Improv is a challenging art form and the best of the best performers are able to take whatever is spontaneously thrown at them and quickly create characters, scenes and songs out of thin air. The first time I saw Wayne Brady on the ABC show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, I remember thinking, ‘who is this guy’ as he dazzled audiences with his quick wit, comedic talent, and unbelievable singing ability. It didn’t matter if the audience threw out a request for country, rap, soul, rock and roll, opera, jazz, or reggae, Wayne could sing it all.

That national exposure earned Wayne a Primetime Emmy and he was also given his own daytime talk show “The Wayne Brady Show” which aired for two seasons and earned four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Wayne for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

In 2004, Wayne returned to the stage and played the role of lawyer Billy Flynn in the long-running Broadway revival of “Chicago.” He has also made guest appearances on sitcoms such as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Dirt,” and
“30 Rock.”

Currently Wayne hosts Fox’s singing game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” and performs his show “Making It Up” five nights a week at The Venetian where he pays tribute to Sammy Davis Jr., Luther Vandross and James Brown, and is a master at imitating stars like Prince, Justin Timberlake and Mick Jagger.

So in this, our annual Entertainment issue, get ready as I fire a rapid succession of questions at Mr. Improv himself and we get Up Close and Personal with Wayne Brady.

Marsala Rypka: Describe yourself in three words.
Wayne Brady: That’s hard because if you say one thing it appears as if you have a huge ego and if you say something else it seems like you’re not self-aware. The first word is father because that’s how I most think of myself, and I guess sensitive and mercurial.

MR: Name something people would be surprised to learn about you.
WB: That comedy is the least likely thing I saw myself doing. I moved to L.A. to sing and make a record and focus on my acting and try to follow in the footsteps of Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, and Blair Underwood. I thought I’d be able to do some great dramatic roles and then I ended up on an improv show, became a talk show host and now I have a comedy show, which I never thought would happen.

MR: What are you most passionate about?
WB: My work. I’ve been in show business for 20 years and when I was 16 years old, I came to the realization that this is what I was built for. I had no Plan B, nothing to fall back on. If the show biz thing didn’t work out, I wasn’t going to France to become a chef. There’s nothing else. It’s what I eat, sleep and breathe. It may sound funny to say that I take what I do seriously, because I get paid to make-believe, make fart jokes and play around being different characters, but I’m quite passionate about my work.

MR: What was the fork in the road that diverted you from drama
to comedy?
WB: I was doing a lot of guest spots on dramas like “I’ll Fly Away” and
“In the Heat of the Night.” I was also well established as a back-up singer and performer. I played in Doo-wop groups, I toured with nightclub artists, played nightclubs, worked cruise ships and theme parks, did corporate gigs, and bar-mitzvahs. I was a lounge singer in Japan and I toured in “Jesus Christ Super Star,” “Chorus Line” and “Oklahoma.”
I’d done improv for years, but I never stepped up and was as strong and grounded in it and as associated with it as I am now. It was always ‘Yeah, I’m with an improv group and we do shows, but it’s not really what I do.’
I spent a lot of time mentally distancing myself from it for some reason.
The “Whose Line” audition was just another audition I happened to get and that was the fork in the road. “Whose Line” utilized all my gifts – the singing, the dancing, the impersonation skills.
Yeah, there are days I go ‘Man it would be nice not to be known as the guy from “Whose Line,”’ but I recognize it as a beautiful happenstance, a wonderful blessing that opened up so many doors and introduced a new side of me to myself that I didn’t know existed.
It gave me the ability to take care of my family and create a platform for my music and the other things I want to do. So I have to say ‘thank you God’ for placing that in my path. Who knows where I would be if
I had gone down one specific lane.

MR: Does it seem like people expect you to be “on” even when you’re off stage?
WB: I’m flattered when people expect me to perform on the spot, but for the most part folks are great; they say thanks and give me a hug. If you were around someone who was on 24/7 you’d throttle that person. One of the most amazing conversations I ever had was with Robin Williams when he did “Whose Line.” He’s a completely different person when he’s not on. His voice is so soft you really have to listen to what he’s saying, and then the lights go on and Robin Williams is this atomic bomb of spastic, cursing, creativity.

