March 17, 2021 • 33 mins
The “Let’s Make a Deal” host talks about his ambition to build a consulting business based on the tenets of comedy improv: active listening, openness to collaboration and the ability to think fast on your feet. Brady, also a regular on “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” sees the “Yes and” philosophy of improv as a framework for helping youths develop self-confidence and critical thinking skills. He draws from his own story to explain why he is working to open youth-focused improv centers in Los Angeles and his hometown of Orlando, Fla.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Wayne Brady. You know him as the affable
host of Let's Make a Deal and the versatile cast
member of the improv competition series whose Line Is It Anyway?
(00:29):
Behind the scenes, Brady has big ambition. He wants to
use his improv training to help build a consulting business
with Mandy Takeda, his former wife who remains his business partner.
Brady sees the tenants of improv, active listening and an
openness to collaboration as a natural framework for coaching the
best out of executives and other leaders. He also has
(00:51):
a vision of improv centers that can help youth develop
self confidence and critical thinking skills. In our conversation, he
speaks from the heart about why he's driven to spread
the wisdom that comes from improv training. It's all coming
up in this Strictly Business conversation. Welcome back to Strictly Business.
(01:17):
Wayne Brady a multi hyphenit, if ever there was one
in the entertainment business. Thank you so much for joining
us today. Thank you so much for having me. I
was looking forward to this conversation. The thing I wanted
to start by talking with you today was I understand,
of course, you are a master of improv and have
been doing improv in various forms I know for decades.
(01:38):
Tell me, as I understand, of late, you have really
been putting some thought and putting some things down in
a more formal structure about how the tools, the skills
of improv, the creativity that it takes to be good
at improv, how those skills and tools might be applied
in other sectors for fun and profit. Tell us what,
(02:00):
tell us what you and Mandy are working on in
this area. Well, let me start off by saying that
that the use of improv and the corporate sector. I'm
not coming up with some you know, uh Um. I
didn't just hit this great motherload of gold and I'm
in the hills going look what I did. I founded Eureka.
It's been there. In fact, people were doing that when
(02:21):
I first started doing improv. In fact, I joined a
company called Sack Theater in the I want to say,
in the early nineties, and it was through sacked. UM,
I started to learn improv or or the formalized version
of what I think I've already been doing, and part
of what I learned from them at that point, they
were already doing corporate work for for Disney, doing t
(02:45):
building and showing how the the the principles of yes,
and you know that we can come into your business
and we can show you X, Y and Z that
will help your team work together baby better. And groups
like Second City and Io and and the Groundlings, They've
all had their various versions of it. So when I
(03:05):
say I feel that I have a methodology that will work,
it's really based on the methodology that I have put
into play for myself, the way that I have been
able to maneuver on stage using those tools, then to
work off stage using those same tools in a pitch meeting,
(03:27):
using those tools once I already have the job, using
those tools to help run a show, UM, going to
other businesses and saying okay, just like on stage, I
have a relationship with whomever I'm on stage with in
order to make make a successful improvisational scene work, and
(03:48):
if not even a scene like my one of my
specialties is being being able to make an improvisational music
piece work, which is basically jazz with your body, jazz
with your body and jazz with your mind, and and
being able to have the give and take to ebb
and flow, the the listening skills to be able to
(04:10):
take in everything that the person is saying as they're
taking it in process it not jumping the gun to
come to my own conclusions immediately and going this is
what the song is about, listening to what they say,
taking the pieces of it, going okay, I see what
you're going with, and and then we put the rules
into play up yes and yes. I like this line
(04:32):
of of of of you know, Boba Fett. It should
should stay out of the cantina because it's a Star
Wars scene. So that's great. Now I'm gonna take that yes,
but let's add this so on top of it in
order to do the yes. And I did listen to you.
I didn't come in with any preconceived notions. I didn't
(04:53):
block you by going no, no, no, this is better
Han Solo's mom. I walked into the no no, no,
I didn't do it. I took in everything that you said.
