love was. Yep. When they went through the transition, I actually went through the transition. I went from denial to complete acceptance. And it took me a week to get there.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And what I've learned as a parent is for you to stop loving your child because of their choice and their life, that's a poor reflection on you. You know what I mean? When there's people that go, I'm not going to associate with you because you do that, or this is against God. And it's like, listen, I am not here to judge. I am not God. Only God can judge.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And I say this, you know, and if that's a mistake and we get to heaven and God don't let my child in, I'm going to shave a beard and sneak him in through the back. But I'm going to love my baby. And I'm a father. And I'm always going to defend them. I'm always going to protect them. I'm always going to respect them. And there's nothing anybody could ever tell me. I could lose fans. Good.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I lost people that are small-minded, small-hearted, and self-loathing. So goodbye. And I gained, for every one I lose, I gained 150 more.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
So for me as the uncle, you know, it's,
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And they've been very patient with me and their mother. Because, you know, when they changed their name, I'm like, I called you Amai for 23 years. What do you mean? Kai. Kai. I know you as Amai. What do you mean them? I know you as her. And it was a process. And at the end of the day, it's respect. That's what they want. And that's their wishes. So respect their wishes. And I know...
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
that the same child is in there. They're brilliant, right? And that's all I really care about is they're kind-hearted, they're really funny, have a great sense of humor, and extremely intelligent. And, you know, those are the things I'm proud of. Are you a good person? I don't care about your sexualities and, you know, all these other things, your genders or associations.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I care that you are a good-hearted person, that you take care of your siblings, your mother, you're respectful. They have been Wonderful their whole lives. I never had any problem with them at all. So, you know.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Because those are bad people. End of the day, when you are being divisive like that, you are a bad person. Your core is bad. No matter what you do, you're not going to make your way in heaven. My job is to be here to give laughter and to give love and everything. That got to be my intention and will always be. And like I said, I'm a father. That's my baby.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And, you know, I fight with them to the end, period. I love that.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
No, for five minutes after the ass movements, I'll be like, I want him to get by the tree.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And engage with them.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I have this little two-year-old.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And she's such a gift. And when I have her on Mondays or we go to dinner or I cook for her, it's just me and her. It's Daddy and Axel. I make sure and she'll say, Dad, come play with me. And so I go to a room and we'll have a tea party. And those things, I think creating those memories for me, that's the most... She brings out the kid in me. And I think parents need to take more time.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
When you have time... To spend with them in that way and that, you know, play with them.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Those are your kids. My mama didn't have no nanny. My mother had black elbows. Light-skinned woman, black elbows. Why? Because we had a black windowsill in the projects. And my mother used to sit on that windowsill and watch us play in the middle, all of our kids. Damon, get down from there. Sean, don't hit him with that bat.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
My mother sat there on that windowsill watching us to the point to where her elbows was black. My mama watched her children. Don't be having other people watch your kids. Keep your eyes on your kids. That is your responsibility. You know?
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And I find that your kids are raising you in this way. They're trying to teach you something about yourself. They're trying to... They're asking you to be more patient. They're asking you to find different ways to communicate.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
The kids are really teaching you. Like my child taught me unconditional love. I used to always say unconditional love. And then it was like, okay, you really want to practice that? Well, do it. There you go.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And that made me go, oh, this is what I was asking of people. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And then what's the problem? And you spend so much time at work that sometimes, you know, life can pass you by. So if you're working with family, you're actually living and doing your work at the same time. So it's actually, you're doing a two for one. And it's really a blessing to do what you love with who you love. True that.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Absolutely.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Well, thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. It's been a great time.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And that comes across. That's a true thing.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Yeah, yeah. See, you didn't know that, did you? Because here's the thing. It's different when you're a little brother. A little sister really is, they're always going to be the big sister. Yes. Because women have this thing where they just, you got to respect them. They put you in their place. There you go. Preach, brother. You know who the bully in the family is?
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I was like, King will be pinching me underneath this table. No, but I think also allow yourself the space to be individuals and just, we're all different. I always tell my brothers, you got to do this this way. No, you got to do it. And I'm just like, no, I don't want to do it that way. I want to do it my way. The dumb way.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
But that's the smaller way. He says, I just keep feeling until I figure it out.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Because that would be your success. I got to find my success. There you go.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Yeah.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
They're actually funnier than us in some ways. Because they could just say, they can't get canceled. So they just unfiltered.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
And you got to want fame, you know, like that's a 24-hour job. I don't get to clock out. I think being a mother is hard enough and especially a lot of times being a single mother. So, you know, the fact that they were young and they raised their kids and, you know, we as uncles assisted.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
But, you know, I'm proud of my sisters for, you know, being great mothers and really loving their children and they're in the industry.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Now that I know that you was her favorite, I want to take back that song that she and I bought.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
It's rough being the favorite.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
But my mama lied to all of us. She was like, you my favorite. You my favorite. Kenan, you my favorite. We were all her favorites and we all felt at some point we were all her baby. But I know I was her favorite. I was born on my mama's birthday, so we had a special bond. We would fight. Me and my mama, we'd argue with each other. But that's sometimes, you know, we fight, but we always make up.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
But I think we all get along. My mother made sure that we all played together. You know, made sure that when we argued, she'd go kiss in the mouth. When we argued, my mother'd go, go on, kiss him in the mouth. And Sean's breath was weird, so I decided to just get along with him no matter what. You know, Kelly did that with...
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
I saw the funniest thing online. There's two kids that was fighting and their mother made the two boys hug and they sang, they had to sing the Wayans Brothers theme song.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
They're so sweet. Do you guys have fistfights? Not with each other. No. I mean, my brother would cave my chest in, but that wasn't a fight. Just one punch.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
You can't hit back.
IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson
Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans
Yeah.