MR: What three people have had the greatest influence on your life?
WB: My grandmother was the rudder that steered my ship. She gave me my morals and my work ethic. My dad was in the military for 23 years and was transferred to different places and he wanted me to have a stable upbringing so I grew up in Florida and, like Barack Obama, I was raised by my grandmother. I was in ROTC in high school and I thought I’d follow in my dad’s footsteps until I turned 15 and started acting. From then on I couldn’t do anything else. I got picked on because I’d watch and emulate people like Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, Harry Belafonte…leading men who could sing and dance and make you laugh and cry. Growing up I thought that’s what an actor did. Luckily, my dad got to see me do a lot of dramatic acting like my recurring role on NBC’s “I’ll Fly Away” before he passed away.
My ex-wife Mandie, who continues to be incredibly influential in my life. We moved to L.A. together and she’s always believed in me. She gave me my beautiful daughter and even though we’re divorced, she has chosen to remain my friend. She’s the person I check in with to make sure I’m doing things right. It’s sad that people think it’s unusual that we still love each other and we’re best friends. It takes two to tango and we’d be selfish and two great big dummies if we weren’t on the same team. Our daughter has the best of both worlds. She knows we’re divorced. We never hide anything from her, but it doesn’t bother her because she sees mommy and daddy together all the time and we do everything as a family.
And Sammy Davis, Jr. Creatively I try to follow his lead in terms of performing for everybody and not saying, ‘Well, I’m black so I need to be this way and act this way and perform for these guys or I’m not being real.’ That’s bullshit for any performer who thinks he has to limit himself. I found that out years ago when I read Sammy’s books and tried to emulate him. He was for everyone. And now we have a president who is for everyone. This is global and if Obama isn’t the perfect example to change the minds of that narrow-minded segment of our population, I don’t know who can. I believe in some way Obama was influenced by Sammy with his calling for change and using the phrase, ‘Yes I Can,’ which was Sammy’s motto.

MR: What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?
WB: My greatest strength is that I truly believe I can do anything. My greatest weakness is that I truly believe I can do anything. So sometimes I’ll bite off too much at once. Schedule-wise you can’t say yes to eight things and expect them all to be perfect.

MR: Who would you trade places with for 24 hours?
WB: President-elect Barack Obama. How many times does someone get the chance to be first in anything and have all eyes of the world on you? I’d also trade places with my daughter or any five-year-old. It would be great to experience that complete creative freedom of going to school and running around all day, playing with clay, drawing, taking a box and making it into a house, playing with my dolls and action figures and have fun without anyone telling me what I’m doing is wrong.
It’s almost like what I get to do on stage. Not to sound egotistical, but when you do really good improv like I do, you connect to that child-like place where you stop thinking, and just like kids, you suspend judgment and have the ability to make something into what it’s not. Mandie and I were recently talking about how we have spent hundreds of dollars on all these toys like the Polly-Polly-Pee-Pee-In-My-Pants doll and Maile will end up playing with the box Polly came in.
I get to enjoy being in that childlike place every night until I step off stage and find I’m still an adult who has taxes, a car payment and a mortgage. Yeah, a five-year-old has it good.
It would also be cool to trade places with a woman for a day, then come back to my own body and have the secret that has eluded man since the time of Adam. I’d be the most popular guy on the planet because I’d know how certain arguments could be avoided. Everyone would line up and say, ‘Wayne, what’s she thinking?’ Obviously I could use that kind of wisdom.

MR: What is your most treasured material possession?
WB: A box that contains my scrapbook with pictures from when I grew up in Orlando, my wedding album, and my daughter Maile’s sonogram picture.

MR: What is your greatest extravagance?
WB: Video games and also I’m a bit of a clothes horse. Growing up my mom didn’t have extra cash for toys so I’m living out my childhood now. I just bought a Lego space set that I’m going to put together with my daughter. The funny thing is I enjoy it much more than she does. She really doesn’t like the Lego blocks. She’s like, ‘Oh dad.’ And I’m like, ‘Honey I’m going to get you an erector set and teach you how to build a spaceship.’ She doesn’t want to, but she does it to humor me.

MR: Describe a perfect day.
WB: I’m single-minded about what I do. A perfect day is any day I can get up and be creative in some form. Maybe I’ll write a sketch or read a great book. Anything that spurs me on mentally. Every day I spend an hour or two playing a game. In my hotel room, I’ve got a Wii PS3 and an XBOX 360. I have a special laptop I had built for video games along with my regular MAC. I’ve got a small recording studio with a keyboard, a couple of guitars and an electronic drum set. That’s my nest. I don’t leave my room much unless Maile’s in town. Then we go to Circus Circus and she makes fun of me because I don’t like heights and while she’s on the carnival rides, I’m playing video games. Or we’ll go to GameWorks and do some shopping at Caesars’ Forum Shops.
Sometimes after my show I’ll take the dancers out to a club or we’ll go karaoke. You don’t have to be an incredible singer to do that. It’s beautiful for the soul to be free enough to have sound come out and not worry what anyone else thinks. We are animals and every animal - dogs, cats, wolves, gorillas - has a way of vocalizing what they feel, whether it’s growling or howling. I applaud the guy in a club who can’t dance, but who dances all night. It’s easy to do the things you’re good at, but it’s great to do the things you’re not good at but are free enough to do.
That’s why I love improv. When I’m on stage, I’m completely uninhibited. I never know what’s going to come out of my mouth, or what face or body position I’ll end up doing. Later on in life, yeah, Wayne doesn’t necessarily want to be embarrassed, but right now on stage it’s a completely different beast.

MR: Improv takes a lot of courage.
WB: Oh yeah, it could be a huge train wreck. Right before I step out on stage when they announce, ‘Wayne Brady,’ there’s a second that I think, ‘Oh man, what happens if I suck? This could go poorly and the audience could see me have a meltdown.’ Luckily, it’s never happened. It’s pretty audacious to think I can make an audience laugh without a script. But right after I get over the initial fear, I’m so stoked. Afterwards it’s exciting to discuss the show with my talented partner, Jonathan Magnum. Working with him on stage is like lobbing a tennis ball back and forth. He sets me up so I’m able to reach greater heights than I could by myself.

