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

0:00My mother's death shattered me into a million pieces. Really? Break as hard, break as my life. I was rescuing myself with my comedy. The expression became different. The 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. Been performing stand-up 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 for 57 minutes. And then it hit me. One stage, at the pond, broke down. I cried. Because the reality of my parents didn't go and hit me.

0:39If 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. We showed the grandkids and the great-grandkids. Everybody was good. You took care of your brothers and your sisters. If always me would.

1:03What 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.

1:40Don'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 slash tickets and get your tickets today, and I will see you there. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guests. 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, stand-up icon.

2:17And your films have done over a billion dollars 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 I... It's crazy because I only look 30. You do look 30. That's what you're buying. You were born. Yeah, exactly. And something 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.

2:55You'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.

3:35But I couldn't hear it because I was too desperate for the joke. But then life happens. 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 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 would 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. Uncle's and aunties that loved me. And I had a beautiful time, a career.

4:22I 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 bed underneath you. Everybody that 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 your brother creates a living color and you know Jim Carrey and Tommy Davidson and J-Lo and all these great David Allen Greer all these great people I had a great life and then what happened was my parents died and 57 people i love died and i need seven 57 wow you know and that's the sad part about getting to be my age is people die happens yeah 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 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.

5:41The expression became different. The 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? So I 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.

6:29that would be my voice because I've been doing movies and TV for 30 years and now I'm like, oh wow. I've only been doing stand-up 12 and I'm like, oh wow. If I put all this knowledge that I have 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 last. The last is the thing 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?

7:24Those things. And that's what I'm trying to get at the end. than 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 wow from watching me tell you these jokes and these stories and that's how i think i'm going to 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 now i could do marlon right take wayans and put over there for a second let me fly around as marlon and find my voice without having to answer to a committee without having to you know do things everybody the older brothers say i could just do me and then when i learn all of me i could come back to wayans and be like guys let me tell you how we can build this brand uh and so that's why i i that that's what i'm finding that my my voice is it's more than just telling jokes telling jokes is 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 storytelling there's different kind of storytelling is storytelling with a stand-up and then there's just storytelling i think the best book about writing and storytelling i ever read was probably the writer's journey i think it was the hero's journey foglo oh the writer's journey the hero's journey here's journey you right um but i think it was chris vogler that joseph campbell's hero's journey or different no joseph campbell did uh i think he did hero has a thousand faces yes yes right yeah i think um i mean it was chris vogler i think it's the same thing that did myth and movies whatever hero's journey how it is sometimes they call it either um that book really made me look at When I watch movies, I look at them differently.

9:43I 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. I'm studying. It's crazy. When me, I'm watching a movie, you guys are like, 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 happened. something bad happens something worse happens i escape 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 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 the b escaping the boulder I'm in a pit of snakes right my worst nightmare I escape right 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 um i went five times first time i went i didn't understand where do you say i swear i cut english you know i mean like like even when i write i'm like look i'm not great with ram grammar i'm not gonna work good but here and then at my writing partner rick he's he's a stickler for that so we work yeah i'm like yo here's this funny yo make it work what it was this character with that kind let's write that and then we we collaborate on that he is never going to be able to give the flavor and them jokes like i could give so we have a great uh uh collaboration um 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 it's a desperate medium this story is not important a thin one but he the jokes everything the timing of the jokes gotta be funny really when you write a script and we're in a parody unlike any other genre right everything gotta be funny the slug line okay where am i what's funny about where the person is what is the people doing they gotta be doing something funny who was saying something funny who was 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 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 wayans is telling jokes and for years and it's you have to master the art 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 houses so back to i'm sorry i talk 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 Shops, Blade and Saddles.

13:50I think they did it great. Those guys, the Zuckers, Mel Brooks, you know, they're the forefathers of the genre. So, you know, respects. You know, without them doing it, we would have never... We probably would have come to it. but they gave us the blueprint and they showed you how it works we just remodeled the whole thing this is the old Ford car and it runs on gas and we was like nah take all that shit off we're going to make it electric we're going to put the exhaust system on there this car is going to go 0 to 100 in 3 seconds we just changed it up and put the flavor on it we put our urban voices on a white genre, which gave it flavor.

