The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Damon Wayans Jr. On Making His Own Name, Resurgence Of Black Sitcoms, Dad's Discipline + More

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Damon Wayans Jr. To Discuss Making His Own Name, Resurgence Of Black Sitcoms, And Dad's Discipline. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Jess is on maternity leave, so Lorna Rose is filling in. And we got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Damon Wayans Jr. Welcome. Thank you, boss. Thank you, man. How you feeling, brother? I'm feeling all right. You all right? When did Jess have a baby?

Like three years ago. It's been have a baby? Like three years ago. About two months ago. Congratulations. She's still on maternity leave. That's great. Be back shortly. I always want to ask the Williams, right? Are you born into the Illuminati or you have to earn your spot like everybody else?

Are they Illuminati? You definitely don't get hazed. They definitely walk you right in. No, I don't know. Illuminati? Yeah. No, man. How you get there?

Illuminati? I had to earn my spot. You did? But I'm saying, y'all been successful for so long. Oh, so success means Illuminati? You know that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, come on.

It takes, you know, yeah, you kind of just walk in at this point. Yeah. But, you know, I'm a conspiracy theorist, so I don't really fuck with Illuminati. I thought the conspiracy theorists did, like, the whole Illuminati. Isn't that a conspiracy? What? The Illuminati. The Illuminati is a conspiracy, but I don't attach myself to that.

Dammit, like, what the fuck are we talking about? No, I thought you said I'm a conspiracy theorist. I'm like, that's what y'all do. That Illuminati talk. I'll be on YouTube. I'll be looking at some videos. So what are the conspiracies about the Wayans brothers? How has the Wayans family been so successful for so long?

I don't know if there's a conspiracy. I think it's just family working together. I feel like that's what we all should be doing. Absolutely. You know what I mean? I feel like black people learn best by example, and so you have a bunch of examples, and you just copy them. Let's talk about the pressure of being.

Hold on one second. Did you study every member of your family? Did you watch everything Kenan was in? Did you watch everything your dad was in? Did you watch everything Marlon was in? I'm talking about since you was a child. Did you study everything Kenan was in? Did you watch everything your dad was in? Did you watch everything Marlon was in? I'm talking about since you was a child. Did you study everything that they did? I mean, I watched the stuff that I liked.

There was ones I skipped. What did you skip? What did you skip? What did you skip? What did you skip? Glimmerman. I don't remember Glimmerman. I don't remember the Glimmerman.

My uncle Kenan did a movie with Steven Seagal. Glimmerman. Is that what it's called? I don't remember Glimmer Man. I don't remember the Glimmer Man. My dad, my Uncle Kenan did a movie with Steven Seagal. Glimmer Man? Is that what it's called? I don't know. I don't remember that one. Me either. Blake Man? No, no.

I watched Blake Man. You was in it, wasn't you? Because I was in it, yeah. We just got a picture of you in it. Oh, my God, dude. Does that get on your nerves? That's crazy. No, that's so cool.

Yeah. Did you see Glimmer Man? I don't even know what you're talking about. They pulled it down? The Glimmer Man. It wasn't Glimmer Man? I don't even know what you're talking about. They pulled it down? The Glimmer Man. It wasn't Glimmer Man. I don't remember this one. I definitely don't remember Glimmer Man.

1996. I missed that one. Yeah, man. Yeah. A lot of people did. Yeah, I like the comedies. Yeah. I like Don't Be a Menace is one of my favorites.

Classic. Love Major Payne. Classic. That's my favorite. I love, what was that movie with Jada Pinkett and Uncle Kenan. Oh, man. Lowdown Nerdy Shame. Lowdown Nerdy Shame, yeah.

So I love those. Those are like my top. Classics. Yeah. And Blank Man because I was in it. Blank Man. So who are the everyday working class Williams? Everyday working class?

Are there any everyday working class? We got a bunch of working class Williams. Okay. We got a big ass family. So there's like a lot of people that are just as funny as everybody, but they just don't feel like, you know, going through the Hollywood shit. But do they just work, do they work on the set?