MR: The audience is an integral part of your show.
WB: Yeah, I bring four or so people up on the stage each night to participate in the games so everyone sees that this isn’t some kind of parlor trick.

MR: What five people would you invite to dinner?
WB: It would be great to invite Jesus. Maybe he could settle a couple of arguments for us and prove a couple of people wrong. I’d invite Hannibal, the great African general who used elephants in combat. He was considered one of the greatest generals along with Alexander the Great and viewed as a gifted strategist by men like Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. I wish my career had been further along so I could have crossed paths with Sammy Davis Jr. and thanked him. And John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It would have been wonderful if Dr. King could have seen what he was a part of and how it paid off.
Hatred comes from ignorance. People feel uncomfortable with people who are different than them and that turns to hate. If you have a statesman who has the qualities that Obama does, hopefully he can help heal the ignorance. His presence and everything he stands for makes sense. Maybe people will understand that black people aren’t aliens, we’re not threatening and we can all live together. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t vilify Bush. He’s like an uncle that comes over to hang out with you, but I don’t know that’s who you want as your president. We now have a guy who has a ramrod straight back and bearing and mind-set and steely gaze and the warmth and compassion and articulate nature of a president. That’s hot. It’s been proven that not every black person voted for Obama just because he was black. No one was clamoring to get Jesse Jackson elected. Nothing against the Reverend Jackson, but no one was saying, ‘this is the guy,’ because he wasn’t. Even people who voted for McCain couldn’t say Obama is horrible. They were voting for their party, but everyone recognizes what he has.
I’m happy Barak Obama was elected, but I’m happier for my grandmother who is 77 years old because there are people of a certain age in this country who thought the dream of a black president would happen one day, but never in their lifetime. To them it was kind of like “The Jetsons,” in that maybe one day we’ll have jet packs and fly around and maybe one day men will walk on Mars, but those inconceivable things will happen before we have a black president. Now that’s not true. They’ve actually seen the rise and fall of civil rights. I’m also happy for my five-year-old daughter, who is half-Japanese and half-white on her mother’s side and African-American on my side, because she gets to see someone who looks like her run our country.

MR: You have a new CD that’s doing very well on the charts called “A Long Time Coming.” Were you referring to the election?
WB: Yeah, that’s why I named it that. Sometimes things don’t happen when we hope they will, but they do happen.

MR: How is your show at The Venetian different than the show you did at the Mirage several years ago?
WB: The Mirage was a great entree into Vegas so people could see that I wasn’t just that guy on tv. But I wasn’t able to do what I wanted there because it wasn’t my venue. It was Danny Gans’ venue. Not saying anything negative about Danny, because he’s a good guy, but it was his home, not mine. When I came in I didn’t have full use of the stage. I had to perform in front of the curtain; I couldn’t bring my whole band; and I couldn’t have dancers because the space was limited. The people at the Mirage are wonderful, but I was happy to go to The Venetian, because it’s my version of a Vegas show with an eight-piece band and six dancers. There’s improv, then I turn around and sing and dance and step further into the Sammy vein of entertainment than I ever have before. I do a bit of “Love Me or Leave Me” and dedicate it to him. I do a Sam Cooke medley and two of the songs off my new album, “Ordinary”, and “Back in the Day” which celebrates being a child back in the ’80s with the whole break dancing culture and then I go into my James Brown sex-machine tribute where we tear down the walls. It’s what I did at the Mirage times ten.

MR: Do you have any unfulfilled dreams?
WB: To establish myself more in film and open my show on Broadway. I’d also like to have my music taken seriously. On a personal note, I hope God shines his good graces upon me so I can stick around a long while so I can see my daughter develop into her own person and blossom just like my grandmother is here to see me follow my dreams.

MR: How are you going to spend Christmas?
WB: For the last 12 or 13 years, we’ve spent Christmas in Hawaii with Mandie’s family and that hasn’t changed since we’ve gotten divorced. My own family wasn’t big, only my grandmother and myself, and sometimes my little sister, so spending it with such a large, extensive family has really made me appreciate Christmas.
My ex-wife is white on her mother’s side and Japanese on her father’s side. Mandie’s sister married a Guamanian Filipino man and there’s another uncle who is married to an Indian woman, so it’s amazing being in a house with Japanese kids, Filipino kids, my little baby, and white kids running around who are somehow all related. Sometimes there are more than 20 of us there for Christmas week. If you would have told me when I was a kid that this is the family I was going to marry into I would have said you were nuts.

MR: The rainbow of colors and cultures in your family is really an expression of what Christmas is all about and the fact that Mandie’s family still welcomes you is an example of Christmas at its purest.
WB: Absolutely. Being part of that family has helped form my views and taken away some of my ignorance. Before meeting Mandie, I’d never met or hung out with any Japanese or Asian people. It’s beautiful to find out that although we are different, I love those differences. I’ve learned so much from the Asian side of my family. I definitely have Mandie to thank for that and for the amazing Christmases I have every year. I wish everyone a blessed holiday season.

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