Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
Speaker 1: guest is Wayne Brady. You know him as the affable
Speaker 1: host of Let's Make a Deal and the versatile cast
Speaker 1: member of the improv competition series whose Line Is It Anyway?
Speaker 1: Behind the scenes, Brady has big ambition. He wants to
Speaker 1: use his improv training to help build a consulting business
Speaker 1: with Mandy Takeda, his former wife who remains his business partner.
Speaker 1: Brady sees the tenants of improv, active listening and an
Speaker 1: openness to collaboration as a natural framework for coaching the
Speaker 1: best out of executives and other leaders. He also has
Speaker 1: a vision of improv centers that can help youth develop
Speaker 1: self confidence and critical thinking skills. In our conversation, he
Speaker 1: speaks from the heart about why he's driven to spread
Speaker 1: the wisdom that comes from improv training. It's all coming
Speaker 1: up in this Strictly Business conversation. Welcome back to Strictly Business.
Speaker 1: Wayne Brady a multi hyphenit, if ever there was one
Speaker 1: in the entertainment business. Thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us today. Thank you so much for having me. I
Speaker 1: was looking forward to this conversation. The thing I wanted
Speaker 1: to start by talking with you today was I understand,
Speaker 1: of course, you are a master of improv and have
Speaker 1: been doing improv in various forms I know for decades.
Speaker 1: Tell me, as I understand, of late, you have really
Speaker 1: been putting some thought and putting some things down in
Speaker 1: a more formal structure about how the tools, the skills
Speaker 1: of improv, the creativity that it takes to be good
Speaker 1: at improv, how those skills and tools might be applied
Speaker 1: in other sectors for fun and profit. Tell us what,
Speaker 1: tell us what you and Mandy are working on in
Speaker 1: this area. Well, let me start off by saying that
Speaker 1: that the use of improv and the corporate sector. I'm
Speaker 1: not coming up with some you know, uh Um. I
Speaker 1: didn't just hit this great motherload of gold and I'm
Speaker 1: in the hills going look what I did. I founded Eureka.
Speaker 1: It's been there. In fact, people were doing that when
Speaker 1: I first started doing improv. In fact, I joined a
Speaker 1: company called Sack Theater in the I want to say,
Speaker 1: in the early nineties, and it was through sacked. UM,
Speaker 1: I started to learn improv or or the formalized version
Speaker 1: of what I think I've already been doing, and part
Speaker 1: of what I learned from them at that point, they
Speaker 1: were already doing corporate work for for Disney, doing t
Speaker 1: building and showing how the the the principles of yes,
Speaker 1: and you know that we can come into your business
Speaker 1: and we can show you X, Y and Z that
Speaker 1: will help your team work together baby better. And groups
Speaker 1: like Second City and Io and and the Groundlings, They've
Speaker 1: all had their various versions of it. So when I
Speaker 1: say I feel that I have a methodology that will work,
Speaker 1: it's really based on the methodology that I have put
Speaker 1: into play for myself, the way that I have been
Speaker 1: able to maneuver on stage using those tools, then to
Speaker 1: work off stage using those same tools in a pitch meeting,
Speaker 1: using those tools once I already have the job, using
Speaker 1: those tools to help run a show, UM, going to
Speaker 1: other businesses and saying okay, just like on stage, I
Speaker 1: have a relationship with whomever I'm on stage with in
Speaker 1: order to make make a successful improvisational scene work, and
Speaker 1: if not even a scene like my one of my
Speaker 1: specialties is being being able to make an improvisational music
Speaker 1: piece work, which is basically jazz with your body, jazz
Speaker 1: with your body and jazz with your mind, and and
Speaker 1: being able to have the give and take to ebb
Speaker 1: and flow, the the listening skills to be able to
Speaker 1: take in everything that the person is saying as they're
Speaker 1: taking it in process it not jumping the gun to
Speaker 1: come to my own conclusions immediately and going this is
Speaker 1: what the song is about, listening to what they say,
Speaker 1: taking the pieces of it, going okay, I see what
Speaker 1: you're going with, and and then we put the rules
Speaker 1: into play up yes and yes. I like this line
Speaker 1: of of of of you know, Boba Fett. It should
Speaker 1: should stay out of the cantina because it's a Star
Speaker 1: Wars scene. So that's great. Now I'm gonna take that yes,
Speaker 1: but let's add this so on top of it in
Speaker 1: order to do the yes. And I did listen to you.