14:42And 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're like, somebody wants to do Scary Movie 5. We're like, okay, go for it. It's not going to do well. Yeah, it'd be hard. Because you don't, you have to know what you're doing. And nobody loves, you have to love the art of parody. Right. Parody is its own beast. now as a writer I understand that story so next time I write a parody it's going to be way better than the parody I wrote in the past because now I understand story but you said story doesn't matter as much as the jokes it doesn't but I still think if you can marry the two you've done something great so that's what I'm looking forward to writing the next thing that's going to 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 uh i'm i think rick and i are gonna lay into one and then we're just gonna let it rip that's cool i had one i was gonna do but i i can't so i'm not gonna even go there because you know and then um so i think books helped me tell stories also i think some of the great comedians tell great stories like Richard Pryor great storyteller Dave Chappelle, wonderful storyteller Dave is masterful you watch Dave man, Dave is like it's like going to school he's like a science professor you know what I mean, an English teacher he's well read, well spoken knows how to put it all together my brother Damon great storyteller, great comedian and 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 you never got to accuse me of i'm a writer i'm a writer not just for myself but for others you know i mean like i'm i'm a creator so i don't want to hear you steal i don't know i don't do that I look at things that they do that are inspiring and I go I like this element you know 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 that well he knows how to sound makes it sound funny either way yeah yeah Chris Rock I love his artistry because Chris is a perfectionists you're right and these are like guys has 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 are younger or my age i just started taking stand-up really serious the past 12 maybe 14 years wow so i i think but now i'm progressing at a crazy rate because i write produce 30 years of material i write the tv i i i know how to direct like i 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.

18:39So see, stand-up 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 light Jimmy Fallon up. Jimmy Fallon, I go on the show, he's like, oh my God, it's always a seven-minute vacation when you come on. You don't fucking ask me questions. I just roll and rip, because I got 300 people in front of me and I make them laugh, and then I know how to make them laugh in the morning. So when I do Kelly and Ryan or Kelly and her husband, What's her name? Yeah. Kelly and Mark, want to do this show?

19:11I know how to, I'm appropriate for who's watching. So females in the morning, I'm not going to curse. I'm not going to be too edgy. You read the room. Yeah. Read the room. Know who's, you know what I mean? There's morning talk shows to the afternoon drive. Yeah. Knowing who to sell and how to sell. So me doing stand-up, I was like, I'm going to get people to pay $50 in ticket to come see me and one day i'm gonna sell out the garden and if i think you 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 20 to come see me in the movie 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 to 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'm an i have an excellence in something i have 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 beyond comedy i know the math beyond comedy i know this i've done it my whole life and now i'm learning sales and now i'm i really want to learn business you know 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 marlin but for so many years you had movies that people who are already coming to the movies and watching you.

21:22They're already paying 20 bucks to come. You're selling billion dollars at the box office globally with all your movies. 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 10 movies and you're going backwards. I'm 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 in box office I want Tom Cruise because I know I can do it I have an amazing skill set not just comedy like drama I went to Fulmer Arts High School I'm a really I'm a really talented dramatic actor I know it and it just got better this year 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.

22:21And I'm telling you, man, I'm just in my bag and I can finally say it. You know when you... 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. Why do you think God is holding you back? Because I think in order to make the the kind of sword that i'm gonna beat 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 like 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 I'm the friend 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 a insane like there's only Jordan Peele told me he said something funny when he came to set and he was like let me take 15 minutes and just talk to you about how special you are he watched my performance, watched my daily like I gotta say there's nobody like you said you're one of one anybody that's like you is either dead or crazy but the well you can come from dramatically and comedically 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 swifflin duboc but he's not a stand-up guy and he can hit the low point the drama uh-huh but he wasn't a stand-up guy though he isn't but that's what i'm saying see will when it comes to the comedy uh-huh 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 you know 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 it's 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 i'm saying for me marlin i'm trying to hit the high notes like dave chapelle high notes and then they hit every level in between and so i'm not uh comparing myself and i have nothing but respect for all those mentioned and love for all those mentioned, including Will.

25:32I 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, and that makes$300 million worldwide. Wow. Then we give them part two, makes$100-something million worldwide. Then we do white chicks, it makes$100-something million 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.

26:07Number 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 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 if you 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 i've never been to jail i never got a dui i never i don't do dumb yeah i never disrespect women because i know where i'm going and in order to get there i got to keep it clean yes so you know i behave myself i'm appropriate but i mean i talk a lot no i love it man this is this is beautiful you know you mentioned that 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 makes me i have to do the work so 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.

27:31Keep working and keep building and keep, stay on your path. You're doing great. And I see it now because my last stand-up, 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 pamper, my daddy's pamper and my mom's pamper and talking about their private parts. I got people cracking up. 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 after the pod broke down i cried i was just like because the reality of my parents didn't go and hit me that it hit you until then it did but it wasn't supposed to hit me in a show well I'm filming a special and it did and I was like alright cool and I was going to 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 help 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 a huge business because they help people Feel better.

29:20Well, so can comedy. I want to help people feel better. I want to heal. So the stories I'm telling now, my next one 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. I learned from those books. the five stages of grief to get to acceptance from defiance to accept resistance frustration anger upset i was defiant i was like no you're not doing it 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 this 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 oh my god i My child is going through the same thing and I just want you to know.

30:44Once again, I'm taking my art of comedy and I'm helping to heal. And I think that's something different. Different. I want to make you feel good. Not just awesome, silly. I don't want to punch down on nobody. I want everybody to feel good. I'm going to punch down on me. I'm the joke. I'm the butt of my jokes. And I'm going to tell you a good story about how to be better. I was telling my friend this morning at the gym, because 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, love her.