We have some that work on the set. I love it. Yeah, we got Uncle Sean's right now on the show. He works on Papa's house, yeah. Aunt Kim. He's a showrunner. How do you know all this? Oh yeah, cause Marlon. I was gonna act like I knew it, too. This nigga live here.

This guy. He live here. You know, I got my daughter works on the set. She's a stand-in for Essence Atkins' character. Wow. And she be writing on the show, too. She's great. That's so good.

Yeah, she's dope. Now, we got to talk about the pressures of being a WAMS. I mean, because- Is it pressure, though? Pops, uncle, family, cousins, like. Yeah. Is there any pressure? No, I don't feel like, I don't feel like there's pressure.

I mean, maybe in the beginning, in the beginning, it was like, I used to, I used to have an alias when I went on stage, Kyle Green. Really? Yeah. And no one guessed it? You look. Oh no, they just like your pops. Wait, you look like the Wayans family.

Just like your pops. No, like the middle of my punchline is back. You look just like your pops. You look like the Wayans family. Just like your pops. No, like the middle of my punchline is back, you look just like your damn daddy. And so I had to change it just to Damon. But really I was just trying to get my bearings. I was trying to get on stage and not be like, come to the stage, Damon Wayans, son. So that's why.

Have you never got something because you were Wayans? Like it was like, yeah, you're part of the family now. Maybe. I don't know. You know yeah, you're part of the family now. Maybe. I don't know. They don't, you know, that's all that behind-the-scenes stuff. But, you know, they let you in. They let you in just because they want to see you. You know, they'll be like, oh, Damon Wayans.

When I first started. So I got in some rooms. And shout-out to my family for making it easier for me, you know. A lot of people, you know, they get a, they frown on the Nepo baby thing. But I think it's great. I think it's like, you know. I don't see nothing wrong with it. I don't either.

I mean, I feel like it's a business. This is a business just like any other business. If it was, you know, a car manufacturer and then you pass it down to his son, stuff like that, it's just, that's what it is. I think what y'all done is phenomenal. I was driving on the west side yesterday and I saw the digital billboard for Papa's house.

Oh, they got a billboard out there? Yeah, and it was you and your pops, and I was just like, man, number one, OG Damon Wayans been getting it for a long, long, long, long time. That man is a killer. And there's nothing cooler than being able to do what you love to do with your son. Like, everybody, we love what Bron and Ronnie doing. Got to give it up for y'all, too. Yeah, man, I mean, I'm happy, man.

We've had a really good time so far. We shot, like, 11 already. And, you know, it finally came out last night. And I'm just hoping, you know, people keep watching and seeing because it gets funnier and funnier. You know, the pilot is good. It sets the stage, sets the characters. But we had a lot of suits.

You know, they were like kind of like making sure that we did what they wanted us to do. And then as time went on, they've let us spread our wings. And now we get to just be ridiculous and funny and heartfelt. And, you know, I love it. I love seeing my dad every damn day. Well, what is Papa's House about for people that don't know? Because it came out yesterday. Yeah, yeah.

So Papa's House is basically about a papa who's a popular morning radio DJ. Can you relate? Yeah. A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. And he lives alone. He's happily divorced. He basically lives his dream of solitude until his son who was like an immature

needy guy moves in next door to him with his wife and his two kids and just kind of turns papa's life upside down and that's basically the long and short of it we were toying with the idea of calling it raising damon um because it's like you know you think it's him raising me but then it you kind of see that papa needs some raising too you know it's a lot you know, you think it's him raising me, but then you kind of see that Papa needs some raising, too. A lot of old school versus new school views. I think it's really cool. You know, I think it's, I think my goal for the show is to bring back black comedies. You know, like, had I known that, you know, the 90s and the early 2000s, like, were never going to be again.

You know, like, there were so many options we had. We had Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Living Single. Cosby Show. Cosby Show. Martin. Different world. We had so many options on so many different channels. And had I known that we were going to have, like, nothing for, like, you know you know over a decade I would have appreciated it more you know family

matters nobody can explain to me why that went away because it's not like all all those shows were super successful what happened in Hollywood that they just flipped the switch you say we don't want no more this let's do reality television I don't know I feel like they always use they always use black people to kind of build up the platforms and then just do away with them, you know? You know, the Living Single Friends thing. The UPN.

