3/16/2005



Wayans Family Recalls 'In Living Color'

By Daniel Fienberg


LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) "I was not a guy who would ever settle for mediocrity; that wasn't going to be the standard," Keenen Ivory Wayans tells an adoring throng of fans at Thursday night's "In Living Color" tribute at the William S. Paley Television Festival.

Shawn Wayans is quick to interject, "You wouldn't settle for excellent."

Many of the biggest names who came out of the seminal FOX sketch comedy show were invited to attend the Paley session, but with Chris Rock and Jamie Foxx still basking in Oscar glory and Jim Carrey probably off making $20 million for a movie somewhere, the evening was a family affair with Keenan and Shawn joined on stage by sister Kim and brother Marlon (Damon was on the program, but couldn't make it). It's little wonder that when asked about how he cast "In Living Color," Keenen Ivory Wayans' first reaction is to look up and down the dais and laugh.

"Well, a lot of them were in my house," he cracks, not entirely joking. The All-Wayans panel is appropriate since even though none of the four can remember then names of all of the original "In Living Color" featured players (they get stymied on "Tony Somebody") 15 years after its premiere, it's clear that much of the show's humor come from the Wayans family dynamic.

"A lot of the characters you see on the show are people we grew up with," Keenen (who the brothers call "Ivory") admits. "It was our neighborhood."

Marlon, in high school and college, can still joke about the idea for a skit that he sold to Damon for "a box of Lemonheads" and there's no end to the mockery Shawn faces for his ineptitude as a production assistant on the show.

"You wasn't a PA, you were an Executive PA," teases Marlon, recalling Shawn's unfortunate tendency to park in sports reserved for FOX executives.

Keenen adds, "The only way I could keep him employed was to make him a DJ," explaining the genesis of Shawn's Sw. 1 persona. Shawn never minded being restricted mostly to DJ duties, because he got to have fun with his family as a job.

"We laughed all day and I got to laugh more than anyone else, because I didn't have that much work to do," he says.

In addition to all of the typical family banter -- each of the brothers appears to have a different impression of the absent Damon -- the Wayans took time to time to discuss some of the influences that helped shape "In Living Color." Keenen is effusive in his praise for Robert Townsend's "Hollywood Shuffle," but since he co-wrote that 1987 feature, that's logical enough. But who know that Keenen saw the Fly Girls as the hip-hop equivalent of the June Taylor Dancers? Or who'd have guessed that "The Carol Burnett Show" was his model for ideal cast interplay?

"Like 'Carol Burnett,' you could tell the people were having as much fun doing it as you were watching it," says Keenen.

Currently there aren't plans for any immediate "In Living Color" spin-off projects. A "Homey the Clown" feature film was supposed to go into production last year, but was put on hold for Keenen to direct Marlon and Shawn in "White Chicks." The show's recent DVD release, though, has given the group a renewed sense of the show's influence and importance.

"It has held up," says Keenen. "It has stood the test of time and that makes me really proud."