Speaker 1: I didn't come in with any preconceived notions. I didn't
Speaker 1: block you by going no, no, no, this is better
Speaker 1: Han Solo's mom. I walked into the no no, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't do it. I took in everything that you said.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take it, and I'm going to add
Speaker 1: on to what you just gave me, and if we
Speaker 1: keep doing this back and forth, by the time we
Speaker 1: are finished, we should have an end product that sounds good,
Speaker 1: that is incredibly funny, and that has kept the audience guessing,
Speaker 1: but it satisfies them at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: That's how I feel a business should run. Now, that's
Speaker 1: in its most simplistic way, of course, when we know
Speaker 1: there's so many things that goes in that that go
Speaker 1: into making a successful business. But I think the one
Speaker 1: thing that can be spoken of in a universal sense
Speaker 1: is a boss, employees, product or services rendered. Those things
Speaker 1: have to be done successfully in order for this business
Speaker 1: to continue to operate. One of the things about a
Speaker 1: business is when someone hears, oh you're you're a boss,
Speaker 1: So all these people work for me, I pay them,
Speaker 1: they should just do what the hell I said. That's
Speaker 1: one way to do it. That's one way to have
Speaker 1: a bunch of unhappy people rousing about you, you know,
Speaker 1: next to the water cooler and and potentially not having
Speaker 1: your workflow be as smooth as it could be. You
Speaker 1: could lord over them and be a draconian boss, or
Speaker 1: you could take the cue from improvisation and you recognize
Speaker 1: that you have a team. You can take in various ideas.
Speaker 1: You can say yes and to them. You don't have
Speaker 1: to say yes, these are all the best ideas and
Speaker 1: and this is what our company is going to do.
Speaker 1: But you can make people feel that they've been listened to.
Speaker 1: You can acknowledge that they've been listened to. And the
Speaker 1: best thing about improvisation, unless you're doing a scene by yourself,
Speaker 1: I'm very capable of walking on stage and doing an
Speaker 1: hour and a half by myself. That's great, that's fun,
Speaker 1: and it's a great parlor trick. But but you know,
Speaker 1: when I have the most fun and when I think
Speaker 1: I shine the most, it's just like on whose line
Speaker 1: is in any way? Or when I'm on tour with
Speaker 1: my best friend Nathan Mangum, when I'm playing, when I
Speaker 1: when I can just play, when I take in your ideas,
Speaker 1: I'm better in that show because my buddy Jonathan has
Speaker 1: set me up. I'm better in that show than when
Speaker 1: I'm spinning by myself and just just uh the the
Speaker 1: center of attention and generating all of those ideas. There
Speaker 1: are no checks and balances. So in a business sense,
Speaker 1: what I'm what I would like to set is set
Speaker 1: up is is well because there's so many things I
Speaker 1: want to do with this. But in the first place,
Speaker 1: be able to show showing a business setting, whether it's
Speaker 1: your coworker or whether it's boss, to get to employee,
Speaker 1: the yes and aspect, the listening aspect. That's a great
Speaker 1: way to to up your productivity simply by listening. It
Speaker 1: costs you nothing to just listen and make someone feel
Speaker 1: like they've been heard. You take the same skill and
Speaker 1: you give it to someone who may feel unimport like
Speaker 1: their voice doesn't matter in that company. That's the that's
Speaker 1: the weak link in your company chain, because that's the
Speaker 1: person sending back at the machine going all I do
Speaker 1: all damn day is pull this lever. They don't care
Speaker 1: if a paper from one box, whatever, they don't care.