31:24Yeah. Love her. 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. Mother's is 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 the guide on how to be a man. When your mother goes, it rips your heart. 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 on the 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 doing if i'm in ohio i'm flying to new york because they live separately i fly to new york hang out with my dad taking the dinner laugh with him have some wine and i get on a plane tuesday pick my mother we'll 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.

32:35Because when they go, yeah, you're going to 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 great in. 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?

33:26and 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 is 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.

34:14Nothing. 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 knew only one book, the Bible. Wow. You ask him a verse about love, Corinthians, 13, chapter four. 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.

34:58Then 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 going to feed these 10 people today? And he'd go, let's go. And he'd 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 nah don't do that no no get up underneath it right getting 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 we had a 14 hour day i got my acting coach i paid 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 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'll always give more i'm writing movies if i'm doing i love to do it all on all the meetings i'm there i'm on the phone nothing in i do all my writing all my stand-up they're like how big 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 life live i don't do them 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 i forgot baltimore 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 how how do you do that i'm a writer yeah 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 now 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 what 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 i know him know him i'm because life has been my greatest writer this 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 i don't 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 i licensed 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 i know when i'm ready i know when i'm making people laugh now 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 one's going to cost but I'm not waiting on you to tell me I'm ready.

38:41I know how good it is. I'm getting sand ovations everywhere I go. I know how good it is so I'm going to film it in a place that I desire. I'm going to give it my all and then I'm going to cut it together and hopefully you like it and if not I'll sell somewhere else. Or I got a write off. Or you sell it online or whatever. 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.

39:15Whenever 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 at 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 and there's a wall and you're trying to get somewhere sometimes you have to kick a hole through the wall and the door i'm gonna kick a hole through that 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.

40:01No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I really want to be masterful. I got to knock 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 um uh about the director do a great job what crew works anything is lessons there'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 and 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 kids will be able to eat off the thing 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 like 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 Dinovi and a letter saying that I wasn't really and see I was gonna be off to the races Batman Robin and then you know what 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 where would you be right now had that happened I don't know probably cracked out somewhere because I wouldn't know what to do with that kind of success of money but God put me on this journey to create.

42:17Look 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 that I know now. Look at all this that I know. and I'm going to make my way here. It's taking a long route, a scenic route. I mean, it's been a beautiful scene. Wonderful. But I'm sitting there depressed that I didn't get that part. When I say everything is God, I'm saying everything is not all bad.

42:59Sometimes the things that you think is failure is actually success is 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 to happen. So just keep doing the work. Wow. 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.

43:47You're always working, it seems like. Yeah. Touring, traveling, producing, writing, anything. It's like you've always got work. I don't have a day off. How can you have healthy, 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 it was amazing amazing i never felt like man i can't do this and i can't no baby go do it go do your work go do your work they know that this makes me happy and it provides me family go do your work and to this day she's still my best friend and never bothers me your kids you ain't spent enough time to kid my kids adore me but they know dad has to work and dad's doing his purpose and now they're wrong 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 if they 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 got to 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 it comes to you anyway You can be the breadwinner.

45:43After 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 a 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?

46:46Because... Why not just stay in the big cities and stay in LA and New York and just kind of do your show three, four nights a week? Don't grow that way. That's the shortcut. That's the ego. I don't want to be surfaced. I don't want to be... I want to be the dude that did the work. You respect the guy you know that had had 50 fights before he ever or 270 fights before he finally got the opportunity to become a pro to build his way up to get the championship at least about with the championship because there's a lot of knowledge and all the licks i gotta take i have to learn the long way well i'm just gonna be a paper champ but what's your 12 14 years in stand up right yeah but everything is God.

47:33I'm not trying to be regular. I'm different. It's going to 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. I'm going to be different and that's going to take a long time and that's okay and i'm not 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 i leave this pizza shop it's smelling like pizza five people in there marlin way into on scary movie i 750 million dollars of 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 sydney castillo and uh esau and and dc irvin and all the guys i came up with i didn't come up with kevin hart and dave chapelle 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 going to play catch-up that means that every weekend i gotta work i don't care where it's at 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 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 dive Bonk, it was even an elite club, like improv, whatever.

49:22I have to go the long way. Before I play the garden, I have to do this, Jerry. I got to play Winky's Hot Dogs. Before I do the garden, I got to do Damori's 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.

49:48obviously it's all God's timing. I would say when I'm 55. 55. Three years? Three years ago. 55. Yeah. I'm going to make a note of that. Yep. What's the date? Give me the month and day that you would want to be selling out the garden for your show. My birthday, July 23rd. July 23rd.

50:09All right. Three years. Yep. 2027? What is it? 2027? 2024, 2027. 2027 okay we going let's go and if i don't make it there then it would be 2028 if it don't make it man next year it's gonna happen you just keep doing it yeah so showing up i'm telling you i see it man but i that's why i'm able to write material yes 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 uh Starting in September, check my website, Marlon Wayans Official, for tickets and dates, tour dates, Wild Child Tour. So I'm doing my theater tour now, and I'm still building it with this new set.