I'm going to take it, and I'm going to add
on to what you just gave me, and if we
keep doing this back and forth, by the time we
are finished, we should have an end product that sounds good,
(05:14):
that is incredibly funny, and that has kept the audience guessing,
but it satisfies them at the end of the day.
That's how I feel a business should run. Now, that's
in its most simplistic way, of course, when we know
there's so many things that goes in that that go
into making a successful business. But I think the one
(05:35):
thing that can be spoken of in a universal sense
is a boss, employees, product or services rendered. Those things
have to be done successfully in order for this business
to continue to operate. One of the things about a
business is when someone hears, oh you're you're a boss,
(05:55):
So all these people work for me, I pay them,
they should just do what the hell I said. That's
one way to do it. That's one way to have
a bunch of unhappy people rousing about you, you know,
next to the water cooler and and potentially not having
your workflow be as smooth as it could be. You
could lord over them and be a draconian boss, or
(06:16):
you could take the cue from improvisation and you recognize
that you have a team. You can take in various ideas.
You can say yes and to them. You don't have
to say yes, these are all the best ideas and
and this is what our company is going to do.
But you can make people feel that they've been listened to.
You can acknowledge that they've been listened to. And the
(06:39):
best thing about improvisation, unless you're doing a scene by yourself,
I'm very capable of walking on stage and doing an
hour and a half by myself. That's great, that's fun,
and it's a great parlor trick. But but you know,
when I have the most fun and when I think
I shine the most, it's just like on whose line
is in any way? Or when I'm on tour with
my best friend Nathan Mangum, when I'm playing, when I
(07:04):
when I can just play, when I take in your ideas,
I'm better in that show because my buddy Jonathan has
set me up. I'm better in that show than when
I'm spinning by myself and just just uh the the
center of attention and generating all of those ideas. There
(07:25):
are no checks and balances. So in a business sense,
what I'm what I would like to set is set
up is is well because there's so many things I
want to do with this. But in the first place,
be able to show showing a business setting, whether it's
your coworker or whether it's boss, to get to employee,
the yes and aspect, the listening aspect. That's a great
(07:46):
way to to up your productivity simply by listening. It
costs you nothing to just listen and make someone feel
like they've been heard. You take the same skill and
you give it to someone who may feel unimport like
their voice doesn't matter in that company. That's the that's
the weak link in your company chain, because that's the
(08:08):
person sending back at the machine going all I do
all damn day is pull this lever. They don't care
if a paper from one box, whatever, they don't care.
If that person thinks that I don't care, then they
don't care, and at some point mistakes will be made.
No one is invested in your scene or or in
(08:29):
your company, right, everyone of the team feel that they're
pulling the same way that that they're invested, that they
want to to work towards the same common goal of
finishing that scene or delivering a product or having having
uh aid and an effort made. How do you learn
how to be a good listener. It's a muscle. It
(08:52):
is an active muscle. I will say that. And if
you're not used to using that muscle, it's just like I,
I consider myself to be a socially awkward person, or
like you know, an interviewer will go, Wayne, you must
be a hoot at home, or they'll talk to my daughter.
(09:12):
Your dad must make you laugh all day long. She goes, No, absolutely,
because the person that I am when I'm not on stage,
the narrative that I've told myself since I was a
young child is I'm awkward when I'm dealing with more
than one person, and I don't UH on stage. I
(09:32):
have no problem taking in information, sitting on it for
a millisecond, and putting something out that uses the information
that comes in. I have no problem being open. I
think to be an active listener, the thing that we
need to do is to be open. So the narrative
that I tell myself in real life when I'm here
is I can't really talk to these people right now.
(09:55):
But no, I don't know, I don't don't I don't
want to go to this this event is because I'm
closing myself off, so I haven't any space to listen,
and I haven't any space to take anything in. So
that's even something in my personal life that I had
to learn to change that and to activate that. That's
why I say it's an active muscle. Wayne at home
(10:17):
has to actively practice let me hear you Okay, as
it's coming in, Wayne, I really need to talk about
the da da da da. Yes, I have to cogitate
and form something. But if if I take the extra
second to just take everything in before I'm ready to answer,
(10:38):
before I'm defensive, before I have to explain myself, before
I have to make my point, right, I have to
actively It's almost like the way that I pick picture
it is is I have to actually just keep my
hands down and and go okay mm hmm and really
(10:59):
hear you yeah and I and I cannot allow myself
to move into that relaxed space until I take it
in and I really and And that's the that's the
way that we can learn it. How do you learn
to be an active listener? You really have to listen.