Speaker 1: If that person thinks that I don't care, then they
Speaker 1: don't care, and at some point mistakes will be made.
Speaker 1: No one is invested in your scene or or in
Speaker 1: your company, right, everyone of the team feel that they're
Speaker 1: pulling the same way that that they're invested, that they
Speaker 1: want to to work towards the same common goal of
Speaker 1: finishing that scene or delivering a product or having having
Speaker 1: uh aid and an effort made. How do you learn
Speaker 1: how to be a good listener. It's a muscle. It
Speaker 1: is an active muscle. I will say that. And if
Speaker 1: you're not used to using that muscle, it's just like I,
Speaker 1: I consider myself to be a socially awkward person, or
Speaker 1: like you know, an interviewer will go, Wayne, you must
Speaker 1: be a hoot at home, or they'll talk to my daughter.
Speaker 1: Your dad must make you laugh all day long. She goes, No, absolutely,
Speaker 1: because the person that I am when I'm not on stage,
Speaker 1: the narrative that I've told myself since I was a
Speaker 1: young child is I'm awkward when I'm dealing with more
Speaker 1: than one person, and I don't UH on stage. I
Speaker 1: have no problem taking in information, sitting on it for
Speaker 1: a millisecond, and putting something out that uses the information
Speaker 1: that comes in. I have no problem being open. I
Speaker 1: think to be an active listener, the thing that we
Speaker 1: need to do is to be open. So the narrative
Speaker 1: that I tell myself in real life when I'm here
Speaker 1: is I can't really talk to these people right now.
Speaker 1: But no, I don't know, I don't don't I don't
Speaker 1: want to go to this this event is because I'm
Speaker 1: closing myself off, so I haven't any space to listen,
Speaker 1: and I haven't any space to take anything in. So
Speaker 1: that's even something in my personal life that I had
Speaker 1: to learn to change that and to activate that. That's
Speaker 1: why I say it's an active muscle. Wayne at home
Speaker 1: has to actively practice let me hear you Okay, as
Speaker 1: it's coming in, Wayne, I really need to talk about
Speaker 1: the da da da da. Yes, I have to cogitate
Speaker 1: and form something. But if if I take the extra
Speaker 1: second to just take everything in before I'm ready to answer,
Speaker 1: before I'm defensive, before I have to explain myself, before
Speaker 1: I have to make my point, right, I have to
Speaker 1: actively It's almost like the way that I pick picture
Speaker 1: it is is I have to actually just keep my
Speaker 1: hands down and and go okay mm hmm and really
Speaker 1: hear you yeah and I and I cannot allow myself
Speaker 1: to move into that relaxed space until I take it
Speaker 1: in and I really and And that's the that's the
Speaker 1: way that we can learn it. How do you learn
Speaker 1: to be an active listener? You really have to listen.
Speaker 1: You have to take in everything that person says, that
Speaker 1: that other piece of the machinery that as they're saying, look,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about something some now. Well,
Speaker 1: and you know what if you're mad at me, well
Speaker 1: I'm mad at you too. I mean, as soon as
Speaker 1: you're doing this, this isn't happening. So just like on stage,
Speaker 1: I have to do both. I have to take it
Speaker 1: in and as it's in, I'm I'm taking it and
Speaker 1: adding to it. That's the difference. Most people want to
Speaker 1: take it in or not and just give You have
Speaker 1: to take in, add give back. That's the one step
Speaker 1: that that most of us miss. What do you want
Speaker 1: to do with the kind of improv for business idea? Well,
Speaker 1: there are a few things. I'm going to be writing
Speaker 1: a book called called you know, making Ship Up, which
Speaker 1: is which has been my brand for years. It was
Speaker 1: the title of my Vegas show and and my other
Speaker 1: production companies that um, because we really just that's all
Speaker 1: that we ever do, you know, in business and in life,
Speaker 1: we're all just making it up as we go along
Speaker 1: and hoping that it's not a spectacular failure by the
Speaker 1: time that our show is over. So so in terms
Speaker 1: of writing, writing a book and laying out of course
Speaker 1: and it and and it being a course where I
Speaker 1: feel that it overlaps business, but it also at the
Speaker 1: root of it, it overlaps our interpersonal relationships. Because in business,
Speaker 1: just like in life and family, family and leisure, it's
Speaker 1: our relationships that can propel you to success or that
Speaker 1: can sink you. It's how you deal with the people
Speaker 1: around you. It's how it's how you talk to people,
Speaker 1: it's how you listen to people. It's how you make
Speaker 1: the people around you feel. Talent in this business just
Speaker 1: is not enough. It has to be talent mixed with
Speaker 1: your relationships. And when I say relationships, I don't mean
Speaker 1: what's the I'm trying to think of the proper term.
