Shawn and Marlon Wayans aren't doing stand-up for the money. When you write and star in comedy hits like "Scary Movie" and "White Chicks," you can practically buy your own sun.
For the two youngest siblings in the Wayans comedy dynasty, nothing matches the danger and euphoria of a live comedy set. The two will tag-team the audience Thursday through Sunday at the Pittsburgh Improv.
"I love what I do," Marlon says. "I love being able to be perform. You wait in Hollywood to perform; you wait a long time. In the meantime, we create our stuff and go out and get in touch with the audience. You find what you get on the stage and from the audience and come back and elevate your game as writer and producer. It's kind of like sparring before the fight."
The two grew up with eight other siblings in New York City. Their father, Howell, managed a grocery store. Their mother, Elvira, was a social worker. Dinner, Marlon says, was "a lot of jokes, little food."
Older brother Keenen was six months away from getting his engineering degree but dropped out to pursue comedy. He created "In Living Color," the ground-breaking, Emmy-winning, black-centric sketch-comedy show that debuted in 1990. The series featured Shawn and Marlon along with siblings Kim and Damon. It also helped to launch the careers of cast members Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Lopez.
" 'In Living Color' was comedy college for me and Marlon," Shawn says. "We didn't have the pressure on us. We got to enjoy just learning about comedy and understanding it without the pressure or really have to deliver it. When we did our own show ('The Wayans Brothers' sitcom), we had the pressure to deliver the comedy. It was still fun and we still learned a lot."
They wrote and starred in "Don't Be A Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the 'Hood," a film that satirized the homies-in-the-hood genre.
Marlon departed from the comedy genre to co-star in 1994's "Under the Rim," with the late rapper Tupac Shakur, and 2000's "Requiem for a Dream," a drama that graphically depicted the horrors of drug addiction.
A long-delayed film in which he would play Richard Pryor isn't dead, he says.
While they each may pursue individual projects, they work best as a team.The two even named their sons after each other.
I just think (it's) because we're the babies of the family," Shawn says. "We used to dress alike. We spent more of our time together as kids. We have the same references. Our chemistry is just a natural chemistry. It's effortless.
"Me and Marlon, we're pretty astute business guys. I think we understand our brand. We both have the freedom to do whatever we want, but we're always going to be who we are together."
Has there ever been a gag too tasteless to put in one of their notoriously low-brow films like "Little Man?"
"We do a lot of the 'Ah, let's not do that' in the writers room before we actually shoot," Shawn Wayans says. "Once we shoot it, if it gets a laugh, it's pretty much game."
Is there the possibility of a project that would bring all the Wayans together onscreen?
"I've always wanted that," Marlon says. "That's been one of my dreams."
Meanwhile, he says, "Look out of the next generation of Wayans."