(11:19):
You have to take in everything that person says, that
that other piece of the machinery that as they're saying, look,
I want to talk to you about something some now. Well,
and you know what if you're mad at me, well
I'm mad at you too. I mean, as soon as
you're doing this, this isn't happening. So just like on stage,
(11:41):
I have to do both. I have to take it
in and as it's in, I'm I'm taking it and
adding to it. That's the difference. Most people want to
take it in or not and just give You have
to take in, add give back. That's the one step
that that most of us miss. What do you want
(12:01):
to do with the kind of improv for business idea? Well,
there are a few things. I'm going to be writing
a book called called you know, making Ship Up, which
is which has been my brand for years. It was
the title of my Vegas show and and my other
production companies that um, because we really just that's all
(12:21):
that we ever do, you know, in business and in life,
we're all just making it up as we go along
and hoping that it's not a spectacular failure by the
time that our show is over. So so in terms
of writing, writing a book and laying out of course
and it and and it being a course where I
feel that it overlaps business, but it also at the
(12:44):
root of it, it overlaps our interpersonal relationships. Because in business,
just like in life and family, family and leisure, it's
our relationships that can propel you to success or that
can sink you. It's how you deal with the people
around you. It's how it's how you talk to people,
(13:08):
it's how you listen to people. It's how you make
the people around you feel. Talent in this business just
is not enough. It has to be talent mixed with
your relationships. And when I say relationships, I don't mean
what's the I'm trying to think of the proper term.
I don't mean mean me personally. I'm not a super network.
(13:32):
There are people that are amazing at that, and they
know everybody's phone numbers, and that's great. I'm not necessarily
talking about that. I'm talking about how do you make
the people around you feel so that when you leave
the impression that you've left behind that's out of your control.
But what is in your control is when you're in
(13:52):
the room. And I truly believe that the skills that
improv give you give you an upper hand when you're
in the room, and if someone doesn't like you at
the end of the day, they don't like you, you
keep it moving. But on the average, if you're able
to practice these skills, whether at home or or in business.
So so the first part of that is going to
be be the book, and the second piece, which I'm
(14:15):
very proud of, is I'm going to be starting my
own theater company slash school along the lines of an
io or a second city here in Los Angeles and
later one in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. And and
the basis of that. Recently, Mandy and I had a
show on a network called b y U t V
called Wayne Brady's Comedy I Q and and it was
(14:37):
kind of the pilot program for what I want to
work out in the real world, where where we took
teenagers from all over the US and we had them compete.
And we took these kids who were actors, singers. Some
of them had in prompt training, some of them had
sketch training, but most of them were at at the
very basic level for that. And I said, I'm gonna
(15:00):
teach you these rules. Not not only are these my
rules for on stage, but these are my performance rules
for in life. And I'm going to teach you these
rules and whatever you do with them, let's see if
they enhance your skills. I can't teach you be funny,
but I can teach you the rules. Improv only works
in in a grid or in a framework to it
(15:22):
to hang it on the shows a success and using that. Now,
I'm going to start doing the schools where I'm going
to be teaching adult classes, um teaching sketch, improv, the
these rules, putting, putting together a corporate sector that that
will go into businesses and and consult I'll also have
(15:43):
an advertising wing. Some of the best ideas come from
the people who are fast on their feet and being
able to go into these companies and come up with
with ads for for them, showing them how to think
less critically sometimes times and more creatively. And then the
third piece of that is it will also be a
(16:04):
school for teenagers to to be able to help them
take the skill into adulthood and go into certain neighborhoods
like a South Central, like a Watts, places where people
that look like me, where these kids that look like
me haven't haven't been taught the skills that I was
(16:24):
able to take in terms of improvisation and character building.