Remember UPN? Absolutely. They use all them shows. Jamie Foxx show, too. Marlon Wayans. The Wayans Brothers. Wasn't Moesha on that? Moesha.

Come on, now. So they had all these damn shows. Your pop show too? My Wife and Kids? My Wife and Kids. I didn't want to say that because it's... That was fine. I love My Wife and Kids.

But we had so many shows. And I feel like now what we have, we have Abbott. We have The Neighborhood. Is there anything else? No, you know, there was a resurgence, but a lot of them did more good. Black-ish and grown-ish came out. Oh, yeah, black-ish was great. We got The Chi.

Yeah, Insecure. Right. Insecure stopped. Insecure was great. I'm talking about like now. Like they don't ever, yeah, like the sitcoms, like network TV. I feel like it's, you know, it's far and few between. And I just hope that, you know, maybe the show gets popular enough to be like, oh, let's bring more of those.

You know what I mean? I love it. Because I feel like people need to see black people enjoying themselves. Black people making each other laugh. Black people making the world laugh, you know. How much of this show is just improv off the script because i know it's based on like you guys are really about to move next door to each other or something at one point yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a lot of it's improv you know but we we have a script but we definitely do whatever we want because you know

it's my dad's show and he'll just let people play and so we having fun you know i'm i like i like to improvise but um you know there's certain characters that like to just do the script and they're fine doing the script um but everybody's having fun are you good at taking notes are both are you and your dad good at taking notes me yeah yeah yeah i'll take notes i mean i take i like constructive criticism i i'm i mean my dad that's how he raised me you know this dude is the most brutal critic of all time. I did, years ago, I did, what was it called? Deaf Comedy Jam?

I did Deaf Comedy Jam. I was like 25, 26. And I got a standing ovation. I was nervous as hell. I got a standing ovation. I do really well. I get off stage. He comes up to me.

He goes, how do you think you did, son? And I go, I don't know, like eight, nine. He's like, seven and a half. And he just walks off. There was no context? No, nothing. No notes? No notes.

Just got figured out. Do better. How do you feel with your dad doing stand-up? And he would talk about you guys in stand-up. And of course, he talks about you masturbating all through the house at that time. Wait, that's that question. You lit up.

You lit up. Boys got louder. How was that for you as a kid when your dad used to tell him stories? That one specifically was embarrassing because I remember one time I was like hooking up with this girl. Or about to hook up with her. And she was like, wait a minute. Are you the guy that does the thing with spaghetti?

And I was just like, what? And then she plays me a clip of the freaking video of him just you know talking about me going spaghetti again i'll be right back and you know i didn't get any that day so yeah it messed me up did you not get any because she wanted you to do the spaghetti trick right then and there and you was like no i'm like i'm not gonna i'm like you can do this spaghetti trick. Yeah. No, she just wanted to laugh at him. She just laughed. It was very embarrassing. Damn.

Yeah. Y'all got Gregory Owens on the set. Yeah. Right? The legend, Elvin from the Cosby Show. Gregory? Jeffrey. Jeffrey.

Yeah. Damn. What did I say? No, his name is spelled weird. Yeah, it's spelled with a G. Yeah. Almost like Geoffrey. Yeah, Geoffrey.

And you don't want to call him Elvin because it's disrespectful yeah we got we got him but do you do you pick their brain like do you sit around and have conversations with him about how you know things were back then um not really but he's um he and i have a lot of scenes together we just shot an episode together it was just kind of he and I and my wife on the show. And we just have so much fun together. He's so ready to play. He's so, you know, just happy to be there. And I'm happy to have him there.

And it's just very, like, he's just such a, he's a Shakespearean actor. So it's, like, really cool to see him in his element. Like, we did something in that episode specifically for him to shine. And he really did. It was really funny. Do you think you have an appreciation for history being that you're surrounded by it? I mean, you're making your own. But you're always, I mean, your whole life, I'm sure Eddie Murphy or Senor Hall, Robert Townsend, these people were just there. So do you have an appreciation for it?

