In Living Color

Kirk Baird

Friday, May 6, 2005 | 3:37 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

May 7 - 8, 2005

Who: Damon Wayans.

When: 9 p.m. Friday through Saturday.

Where: Las Vegas Hilton Theater.

Tickets: $55, $70.

Information: 732-5755.

Damon Wayans is busy on a new endeavor. After two decades of starring in and, occasionally, writing his own movies, such as "Mo' Money," "Blankman" and "Major Payne," the comedian-turned-actor is finally stepping behind the camera.

Not that Wayans is giving up the other roles. For his upcoming project, "Behind the Smile," Wayans not only directed the movie, but wrote, financed, produced and stars, along with his younger brother Marlon.

The film is the tale of an up-and-coming comic (Marlon) who is befriended and later destroyed by an established comedian (Damon) after he becomes jealous of the younger comic's success.

It's a dramatic turn for Damon Wayans, who stars in the ABC sitcom "My Wife and Kids," and is perhaps best known for his three-year stint on "In Living Color" in the early '90s, where he created such memorable characters as Homey the Clown and Blaine Edwards, half of a flamboyant movie critic duo on "Men on Film."

Created by Wayans' older brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, "In Living Color" also featured then-unknowns Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier, as well as many of the Wayans family.

With a stand-up show Friday and Saturday at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater, Wayans recently spoke to the Las Vegas Sun in a phone interview from Los Angeles about his career -- including a brief run on "Saturday Night Live" in 1985-'86 -- and his new role as film director.

Las Vegas Sun: "Behind the Smile" is the first film you've ever directed. How was that experience?

Damon Wayans: As a director there's always something new. I had a lot of really talented people working with me ... so it was a lot easier for me. Plus, I've been on so many movies, and then doing my show, and trying to help out with scenes and put things together and make sure they're right, I had a lot of experience. I just never held the title as director.

Everything I've learned over the past 20 years I put into effect doing this movie. There's nothing like doing it your way. Even if you fail, you have nobody else to blame. A lot of movies come out and you go, "This sucks." You blame the director, you blame the writer, you say it wasn't lit right, (or) the catering sucks, because you're trying to justify it.

But when you do it yourself, that's your baby, you made it. And if it's ugly, it's yours. It's your kid.

Sun: Is that why you wanted to direct this movie, to retain that creative control?

DW: I wanted to make a statement to myself. The saddest thing is to ... do this for 30 years and look back and go, "What do I own? I've made other people money, where's mine?" The greatest thing you can have in this business is a catalog, so I'm starting my own catalog.

Sun: Do you find that comedians often lead dramatic lives offstage, even more than, say, dramatic actors?

DW: Well, comedians are people filled with self-hate and have a very negative view of the world. Through comedy they're able to find what's funny and make it bearable.

Sun: Does that apply to you?

DW: Oh yeah. You have to be a cynic and you have to hate what the world has to offer in order to criticize it. Otherwise, you just go along with the flow and become an audience member.

Sun: In that sense, comedy becomes a coping mechanism for stand-ups.

DW: When I had my greatest stresses in life, I'm at my funniest. Things that scare me are really funny and I'm able to deal with them if I'm able to laugh at them.

Sun: Do you ever miss "In Living Color" and being able to rip on celebrities?

DW: Yeah. I'm working on something called "The Underground" as we speak. I'm writing sketches that I'm going to have to probably do as a special for cable or straight to DVD, but I really miss sketch comedy.

Sun: I'm not sure what really happened in your being fired from "Saturday Night Live," other than you broke character mid-sketch and launched into another character. Is that right?

DW: It's accurate. I was frustrated. Lorne Michaels, in his ignorance, was trying to protect me. Eddie Murphy had just left and (Michaels) had come back as producer, and so he didn't want me to be compared to Eddie. But I was ready for the challenge. I never felt 1) I could do what Eddie did; and 2) I don't think that Eddie does what I do. It's completely different. So I didn't have the same apprehension that Lorne Michaels did and I started feeling spiteful and frustrated.