Speaker 1: I don't mean mean me personally. I'm not a super network.
Speaker 1: There are people that are amazing at that, and they
Speaker 1: know everybody's phone numbers, and that's great. I'm not necessarily
Speaker 1: talking about that. I'm talking about how do you make
Speaker 1: the people around you feel so that when you leave
Speaker 1: the impression that you've left behind that's out of your control.
Speaker 1: But what is in your control is when you're in
Speaker 1: the room. And I truly believe that the skills that
Speaker 1: improv give you give you an upper hand when you're
Speaker 1: in the room, and if someone doesn't like you at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, they don't like you, you
Speaker 1: keep it moving. But on the average, if you're able
Speaker 1: to practice these skills, whether at home or or in business.
Speaker 1: So so the first part of that is going to
Speaker 1: be be the book, and the second piece, which I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of, is I'm going to be starting my
Speaker 1: own theater company slash school along the lines of an
Speaker 1: io or a second city here in Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: later one in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. And and
Speaker 1: the basis of that. Recently, Mandy and I had a
Speaker 1: show on a network called b y U t V
Speaker 1: called Wayne Brady's Comedy I Q and and it was
Speaker 1: kind of the pilot program for what I want to
Speaker 1: work out in the real world, where where we took
Speaker 1: teenagers from all over the US and we had them compete.
Speaker 1: And we took these kids who were actors, singers. Some
Speaker 1: of them had in prompt training, some of them had
Speaker 1: sketch training, but most of them were at at the
Speaker 1: very basic level for that. And I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: teach you these rules. Not not only are these my
Speaker 1: rules for on stage, but these are my performance rules
Speaker 1: for in life. And I'm going to teach you these
Speaker 1: rules and whatever you do with them, let's see if
Speaker 1: they enhance your skills. I can't teach you be funny,
Speaker 1: but I can teach you the rules. Improv only works
Speaker 1: in in a grid or in a framework to it
Speaker 1: to hang it on the shows a success and using that. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to start doing the schools where I'm going
Speaker 1: to be teaching adult classes, um teaching sketch, improv, the
Speaker 1: these rules, putting, putting together a corporate sector that that
Speaker 1: will go into businesses and and consult I'll also have
Speaker 1: an advertising wing. Some of the best ideas come from
Speaker 1: the people who are fast on their feet and being
Speaker 1: able to go into these companies and come up with
Speaker 1: with ads for for them, showing them how to think
Speaker 1: less critically sometimes times and more creatively. And then the
Speaker 1: third piece of that is it will also be a
Speaker 1: school for teenagers to to be able to help them
Speaker 1: take the skill into adulthood and go into certain neighborhoods
Speaker 1: like a South Central, like a Watts, places where people
Speaker 1: that look like me, where these kids that look like
Speaker 1: me haven't haven't been taught the skills that I was
Speaker 1: able to take in terms of improvisation and character building.