And someone might might look at it from a distance
and go, well, why do they need that? Well, I
tell you why. If someone can stand in front of
a crowd and have a conversation and feel confident in
who they are using the skills of uh if I
(16:45):
can listen to you and I can tell you clearly
and exactly who I am, and not only can I
think critically, but I can think creatively and fast. You're
you are prepping them for a life on stage, You're
prepping them for a life that Those are life skills,
and I wish that I would have had someone to
(17:05):
help me with those when I was younger. I I
think everything worked out well for me, but the but,
the but, the crushing self doubt, the the lack of
sense of self that I had growing up until I
found these skills. I want to impart them earlier. And
(17:29):
so that's the dream, that's the rollout, and all of
this is we are starting now. We have hit the
ground running, and I'm hoping to have the first first
company up in in less than a year. We'll take
a pause here and be back with more from Wayne
Brady and we're back with Wayne Brady. As you're talking.
(17:57):
What's also great about this is that improved this kind
of creativity. It's the same with writing, you know, with
that rudimentary it's a it's a great leveler. You don't
have to have an arm like a cannon, you don't
have to be built like a linebacker to All you
need is just to spark that spark, that creative, creative gene.
(18:18):
And I've also heard other actors say that that kind
of this kind of work also helps with rejection, because
there is a lot of rejection in the entertainment business.
And when you realize that, you know you're looking at
one of you could go any direction in any split
second decision, and you go this way, and you know,
you kind of come to know that you know there
(18:40):
were many paths, and maybe maybe one path might have
been more successful, but it was your choice, and it
was your choice in the moment in a way that
in a way that I think that can help people,
and I can, I can, I can really see an
application here for teenagers for all the reasons you said,
to be able to stand up and speak articulately. And
(19:00):
although this sounds like a cliche. Truly find your voice
in a in a setting of where people come together
and agree. You know, there's not gonna be any stupid choices.
There's not going to be there's such an ethos of
all the actors that have been involved in this, there's
there's also it seems like a very healthy ethos around
the around the improv community. Absolutely, and and I think
(19:24):
some something that it also helps teach is accountability m
because when you're on stage and you have to make
a choice. One of the things that was drilled into
me when when I was learning was in theater sports,
which is another improv type thing that I was involved in.
(19:45):
UM it's an improv competition and I and I got
involved in Orlando, but also did it out here in
Los Angeles. UM is one of the rule rules is
no waffling. And the waffling was you've got to make
a decision. It's especially in that split second. You've got
to make a decision, and you know what, sometimes it
(20:05):
will not be the best decision, but you've got to
pick a course and go with it as opposed to well,
I mean, I guess I can do that. And oh
and in the world of business, just like in real world,
you have to make decisions sometimes. And the reason that
it teaches accountability is because if if I'm on stage
and and I decide, guys, I'm taking the scene in
(20:28):
this in this direction, Let's say the scene tanks. Okay, fine,
when we get off stage, I'm not gonna turn around
and go why didn't you guys back me up? You
guys sucked? Why did you do Why did you know?
I made that choice. You guys made the choice to
yes and me and go with me. But I made
(20:50):
the choice to do this thing. I stick by that,
and I had no chance in the moment to back
off from it. I had to commit to that choice
and go and And there are so many situations in
business where instead of just passing the buck, instead of
just going, oh, well, I don't want to do it,
I'll give it to Johnson teaching that if you can
(21:12):
make a choice knowing that someone's got your back, that
the rest of your team has yes handed you, and
they have had your back you, you can make a
clear and decisive choice, and you can be accountable to
that choice whether it pans out or whether it does not.
And if it doesn't, what are you gonna do when
it doesn't no time to sit, because when we're on stage,
(21:34):
we have to go, oh, you didn't get a laugh
with that thing, Okay, I've got something else. Or from
an on in an audition and they tell me to pivot, okay, cool. Um,
I can do this voice, or I can make this choice,
or I can give you an eighty seven year old man.
What I can be a little blonde girl from from Malibu.