Because if it was me, I couldn't shut the fuck up I'd be asking a million questions yeah all the time you know my dad kind of instilled in me not bothering famous people like I see them and I give them a respect but I'm also like you know you do your thing you know I don't want to I don't want to ask you the question that I know thousands of people ask you. Like, I see Eddie, and I just, like, I'm in awe. But I'm also not going to, like, show him that I'm in awe. You know, so I don't really, I don't like bothering famous people.

But we did used to have a lot of fun, you know. My dad said that, you know, when I was a kid, that he used to invite, that Eddie used to invite him and his family on their little yacht parties, right? And my dad would have to go on there with his, you know, his wife and me as a kid. I was like two years old, maybe three. And Eddie would be sitting there like, man, this is nice, man. Like looking at my family, like, see, this is what I want. I want this. I'm going to go fuck some bitches.

And like he'd leave and my dad would just be on the boat by himself with his family and there'd be like a bunch of girls there and stuff like that a bunch of celebrities and it was really cool you know and um i remember one time well my dad told me this he said that that's what i want yeah i want that with them yeah that's what dad definitely he was like I want that but Emmanuel Lewis you know Emmanuel Lewis yes man so Webster he was

you know Emmanuel Lewis yes so he was on the boat right one time and he was like dressed fly he had a suit on

had a watch and he's a little dude he's a little dude and I and I as a baby was confused cause I'm like you thought he was a big baby I thought he was a little dude. He's a little dude. And I, as a baby, was confused. Cause I'm like- You thought he was a big baby?

I thought he was a big baby. I'm like, why? How do you know all them big words? Why? Who gave you a watch? You know, I'm like following him around the whole- Oh my God. The whole yacht trying to, you know,

see what's up with him. You know, just like eyeing my eyes. That's why there's another kid on the boat. Who gave you them shoes? Where your diaper at? Oh, it was you. You remember? I was two.

No, he just told me. My dad told me. I was walking around following him everywhere. He was like, come on, man. Go. He was trying to shoo me away. Man, that is fucking funny. I'm like, come on, man.

I'm like, come on, man. It's nap time. That's funny. So what is the, you guys always keep Essence Atkins booked. I know she's in Papa's House. She plays Dr. Ivy Green. What's the chemistry with her and the Wayans family? Like, can you talk a bit about that and a decision to bring her on this show?

Right. Well, first of all, Essence Atkins keeps herself booked. Like, that woman is a phenomenal comedic actress. Phenomenal actress, period. But she's also like really funny. And initially my dad didn't want her to be on the show because Uncle Marlon was like, yo, you got to put it on. You know, she's really funny. I don't know what you're doing, you know.

And my dad was like kind of, you know, like, no, he was on. She was on your show. I don't want to have that on my show. Like, leave it alone. And finally, he, you know, he was like, come in and your show. I don't want to have that on my show. Like leave it alone. And then finally he, you know, he was like come in and read. And she went in. And like from the moment she walked in the door, she was killing us. Like just so funny. Like before she even said a word of the audition,

she came in, killed it, killed it, left. And she was the first person up too. So everybody had like, she just sucked all the energy out the room. And there was just, like, no one was going to do or top that. So, you know, so Essence keeps herself up. Like, she's just phenomenal. Now, you also see the change of comedy, right? Because you've seen everything your family has done, right?

From Blank Man to Living Color. Do you think comedy can go back there without people getting insulted, about getting offended, taking things personal? I mean, I don't think so. I mean, I feel like. Can y'all do Blank Man too? The show kind of leads into that too. We can do Blank Man, but is Blank Man offensive though?

I feel like Blank Man was like pretty chill. I don't remember. I have to go back and watch it again. Because what we didn't think was offensive now when you back in the world, you'd be like, oh yeah, that would piss everybody off now. You know what I mean? True. How do you get away with all that?