Speaker 1: And someone might might look at it from a distance
Speaker 1: and go, well, why do they need that? Well, I
Speaker 1: tell you why. If someone can stand in front of
Speaker 1: a crowd and have a conversation and feel confident in
Speaker 1: who they are using the skills of uh if I
Speaker 1: can listen to you and I can tell you clearly
Speaker 1: and exactly who I am, and not only can I
Speaker 1: think critically, but I can think creatively and fast. You're
Speaker 1: you are prepping them for a life on stage, You're
Speaker 1: prepping them for a life that Those are life skills,
Speaker 1: and I wish that I would have had someone to
Speaker 1: help me with those when I was younger. I I
Speaker 1: think everything worked out well for me, but the but,
Speaker 1: the but, the crushing self doubt, the the lack of
Speaker 1: sense of self that I had growing up until I
Speaker 1: found these skills. I want to impart them earlier. And
Speaker 1: so that's the dream, that's the rollout, and all of
Speaker 1: this is we are starting now. We have hit the
Speaker 1: ground running, and I'm hoping to have the first first
Speaker 1: company up in in less than a year. We'll take
Speaker 1: a pause here and be back with more from Wayne
Speaker 1: Brady and we're back with Wayne Brady. As you're talking.
Speaker 1: What's also great about this is that improved this kind
Speaker 1: of creativity. It's the same with writing, you know, with
Speaker 1: that rudimentary it's a it's a great leveler. You don't
Speaker 1: have to have an arm like a cannon, you don't
Speaker 1: have to be built like a linebacker to All you
Speaker 1: need is just to spark that spark, that creative, creative gene.
Speaker 1: And I've also heard other actors say that that kind
Speaker 1: of this kind of work also helps with rejection, because
Speaker 1: there is a lot of rejection in the entertainment business.
Speaker 1: And when you realize that, you know you're looking at
Speaker 1: one of you could go any direction in any split
Speaker 1: second decision, and you go this way, and you know,
Speaker 1: you kind of come to know that you know there
Speaker 1: were many paths, and maybe maybe one path might have
Speaker 1: been more successful, but it was your choice, and it
Speaker 1: was your choice in the moment in a way that
Speaker 1: in a way that I think that can help people,
Speaker 1: and I can, I can, I can really see an
Speaker 1: application here for teenagers for all the reasons you said,
Speaker 1: to be able to stand up and speak articulately. And
Speaker 1: although this sounds like a cliche. Truly find your voice
Speaker 1: in a in a setting of where people come together
Speaker 1: and agree. You know, there's not gonna be any stupid choices.
Speaker 1: There's not going to be there's such an ethos of
Speaker 1: all the actors that have been involved in this, there's
Speaker 1: there's also it seems like a very healthy ethos around
Speaker 1: the around the improv community. Absolutely, and and I think
Speaker 1: some something that it also helps teach is accountability m
Speaker 1: because when you're on stage and you have to make
Speaker 1: a choice. One of the things that was drilled into
Speaker 1: me when when I was learning was in theater sports,
Speaker 1: which is another improv type thing that I was involved in.
Speaker 1: UM it's an improv competition and I and I got
Speaker 1: involved in Orlando, but also did it out here in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. UM is one of the rule rules is
Speaker 1: no waffling. And the waffling was you've got to make
Speaker 1: a decision. It's especially in that split second. You've got
Speaker 1: to make a decision, and you know what, sometimes it
Speaker 1: will not be the best decision, but you've got to
Speaker 1: pick a course and go with it as opposed to well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I can do that. And oh
Speaker 1: and in the world of business, just like in real world,
Speaker 1: you have to make decisions sometimes. And the reason that
Speaker 1: it teaches accountability is because if if I'm on stage
Speaker 1: and and I decide, guys, I'm taking the scene in
Speaker 1: this in this direction, Let's say the scene tanks. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: when we get off stage, I'm not gonna turn around
Speaker 1: and go why didn't you guys back me up? You
Speaker 1: guys sucked? Why did you do Why did you know?
