Damon Wayans Sr. & Damon Wayans Jr. look back at family photos and share candid stories about their personal and professional lives in this behind-the-scenes look at their family dynamic and how they’ve navigated working together in Hollywood.
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00:00Think about your dad giving you a job
00:03It's like you don't work the same way you would for someone who will fire you
00:07You know, and I've had to fire him. Can I clarify why you fired me not work-related good
00:14I had a curfew and to be home by 12. I got home at 1 on a Saturday. He fired me for that
00:22I'm Damon Wayans senior and I am Damon Wayans jr. And this is our life in pictures
00:27I
00:31I'm too young to remember that but yeah assume I was there because I'm in the picture and I think that's your mother
00:38Possibly. Yeah, and that's me when I was probably
00:4223 and a half because I've lost my hair. That's why I have a hat
00:48Yeah, I had the bald spot and you have a bald spot too I
00:52I
00:54Decided I wasn't gonna be anyone losing my hair
01:01He was a happy happy guy this guy he loved Michael Jackson, you know, and he loved he man
01:07I sent his mom to Vermont to live with her mother
01:12Because I was really just running from I was too young to have a child
01:16I just didn't I couldn't see myself with a kid and I didn't meet junior until he was like five weeks old and I went
01:23There struggle was real. Yeah, I went to Vermont to visit. You know who taught me to hold my neck up me
01:32Yeah, but I didn't meet him until like the fifth week and I remember driving up to the house and I heard him crying
01:39outside of the house in Vermont and I go in he's screaming and
01:44Lisa his mom is she doesn't know what the hair is all frazzled and I said here give him to me and I hold him
01:51And he instantly stops crying and I'm just holding him and humming
01:57And he just looking up at me and that was the moment that I realized I got to be a man for this guy
02:02I got to grow up
02:05This is my favorite character all time
02:07I love doing homie the clown because I can express rage the rage of a comedian
02:13Through this guy and the thing is the angry. He is the funnier. He is
02:22I think every comic has the anger of homie the clown in them
02:27It's just you know, Jim Carrey has it Eddie has it
02:31Jamie Foxx has this it has to be a mean side of you that has contempt for your audience
02:37In order for you to be really funny
02:39Now, how do you feel about yourself totally this told me
02:45Homie don't play that
02:48The thing about in living color though was only now can I look back and think about how
02:55privileged I was to have Keenan as the
02:58Creator showrunner because I wouldn't have been able to navigate the studio and network like he did
03:05He was masterful like he would tell them don't tell me what I can't do tell me how I can't do it
03:11They would always come in. Well, what if as opposed to me? I would go out here y'all stupid
03:19But Keenan just knew how to
03:23Navigate he would just tell us
03:26Don't do it now. Don't do it in a rehearsal like we would save stuff, you know
03:30And it just he just he just taught me how to be a better
03:34Comedian a better performer and a better writer too because we had to write all that stuff. I remember
03:40Everybody was just so nice there. I remember Tommy being hilarious Jim being hilarious
03:44I think I was too young to really understand how impactful the show was, but I definitely went there and felt that energy. I
03:53Know where that one is. I know I know where this one is too. This is
03:56Summit summit. Yeah, that was like a fun time for our family. It was our first big house nice house
04:04We had a lot of like fun. Y'all would have friends over there was always somebody over and he said basketball games
04:10We had a full court full court basketball game
04:1450 cars in the driveway and you know, the mom would like have Gatorade
04:19She would have all this stuff out before we found out they were poison see my family's so big
04:24It just makes sense to have you know
04:27It's like all of the boys wanted to have more kids than my father who had 12
04:32This is the reason why they always had friends in the house is because to me kids screaming and you know
04:39You've been crying and laughing and you know, that's music. That's like the music I grew up with in my house
04:46And so it just it get it really makes me feel
04:51Comforted I always feel bad when I hear
04:53you know like friends of mine talking about how hard their childhood was because I literally live like a
05:00Dream at childhood and I'm sure all my siblings would agree that we just were so incredibly privileged
05:07To have like two parents that both agreed to like never fight in front of each other
05:13I'm in front of the kids and we always had activities. We always had friends over
05:18snacks
05:19So many snacks it was great this snack game your snack game crazy off the chain Michael Jordan used to come over and like eat
05:26all my snacks
05:27That's how good our snacks were Jordans in there. Just like munching on your friggin
05:33Was already yeah
05:36Yeah, he came over too much
05:38He was out to Jordan though
05:39No
05:40He was amazing to have him like all the friends my friends would want to come over
05:45Not to see me to see him to hope to get a glimpse of Michael Jordan and like one thing I
05:52Really put the my foot down was don't bother him like he moved in for the whole summer
05:58I only went over to the house once and that's because he invited me in did the fan in me want to be there every
06:04Day, yes, cuz I could like see him from my window. I would see him inside
06:08I
06:13Remember when you first moved in you guys army crawled over to the window
06:23Wow, yeah, this is my wife and kids. Yep, and this is your denim shirt that you loved
06:30What was this scene? I don't know but that sure is bothering me
06:34The hair is bothering me. Yeah, my hair is crazy
06:38Rarely, do you get a chance to see someone who has a talent and to see that light switch on?