Don't give a fuck. Oh, I like it. You just got to keep going. You know what I'm saying? You got to treat it almost like comedians, right? Like, I'm not a comedian, but you got to treat it like that. Yeah. You don't know you crashed until you crash.

That's true. I'm not trying to crash, but you know. That's true. And that's what, like, you like you know like that's what got you to where you are you know same with you like you guys

like I really but I miss those shows I miss the living color shows and those shows that push the line and push the edge you know

I don't know I blame I blame Judd Apatow bring it down I'm here for it bring it down I'm always down to blame the white man

for something so I mean this is a conspiracy theory but I I don't think he did it intentionally but I feel like it started with Superbad

like Superbad came out classic super funny and then I feel like after that it was just no more black

stuff no more black movies like it was just no more black stuff, no more black movies. It was just like, they were like, we got it from here, niggers. Then they did all their, it was like Jewish comedies, starring Jewish people, Jewish young guys, which were really funny. I love 40-year-old version. I love Bridesmaids. I love Superbad, but I feel like it just went went that way and then there was no more black comedies like they don't make them anymore

mm-hmm have you noticed that I wonder if it's because I think about what you're saying all the time cuz I love the tone of all those movies you yeah I even put get him to the Greek in that yeah I wonder if it's because they're willing to take more yeah well they have like there's a lot of things that they do in their comedy that I feel like some black people wouldn't necessarily don't they have the room i disagree i say i'm i'm saying the opportunity is not there i'm sure you know there's like a bunch of black comedies being written they're just not being shot they're not they're not being given to black comedians but i think he's asking would like some of our big name black comed, would they take those roles that are going to push those boundaries?

Because it could offend. But what boundaries? I mean, people are offended by everything nowadays. So it depends on who you're talking about and what you're talking about. Well, it's a lot of, like back in the day when you look at it, Live of Color and all of that stuff like that, they weren't afraid to pretend to be gay. They weren't afraid to. They wore dresses. Yeah, I'm not saying you got a way to dress, but they weren't afraid to push the limits.

There's things that I feel like black people wouldn't do. I mean, now you just get critiqued for everything, but I think if it's funny enough, they'll let you do it. We let Robert Downey Jr. get away with blackface because it was funny. But I don't think he could do that now. I don't feel like anything is... I don't think he could do that now I don't feel like I don't feel like anything is uh I don't feel like I don't even know super bag get away with being super bad now maybe super bad but like 40 year old virgin I'm not sure right like these not even nerds not even nerds which is crazy

nerds is rapey though now when you I haven't I haven't I haven't watched you go back and look and be like yeah it's rapey yeah I mean there's scenes like you know the guy when the guy dressed up the girl thought it was her boyfriend

the costume he had on but it was a whole other guy oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah that's rapey yeah yeah so I mean

it's kind of like I feel like people are just way too aware and way too sensitive you know what I mean, it's kind of like I feel like people are just way too aware and way too sensitive. You know what I mean? Like leave room for comedy. I feel like comedy is experimental. It's not the entire truth.

It's like grains of truth. It's someone's truth potentially. But in reality, the goal is to make you laugh. Yeah. You know, and I feel like people shouldn't be watching stuff ready to be offended. You should be watching stuff trying to laugh, if you're watching a comedy, if you want to laugh.

By the way, it's not even just comedy, though. I think about back in the day, like, why was Q in high school fucking the nurse in Juice? They didn't even give us an explanation. Like, there was no reason for it. I didn't even think about that. Why was this nurse just fucking the high school? I bet you there was, like, a storyline that they just didn't have time to explore.

They probably had to cut it. You know what I mean? Are you guys going to, like, because I don't, I feel like, too, it's a lot of the, like, the networks know that people will be offended, so they try to stay away, even if they want to try it, right? But in Papa's house, house like you guys have essence atkins who's kind of coming in and your dad is like the old school person who he's like aware of the boundaries but he doesn't really care and she's like you're gonna have to care are y'all

gonna kind of play around with that a little bit more and take those risks or is the network like we can be cute with it but like no because your dad be willing to go all the way there i love it oh he goes there all the time didn't he get in trouble on your show years ago? I watched that last night. I don't remember. You don't remember that? I watched it last night. I'm just Damon Wayans Jr.