Speaker 1: I made that choice. You guys made the choice to
Speaker 1: yes and me and go with me. But I made
Speaker 1: the choice to do this thing. I stick by that,
Speaker 1: and I had no chance in the moment to back
Speaker 1: off from it. I had to commit to that choice
Speaker 1: and go and And there are so many situations in
Speaker 1: business where instead of just passing the buck, instead of
Speaker 1: just going, oh, well, I don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: I'll give it to Johnson teaching that if you can
Speaker 1: make a choice knowing that someone's got your back, that
Speaker 1: the rest of your team has yes handed you, and
Speaker 1: they have had your back you, you can make a
Speaker 1: clear and decisive choice, and you can be accountable to
Speaker 1: that choice whether it pans out or whether it does not.
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't, what are you gonna do when
Speaker 1: it doesn't no time to sit, because when we're on stage,
Speaker 1: we have to go, oh, you didn't get a laugh
Speaker 1: with that thing, Okay, I've got something else. Or from
Speaker 1: an on in an audition and they tell me to pivot, okay, cool. Um,
Speaker 1: I can do this voice, or I can make this choice,
Speaker 1: or I can give you an eighty seven year old man.
Speaker 1: What I can be a little blonde girl from from Malibu.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need right now, Wayne Brady can do that
Speaker 1: for you right now before I leave this room. That's
Speaker 1: the type of thing that that you have to have.
Speaker 1: And all of those come from that grid of improv
Speaker 1: and there's a there's a sense of you gotta be game,
Speaker 1: and that is for sure, it's business. You gotta be
Speaker 1: game to be on that you know, to get out
Speaker 1: there on the stage. Tell me how young Wayne Brady,
Speaker 1: growing up in Orlando, Florida, got interested in improv and performing.
Speaker 1: Young Wayne Brady started performing when he was sixteen. Um
Speaker 1: sixty fifteen ish Um. I was a junior in high
Speaker 1: school and I had a moment like fame. I'd always
Speaker 1: fantasized in my head about being a performer, but in
Speaker 1: my household, I was raised by my by my grandmother
Speaker 1: and grandfather who are from the Virgin Islands, very strict
Speaker 1: island upbringing. It was all about school and manners and
Speaker 1: how you present yourself topped off on top of my
Speaker 1: father was in the military, so I was rayed with
Speaker 1: a military work ethos. So it was all about you
Speaker 1: keep you keep your head down and you do what
Speaker 1: you're told, and you don't talk out, you don't disrespect people.
Speaker 1: You keep your mouth shut unless you're spoken to when
Speaker 1: you go. So none of that is very conducive towards
Speaker 1: the arts. So I harbored any love that I had
Speaker 1: for any of that stuff. I kept it to myself.
Speaker 1: Home from school, I would go in my room, I
Speaker 1: would close close the door, and I had a little
Speaker 1: black and white TV. And I watched a lot of
Speaker 1: PBS because one of the only channels that that I got,
Speaker 1: and PVS. I watched a lot of old specials. I
Speaker 1: watched Sammy Davis Jr. In the rat Pack. I always
Speaker 1: wanted to be like Sammy. I was old sketch shows.
Speaker 1: I'm talking old old um like uh Ernie Kovacs, the show,
Speaker 1: the Show of Shows, Sids Caesar. I would see British
Speaker 1: sketch shows, uh, Benny Hill, Monty Python, the Goodies. I
Speaker 1: would see old black and white movies with Sydney Poitier,
Speaker 1: the old MGM musicals. Um. So I grew up having
Speaker 1: this foundation of if only I can do any of
Speaker 1: those things, or or I could sing and dance like
Speaker 1: in West Side Story or in Black and Blue and
Speaker 1: and um. But I kept that to myself until my
Speaker 1: junior year, where as an elective, I was able to
Speaker 1: take theater and I got a part in the school
Speaker 1: play because one of my r OTC brothers he dropped
Speaker 1: out of the school play and I had to play
Speaker 1: it off. He's like, hey, guys, um, I'm gonna drop
Speaker 1: out of this play because I've got a crew tournament. Uh.