06:45On this this was before the light switch though
06:48No
06:49I know but I used to try he used to make us be in the scenes like you'd be like and you're gonna be his friend
06:54You're gonna be his friend
06:56Yeah, I'll go act but the light switch you don't you don't know what's coming on
07:02With you and Mike making each other laugh and you know, that is that's the switch where y'all yeah
07:09Yeah, you go. Oh, this is fun. You forget that I made you do it that you're in the moment and having fun
07:17Well, there was a specific episode of my wife and kids that I felt that switch
07:21There was it was the one where we put juniors baby carriage on rims. They spin. Oh my god
07:27I
07:30Don't know what I did, but I was like, oh I like getting those laughs
07:33I like kind of being in the moment and that was the switch
07:36So it was definitely on this show. I wasn't this episode though because I would have done my hair
07:42Happy endings happy endings. Yeah, I don't remember the storyline, but I know it's funny because that show was really fun
07:49That was so fun to do with you
07:58Where I captured something in the bag and I was leaving the house
08:03Yeah
08:04Driver in my bag and we kept laughing what I remember about this episode is us wearing matching tracksuit tracksuits
08:11Yeah, and it's like did like some funny
08:14Montage. Yeah, this was so much fun
08:16This was my first show and just to have my dad
08:19Come here and co-sign that he approves of the show and also that he's just happy that I'm working
08:26Get out of his pocket. It was wonderful both shows that he did
08:29Happy endings and happy together the environment just walking in and seeing that
08:36Everybody loves him just singing his praises, you know the showrunner the cast everybody just and you go
08:42Okay, you know I did something right? I still don't feel like I
08:47Made it made it. I feel like I'm a working actor. I appreciate it
08:51But like I feel like making it for me is like doing things
08:57Completely on your own terms
08:58Like I feel like that's the beauty of what my family did before means that they came into the game
09:04Kind of on their own terms kind of like take it or leave it like this is us
09:08And I feel like I'm still building to that but I do like all the things that I'm doing
09:15on my way
09:17She's Louise. Wow, that's crazy
09:21Where was this at? I said that little at the park park. Yeah. Yeah that park
09:25That was like a probably a July 4th
09:27We used to go to the park all the time and play softball and we don't get together as much
09:32And you all the houses people are so, you know, kids are having kids, you know, so
09:36it's like
09:38Individualized kind of but sometimes we'll get together at least like two three times a year. Well our immediate family
09:44We we get over at his house a lot
09:47But like the family family the thing is everybody, you know working, you know
09:52It's like kind of harder to kind of get everybody in one room. But when we do it, it's magical. It's amazing
10:00I think it's the greatest gift that I have is my family. I've stayed out of trouble, you know
10:07for my time in
10:09Hollywood for the most part because I didn't want to be ridiculed by Marlon or Sean the thing is like you don't want to be
10:16The one and they're writing jokes about is brutal, but it it acts as a deterrent
10:22But it's also fun to be the one writing the jokes
10:29Because we may not say them to your face, but we know that but there's a group chat
10:36Going on right now and your name is in it. It is obnoxious. We have one. Yeah, and it is too much
10:42It's already right now. There's no way to get out of it because there's people on there that don't have iPhones
10:47So they're like greening it up and we'll go somewhere. I'm just like this was a mistake
10:54But we stay there we persevere because we're family. I love it. I think it's unique
10:58I think I'm most proud of the fact that we're still a family that we get along. We really enjoy each other's company
11:06We still laugh a lot. There's no real egos
11:09The best times are when we're all together
11:13Huh, this is cute. This is the at the players
11:18Premiere for Netflix that I didn't get invited to oh, you got invited that you said you were tight
11:23But you in your defense you didn't have a lot of work before
11:26This is my family. My wife my oldest three daughters. I'm a four-year-old daughter as well, but
11:32She's not in it cuz she too little. Yeah, Amara Anaya Berlin
11:37Hmm beautiful, that's great, you know
11:39And they're all like really fun to be around and have great relationships with all my children
11:44so I definitely learned that from him and from my mom like to like really care about how your kids feel about you and
11:52To cultivate those relationships because they're not that they're actually gonna happen automatically. You have to put in the work
11:57They're looking for a reason to hate you. They are. I'm sure they still have qualms. I'm sure they like
12:03That's such a dick
12:07Yeah, you just can't be the reason you can't give them something real to like sink their hatred into because it's not really you
12:14They hate it's just life. It's hormones. It's all this other stuff. It's nature
12:20I feel like that's why moms and their daughters bump heads
12:24It's because eventually they they have to go off and make their own families, you know
12:28It's one of the teenage years people bump heads with their parents. It's all part of it, but they circle back
12:33I just always knew I was gonna have a large family
12:35I never like that was just I don't know. I just always felt like I was destined to be a father of many
12:44Me Nick Cannon, baby. I have a half a Nick Cannon amount of children
12:54Look at this from Papa's house. Yeah, it's literally from Papa's that's me and you
12:59And
13:01We play father and son in comedy always looking for the conflict, right? So
13:07Junior and I in real life have a great relationship. There really is no conflict. Most of our
13:14Relationship is built on a comedic language. That's all we do is just jokes and bits all day long
13:19Then if I have something to tell him I'll get real serious for a minute and then I go back into telling jokes
13:24And that's the way we communicate it's just been fun every day it's fun coming to work
13:29even when I think it's not gonna be funny when I show up my
13:32Here we go again. And now I'm just like
13:35Dying laughing for the whole day and the thing is like I got my sister Kim is there Sean is there
13:40My nephew's doing the music got another nephew about to direct have my grandchildren my nieces
13:47I'm reminded as soon as I come through the gate that the cause is greater than me
13:52whatever I'm feeling I gotta leave it at the gate and come in here and be positive and be
13:59Productive and you know give my all because they're watching they need to see the best of me
14:05Also, there's something really cool about just walking into a room and everybody has your face
14:10This is weird, but I like it