You have people digging for things. You resurfacing things for no reason. Well, they put my picture during that whole controversy. I remember. My picture. I do remember. It was plastered everywhere. I was like, come on now.

I was like, he didn't say it. But guess what? You got to pay for the sins of his father. That was crazy. Y'all going to push those boundaries on the show? Yes, we are. We have. And I think that once the suits, the CBS, saw that we know what we're doing,

they kinda like let us play, you know what I mean? And you'll see, each episode gets funnier and funnier and funnier, and the characters get more and more well-rounded. We deal with real issues too, which is kinda weird to have serious scenes and stuff like that, but we do that too, which just makes the comedy funnier and I love what we're doing right now man it's it's um it's very unique especially on CBS like we're

definitely making CBS uncomfortable with the choices we're making which I think is great because we're pushing the envelope it's like we got we were competing against streaming now competing against network shows that go for it so it's like there's no time to really just play it safe what are you teaching your father because we all you know we always my father you gotta be teaching him something like because you know your experience is totally different than his experience are you teaching him anything i don't know you know i don't i i really maybe be a little nicer i don't know i don't know is he nicer i feel like he's getting

nicer he's getting he's getting nicer you know he's uh you know he's cranky sometimes but that's just how he's always been you know but then he you know he has uh you know his he has uh really high highs like if you make him laugh you can get him out of a bad mood. That's how we used to get out of spankings. Make him laugh. Make him laugh, yeah. I got to ask. Tell me the close encounter.

What's the close? I'm talking about the belt the ass about to be and you come with that fire joke that made him put the belt down. He used to swing the belt with, you know, some people fold the belt. He didn't used to fold the belts. It would just be long some people like fold the belt. He used to fold the belts.

It would just be like long, right? Like a whip. Like a whip, yeah. And so when he was about to hit me, I was like, don't hit my ding ding. And I like held my stuff and then he just laughed because it would wrap around sometimes and go, hit the tip. Oh, God damn. He didn't hit us a lot. That sounded beautiful.

When he did. Yeah. But he was, you know, he got his ass whipped when he was little, so he didn't hit us a lot. That sounds abusive. When he did. Yeah. Hoyt. Yeah, but he got his ass whooped when he was little, so he didn't really know. But he didn't hit us a lot. I can count on one hand how many times. I got to ask, you're drinking soda and water this morning?

I had a long day yesterday. Yesterday was long. So I don't even drink soda like that. Like if my dad see this, he's going to be pissed. Because soda is the caffeine and water is the healthy. Water is to flush it out. Caffeine is to wake me up. You don't like coffee? I don't like coffee. Coffee makes me

you know. Shit. Yeah. I don't have a problem with that. That's what I do with my reposado. Coffee and Hennessy? Coffee and Hennessy laxatives for me. I don't even drink like that. I had two glasses of wine yesterday

and I'm messed up right now. Jesus. Yeah. Well, she had about seven and she's still fine. I had seven glasses

of wine. Yeah, seven glasses of wine. No, I had like three glasses of wine last night. Yeah, but you a youngster.

Mm-hmm. You could do that. Yeah, but what I do is I hydrate while I'm doing it because it makes it easier. Yeah? Do you do it with like salt, like a little Celtic salt? They say that you put salt in the water.

It's supposed to really get into your bloodstream. I've heard that. No, I never heard of that. Are you ever afraid to work with your pops because you know that he just like sabotaged his SNL situation and just walked, he purposely did things to get fired do you ever think that he might do that again I mean I don't

I think he's more patient now I think he's I think he just wants to make a good show and spend time with his family doing it like I feel like this is like what he likes doing. And so I don't think he's going to jeopardize that.

I mean, you know, maybe 10 years ago, maybe. But, like, now I feel like he's just, like, chill and just having fun. Like, we just be laughing the whole day. It's just, I love it. And when, you know, you talk about, you know, Sean writing on the show and the show, and your Aunt Kim being a showrunner, do y'all even look outside of the family? No, we have a lot of people that are from, are outside of the family too.