Speaker 1: It shows you what kind of school I was in,
Speaker 1: because we had a crew team. He said, we've got
Speaker 1: a crew tournament. Does somebody want to take over? I've
Speaker 1: got like two lines or something, and everyone's like no, man,
Speaker 1: players are stupid. And then I say, yeah, um, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'll do it. It'll be so funny because
Speaker 1: I'll be making fun of him super the theater geeks, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Like oh my god, I did to be
Speaker 1: on stage. So I walked in and it was like
Speaker 1: fame and so these kids laughing, talking, dancing on top
Speaker 1: of the piano. Everyone's doing voices, and it was the
Speaker 1: happiest that I'd been in all of my years up
Speaker 1: to that point in school. And I met my tribe,
Speaker 1: I met my people, and I fell in love, and
Speaker 1: I dropped RTC after two years in Of course, we
Speaker 1: have to have a family talk about that, because we
Speaker 1: all thought that I was going to be in the
Speaker 1: military and go in as an officer. It happened the
Speaker 1: only time that I want to hold a gun in
Speaker 1: marches if you're paying me to do it on TV. UM.
Speaker 1: So that's how I got started. And about two years later,
Speaker 1: uh after I graduated, I met a woman named Claire
Speaker 1: Sarah who now was a successful screenwriter and runs a
Speaker 1: program called Right Girl. Sure. Yeah, So Claire Claire was
Speaker 1: my mentor. Got me started an improv and she said,
Speaker 1: you're really funny, because I did and I did a
Speaker 1: did a did an industrial film with her, and of
Speaker 1: course I was a young whipper snapper and and she said, oh,
Speaker 1: that's so cute, and pad me on my head and said, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm married. And be you're you're you're funny. You want
Speaker 1: to come and take class from my husband and I.
Speaker 1: We do a proversations. I said, a provisation. What's that?
Speaker 1: She goes, it's it's theater that that we make up
Speaker 1: right then on the spot when oh, like when I'm
Speaker 1: playing make Believe in my room, which is weird for
Speaker 1: a for a twenty year old to say, but then, uh,
Speaker 1: my life has changed forever. And I got involved with
Speaker 1: Zack Theater and then seven of us moved out to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles a couple of years later, and we formed
Speaker 1: a group called the House Full of Punkys and we
Speaker 1: played shows all around town and we started doing a
Speaker 1: regular show with the ACME over on the Bray or
Speaker 1: the Old act Me first of course, and we got
Speaker 1: best best improv comedy group in l A. And we
Speaker 1: got the interest of the producers of Whose line is
Speaker 1: it any Way? And when they were holding the auditions,
Speaker 1: we auditioned, and when the smoke cleared, I had the
Speaker 1: job and changed my life forever. I know that you
Speaker 1: and Mandy also, do you also have some content production going?
Speaker 1: Tell tell us about what you're working on in that space.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about it. It's it's uh the move
Speaker 1: I think that you make when your desire is to
Speaker 1: not just be the guy they pay, but the person
Speaker 1: who one day becomes the one who pays others. And
Speaker 1: and to create jobs, to create opportunities, to create a space.
Speaker 1: So Mandy and I our company a Wayne and Mandy Creative.
Speaker 1: Our mission is to create product and entertainment that not
Speaker 1: just makes you laugh or makes you feel something, but
Speaker 1: moves the needle and I feel. And I can't speak
Speaker 1: for anyone else because I can only speak for Wayne.
Speaker 1: And now we are heading into a world where entertainment
Speaker 1: is more important than ever. And I'm not overvaluing it
Speaker 1: because Lord knows, there are people doing jobs that are
Speaker 1: so important. But I mean entertainment because so much of
Speaker 1: what happens in the culture, in the zeitgeist, is pushed
Speaker 1: from entertainment. We get our our escapism from entertainment. He
Speaker 1: sometimes get our news from entertainment, like Stephen Colbert and
Speaker 1: Trevor Noah. You get intelligent news from comedic sources because
Speaker 1: the jesters, since since the days of the Kings, were
Speaker 1: the ones that brain bring the bad news and sometimes
Speaker 1: talk the king down from from chopping someone's head off job.
