Wayne Brady
You've been rehearsing onstage at the Ambassador. Is it at all intimidating to be on a Broadway stage for the first time?
Why would it be? I've done theater for years. It isn't like I am some film guy who is 17 and lucked into something. This was always the goal. But I was luckily side-tracked and wonderful things popped into my life that actually made it possible for me to be here at this time. So I am not intimidated—if anything I am extremely elated to be here. It feels like home.
I had been watching your talk show and thinking, “This guy is going to be announced for a Broadway show any day.”
Well I had been asked to do Broadway before, but the timing has never quite worked out. I was cast in the original Lion King as an ensemble member and the cover for Simba. But I wasn't ready to leave Los Angeles. Lord knows I was broke and needed a gig, but, as much as I wanted to go to Broadway, I thought I needed to stay there for a little while. Luck would have it things turned around.
I didn't know about Lion King. I did know you were offered Rent.
Yes, a couple of years ago. I wasn't able to do it because of timing. The folks at Urinetown also called and I wasn't able to do it. Then the folks at Chicago called about a year ago and I couldn't do it. But finally when they called again, I said: “This is the time! NOW I can do it.” Now I am here and I am so happy.
It's been a big couple of years for you.
It's been an incredible growing time. I didn't know I could host a talk show; I didn't know I could get up there and do a monologue and tell jokes. And going from, 'Hey--isn't that the black guy who sings on Whose Line?," to folks stopping me on the street saying: "WAYNE BRADY!" No one says just "Wayne" or "Brady"--whenever anyone stops me, it's like my name is one name” "WAYNEBRADY!" So that's an incredible feeling. It's like, “Wow! Thank you!”
TV Guide called you "the so-talented-it's-scary Wayne Brady." That's a good thing to have before your name.
Yeah--I've been pretty lucky with the adjectives that I've had assigned to me. I think the biggest problem you have when people like you so much is always topping yourself. And trying to live up to whatever the legend is that people put out. “Oh my God--he can make up anything!” Then you have to go out there and you have to make up something...
Well your assistant called me and told me I couldn't ask you to make up anything!
I think she did that because when we used to do a lot of radio shows, of course the thing is: “Hey--make something up!" And I would have to politely say: "No, I am not in front of an audience." But that is just a testament to the fact that people get so wrapped up in Whose Line that they are like, “I don't believe it. Do it now!" That's why I love touring live. I even say in the show: “I know there is one guy sitting out there that is thinking, 'He doesn't make that crap up.' So now I am going to do it for you." By the end of the night, I think we've made a few converts. It's great to be able to take that energy that I think I bring to my improv show and now bring it to a character, bring it to Billy and try to give him that spark and put a little of myself into it.
You know, don't laugh, but I was thinking of the similarities between you and Rosie O'Donnell. You both had happy talk shows and you both sang on them. And now you'll both have Broadway credits.
You can draw those similarities, but no offense against Rosie, but I am a professional singer. She enjoys singing, which is a good thing, but thankfully I was able to support myself with it.
You had a similar audience though.
When Buena Vista came to ask me about doing a talk show, a talk show was the farthest thing from my mind because I am an actor. I didn't care about doing a talk show, but it was a challenge. But Rosie's vibe and Rosie's audience was something they were aiming for. I really enjoyed the two years of doing it. I walked away with a couple of Emmys, made a lot of friends and I just had the best time.
The audience always seemed to respond to you so much.
Well, that's a good thing! It's better than falling asleep on you. What is so great about doing a talk show is people become your friends. Now I can count on a lot of my friends coming to see me doing something that I love doing, so it's like sharing that in a way. In New York, people come up and give me a lot of love daily. It's a really, really great place.
But you don't normally live here. You live on the other coast with your wife and your daughter. She's like one and a half, right? She must be talking.
She is walking, running, talking and singing. She speaks very clearly--in fact she freaked me out yesterday because I heard her running in the background while I was talking to my wife and she was yelling, “You won't get me! You won't get me!” and it was so clear. I attribute that to the fact that we really didn't do baby talk to her--we just talked to her. I think that is the best time to try to stimulate that side of you baby's brain.
They're not here with you. Is that hard?
We knew that would be part of the sacrifice. I try to go out on my days off and they are coming here. But of course it's hard--if you are a parent that loves your child and you are used to seeing them go to bed every night it's absolutely hard. But I have this new computer and we try to video conference every night before she goes to bed. There is a way to definitely make it work.
You were only able to come here because your show is no longer on the air. I was going to ask you about it being cancelled, but “cancelled” seems like such a bad word.
No, it isn't. Shows get cancelled everyday. It's just like in the theater--you may be in a show that is getting great reviews and you still get shut down. That was [what happened] in my case. Disney felt that it wasn't doing the kind of business that it wanted it to even though it had a very strong fan base and multiple awards. It just wasn't the show ultimately they saw and maybe I wasn't the person ultimately that they wanted to be doing daytime. There definitely is a very squeaky, happy feel-good person that is comfortable in daytime and, while I consider myself a very happy person, after a certain
point, my own sense of humor showed through. I couldn't try to be what they wanted.
But you had a good run.
I got multiple awards, a great paycheck and years of exposure and that's fine. I am a gypsy, so I move on to the next thing, which now happens to be Broadway, which then will be my new series, which then will be films. So everything happens for a reason. Cancelled isn't a bad word because it happens everyday.
It still seems negative to me.
It depends the spin you put on it. If a show is really horrible and it gets cancelled...
Right--like no one really cared when Coupling was cancelled.
Yes, sometimes you are doing everyone a favor! But it was great in this case that, as soon as the announcement came out that the show wasn't coming back, folks at home were up in arms. What a great feeling!
I thought they had to be kidding--you had just won another Emmy!
Right after the Emmy was won, that is when they made the announcement. And that was the best thing in the world. People said, "Are you crazy?!?" But there is no accounting for taste!
You bring a lot of yourself to something like a talk show. You can do it less in the theater, but you can probably get away with doing more improv in Chicago then in a show with a complicated physical production.
There is only so much the script allows--it is what it is. Billy Flynn is one of the best performers on the planet. He is this lawyer that steps in and gets the job done. He even explains it in “Razzle Dazzle”: It's all show business. And I am someone who loves show business and I am a born performer, so I think that when I am Billy in the courtroom, or talking to Amos, or trying to manipulate someone... I bring that little sparkle in his eye of, “OK--now I am onstage and ready to do this. Watch this!”
That sounds pretty confident. But are you nervous at all?
I get nervous before I step onstage anywhere. Whether it's before the talk show, my Vegas show… Because I think you need that, you need that shot of nerves to make you keep it together. I think if you step onstage and you go, “Oh, I do this everyday...” Then you've got a problem. So I think when opening night comes, my knees will be knocking right before the girls announce, "Billy!" But I think I'll rise to the occasion.