Like there's like 12, 13 writers on the show. But you said they know you guys though, right? Like they're like family friends? Yeah, we all know, they're family friends. Like the showrunner, the showrunner wrote Major Pain with my dad, he wrote on My Wife and Kids with my dad, so. Do strangers he, the showrunner wrote major pain with my dad. He wrote on my wife and kids with my dad. So strangers get a chance.

Strangers get a chance to, yeah, we've got some strangers in there. That sounds so crazy. We got some strangers. I love it though, man. Y'all are doing it the way black people should do it.

I agree. And I think that, you know, and, and we're not bringing in stragglers. Like we're bringing in people that contribute to the project. They're not just being like, they're not not just there because their name is Wayans. They're actually contributing and being really good.

Kenan Jr. is in the writer's room, which is, he's so damn funny. My brother Michael, the writer's room. It's just great, man. I don't know i this is the closest thing i've come to being on a show that i have control over right like i always kind of envy my family because like the first generation because they got to come in as themselves like this is who we are within living color like this is who we are take it or leave it this is funny to us like i've been an actor for hire my entire career so i've been funny in spots but you can only be as funny as

they allow you to be and so I love that this is kind of like the next best thing you know it's still my dad's baby but I get to contribute a lot and he's very collaborative so yeah Damon got a gold guys oh yeah well two more questions when did you feel like you started to make your own name for yourself? When people started saying, oh, that's not Damon Wayans' son. That's actually Damon Wayans' unit. I feel like when I had the Happy Endings show, and then I booked the New Girl show at the same time, right?

And so there was like a whole uproar about that. And I thought that was pretty cool. Because Happy Endings was the first show I ever auditioned for. And then New Girl was the second show I ever auditioned for. So I felt like, I was like, oh, I got, there's something, you know, I got something. And then after that, I just felt like I can do my own thing. Are you going to be part of the tour that they're doing? They're doing a tour?

Yeah, the way it is. Do you know about the comedy tour? No. All of them together? They don't be telling me nothing. I'm second generation. Nah, they barely told us. We just thought you knew and we was gonna drop it here. No, I saw that clip. I think...

Yeah, yeah. I saw that clip. You are so well composed. We kept it. We kept it. No, what I was gonna say is I think it's something else. I don't think it's a tour. I think it's something. What do you think it is?

I can't say. But what I think it is, but if it is what I think it is, it's going to be fire. We know that, but like. It just has to be something to immortalize the wins. I think like the wins need a 30 for 30 or something. Like, you know what I'm saying? That would be dope.

But do they do that for? I don't know. I've never seen them do you know what I'm saying? That would be dope. But do they do that for? I don't know. I've never seen them do that. Yeah. I mean, that would be dope. But no, it's going to be, it's a. What? I think it's a.

It's either like, it's like something on TV or film. I think. I think so. What's it called? I don't know. I can't say. I think you might have said too much. As soon as it drop, he going to be the host.

And we going to be like, he was in here like he didn't know nothing. But I gave more than he did. You did. You did. But this is your time to shine. Just imagine what they did to you last time you was here. You wasn't even here. And they put your picture on things.

You strong, man. You should blow it up right now. No, I can't say. Because I don't know if it's true. Because if I say something and it's wrong. True. Then I'm going to look like an idiot. I get it. So they don't even tell it's true because if I say something and it's wrong true then I'm gonna look like an idiot I get it

so they don't even tell me that much I hear like whispers my family's just gossiping ass family man well salute to you for continuing to carry the torch

the right way thank you man and salute to y'all man because like I came here I forgot how many years ago at least over a decade

yeah yeah and then to see what you guys became is just fucking phenomenal, man. Appreciate you, brother. Papa's House, Mondays, 8.30 on CBS. Make sure you check it out. You can stream it on Paramount Plus as well. And we appreciate you for joining us, brother.

Thank you, man. Damon Wayans Jr. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club.