They would put me in sketches where I was just an extra holding a spear. They really wanted me to hold a spear in a sketch and I was like, "I'm not a prop." They were "Well, you're a Prime Time Player, you have to play with the team."

I just hit a wall and I probably shouldn't have done what I did, but my whole thing to them was, "This is a live show and nothing about it feels live. I don't feel organic, I don't feel like we're walking a fine line. We might as well do a taped show." And that's why I switched characters on them, to show them what live TV is. I did it with anger. Had I done it to be funny, it would've been brilliant.

Lorne and I have long since buried the hatchet and have mutual respect for each other. I think him watching "In Living Color," he saw what I saw.

Sun: You were involved from the beginning in a new wave of independent, urban-minded comedies in the late '80s, "Hollywood Shuffle" and "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka." How did your experience on these movies influence you?

DW: This movie that I just did I wrote, directed, produced, financed, starred -- I did everything. When I was doing it, I was thinking about those times watching Robert Townsend take his credit cards and put (his) movie ("Hollywood Shuffle") together. Back then, I would have done anything -- I would have done a porno -- just to say that I was working in Hollywood.

Not really understanding the sacrifices this man was making and his vision and what he believed in, it's funny to me now because I go, "Wow, I never would have done that." It was very (bold) of him.

Sun: In 2000 you starred in Spike Lee's controversial take on race and television in "Bamboozled." (The film concerned a frustrated TV writer, Pierre Delacroix, who creates a blackface minstrel show featuring black actors after his proposed "Cosby"-type show is rejected by the network. The minstrel show proves to be a hit, causing Delacroix to feel like a sellout.) How was the experience of working with Lee?

DW: It was a wonderful experience and I really regret that I didn't support that movie when it came out. It was so provocative that it scared me. What was ironic was that when I was doing "Bamboozled," I was in pre-production on my TV show, so I was a walking contradiction. The character that I was playing was putting a "coon show" on TV and here it is I'm trying to do the next "Cosby" ("My Wife and Kids").

Everybody was telling me to stay away and it's going to alienate people and they're not going to come see the show. I was just stupid. I should have trusted my ghetto instinct and really held my ground and supported that film.

Sun: Do you still feel as if you're a contradiction?

DW: No. I got their money from my show and now I'm just going to be as brutally honest an artist as I can be. Onstage and in film and television and whatever I do, from this point on, it's going to be the stuff that I want to do as opposed to trying to make money and thinking about bills.

I'm set. That thing that makes you sometimes compromise: I want to send (my kids) to a good school, I want them to have college money, I want to retire -- I've got all that. Now it's time to ruffle some feathers and inspire the next generation.

Sun: Certainly earlier in your career, though, that's what it was about: ruffling feathers. But, like everyone, the older you get, the more comfortable you become with your life and lifestyle, which makes it more difficult to stick it to the man.

DW: But you get scared. I have no people. I have a booking agent for my stand-up (but) I don't have a manager, I don't have an acting agent. I realized everything that I've done that was good I had something to do with generating it. So I sit back and go, "Why do I need a manager? Why do I need an agent?" I don't need to give away free money.

Sun: A few years ago, Fox opted to move "The Bernie Mac Show" opposite "My Wife and Kids" on Wednesday night. You were very vocal in your opposition to this move, and you questioned why two successful black sitcoms needed to duke it out for much of the same audience. Your show won the ratings war, while "Mac" has since been shuffled around on the network's schedule and is on the cancellation bubble.

DW: It worked out for me. Mr. Mac, it didn't work out so well for. In syndication, my show sold for over $2.5 (million) an episode. His sold for $250 (thousand). A big difference. That's what I saw coming. Somebody was going to be affected and I just wanted us to unite and say no as opposed to making it a competition.

And the thing about Fox, they're great when you're on. But they've got that baseball season that throws you off, so it's hard to really compete. Had ("Mac") not had an interrupted schedule, it might've been more competitive and who knows what would have happened. Those are things that he didn't see, but I lived being at Fox. You live and you learn.

He's doing movies and he's happy and we're both eating well, so it worked out.

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