Speaker 1: So instead of put hang out negative things into a
Speaker 1: world that is already filled to the brim with negativity,
Speaker 1: we wanted to be able to help and move the needle,
Speaker 1: whether it's with race, whether it's with talking the gender
Speaker 1: space and sexuality, UM to be able to have have
Speaker 1: those thoughts. So we have a few shows. We have
Speaker 1: a show with Jerry Bruckheimer that's in development for CBS
Speaker 1: All Access now Paramount plus UM called UM called Barstow,
Speaker 1: a f about a young gay Polynesian kid who leaves
Speaker 1: leaves Hawaii and comes to Barstow, California, and then to
Speaker 1: Barstow it is. It is that would be quite a
Speaker 1: culture shock from Hawaii. Get it, and he has to
Speaker 1: change everything about himself. He has to completely take that
Speaker 1: light and put it under a bushel and become a
Speaker 1: different dude during the day. But then in his mind
Speaker 1: we get to see how fabulous he is. And there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of story story connected with it. But but
Speaker 1: that's something that we am sold sold with je Bruckheimer UM.
Speaker 1: We also have a novel that is in development right
Speaker 1: now with a producer called Tommy Lynch by an author
Speaker 1: named April Daniels um called called Dreadnot, which is about
Speaker 1: a trans superhero. So not only does this young hero
Speaker 1: have to navigate this change within themselves, but then it's
Speaker 1: for the world to see as they're trying to protect
Speaker 1: us from all these uh world crushing um you know,
Speaker 1: the same things that Superman Man would deal with, except
Speaker 1: this person is dealing with with a great change within
Speaker 1: them them themselves and how a super identity plays with
Speaker 1: the idea of the Clark Kent nature, uh identity? Who
Speaker 1: am I? Who? Who do I want you to see
Speaker 1: me as? And how does the world accept that person?
Speaker 1: And we and and what I love about April in
Speaker 1: the book is it is it's a great superhero book,
Speaker 1: which I'm a superhero geek um um, I love it.
Speaker 1: But it also is a commentary on how we treat
Speaker 1: and how the world has treated those that they look
Speaker 1: at as other, whether it be black, white, trans, gay, lesbian,
Speaker 1: anything that doesn't fit the status quo. So that's in
Speaker 1: development right now. Um and uh. We have a sitcom
Speaker 1: based on our life at c at CBS right now
Speaker 1: about a blended family of myself, my ex wife who
Speaker 1: is Asian and Caucasian, and me being black, our daughter
Speaker 1: being mixed race, and Mandy's boyfriend being mixed race, and
Speaker 1: all of us being one family, and what are the
Speaker 1: conversations that happened with that? So everything that we're doing
Speaker 1: has an agenda. What you're gonna have fun? While we
Speaker 1: pushed the agenda forward and nobody would. We would all
Speaker 1: forgive you if you call, if you gave it the
Speaker 1: working title the Brady Bunch, which thank you for the forgiveness.
Speaker 1: But just know that I shall never commit that crime.
Speaker 1: Those of Sherwood Schwartz will come. I'm sorry, Mr Schlwretz. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I promise it will happen, will be Brady. But my goodness,
Speaker 1: well it sounds like quite a bit going on under
Speaker 1: the under the Brady umbrella these days. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking the time to talk with us. I
Speaker 1: will absolutely look for your book because I can tell you,
Speaker 1: in my line of work, I'm still working on being
Speaker 1: a better listener. In my line of work, as the
Speaker 1: as a mother, as a partner to there, there is
Speaker 1: no greater skill than being able to truly listen and
Speaker 1: have that empathy. And I think you really talked us
Speaker 1: through really really important reasons why the improv form is
Speaker 1: so great for that. I I can't wait to see
Speaker 1: what what becomes of your two books and your UM
Speaker 1: and all your other endeavors. Wayne, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you, I really appreciate you. Thanks for doing some
Speaker 1: active listening with Strictly Business today. Be sure to leave
Speaker 1: us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear
Speaker 1: from listeners, and be sure to tune in next week
Speaker 1: for another episode of Strictly Business