Whatever you need right now, Wayne Brady can do that
(21:56):
for you right now before I leave this room. That's
the type of thing that that you have to have.
And all of those come from that grid of improv
and there's a there's a sense of you gotta be game,
and that is for sure, it's business. You gotta be
game to be on that you know, to get out
there on the stage. Tell me how young Wayne Brady,
(22:18):
growing up in Orlando, Florida, got interested in improv and performing.
Young Wayne Brady started performing when he was sixteen. Um
sixty fifteen ish Um. I was a junior in high
school and I had a moment like fame. I'd always
(22:38):
fantasized in my head about being a performer, but in
my household, I was raised by my by my grandmother
and grandfather who are from the Virgin Islands, very strict
island upbringing. It was all about school and manners and
how you present yourself topped off on top of my
father was in the military, so I was rayed with
(23:00):
a military work ethos. So it was all about you
keep you keep your head down and you do what
you're told, and you don't talk out, you don't disrespect people.
You keep your mouth shut unless you're spoken to when
you go. So none of that is very conducive towards
the arts. So I harbored any love that I had
(23:23):
for any of that stuff. I kept it to myself.
Home from school, I would go in my room, I
would close close the door, and I had a little
black and white TV. And I watched a lot of
PBS because one of the only channels that that I got,
and PVS. I watched a lot of old specials. I
watched Sammy Davis Jr. In the rat Pack. I always
wanted to be like Sammy. I was old sketch shows.
(23:43):
I'm talking old old um like uh Ernie Kovacs, the show,
the Show of Shows, Sids Caesar. I would see British
sketch shows, uh, Benny Hill, Monty Python, the Goodies. I
would see old black and white movies with Sydney Poitier,
the old MGM musicals. Um. So I grew up having
(24:07):
this foundation of if only I can do any of
those things, or or I could sing and dance like
in West Side Story or in Black and Blue and
and um. But I kept that to myself until my
junior year, where as an elective, I was able to
take theater and I got a part in the school
play because one of my r OTC brothers he dropped
(24:31):
out of the school play and I had to play
it off. He's like, hey, guys, um, I'm gonna drop
out of this play because I've got a crew tournament. Uh.
It shows you what kind of school I was in,
because we had a crew team. He said, we've got
a crew tournament. Does somebody want to take over? I've
got like two lines or something, and everyone's like no, man,
players are stupid. And then I say, yeah, um, you
(24:55):
know what, I'll do it. It'll be so funny because
I'll be making fun of him super the theater geeks, right, yeah,
all right, Like oh my god, I did to be
on stage. So I walked in and it was like
fame and so these kids laughing, talking, dancing on top
(25:15):
of the piano. Everyone's doing voices, and it was the
happiest that I'd been in all of my years up
to that point in school. And I met my tribe,
I met my people, and I fell in love, and
I dropped RTC after two years in Of course, we
have to have a family talk about that, because we
(25:36):
all thought that I was going to be in the
military and go in as an officer. It happened the
only time that I want to hold a gun in
marches if you're paying me to do it on TV. UM.
So that's how I got started. And about two years later,
uh after I graduated, I met a woman named Claire
(25:57):
Sarah who now was a successful screenwriter and runs a
program called Right Girl. Sure. Yeah, So Claire Claire was
my mentor. Got me started an improv and she said,
you're really funny, because I did and I did a
did a did an industrial film with her, and of
course I was a young whipper snapper and and she said, oh,
(26:19):
that's so cute, and pad me on my head and said, hey,
I'm married. And be you're you're you're funny. You want
to come and take class from my husband and I.
We do a proversations. I said, a provisation. What's that?
She goes, it's it's theater that that we make up
right then on the spot when oh, like when I'm
playing make Believe in my room, which is weird for
a for a twenty year old to say, but then, uh,
(26:42):
my life has changed forever. And I got involved with
Zack Theater and then seven of us moved out to
Los Angeles a couple of years later, and we formed
a group called the House Full of Punkys and we
played shows all around town and we started doing a
regular show with the ACME over on the Bray or
the Old act Me first of course, and we got
best best improv comedy group in l A. And we
(27:05):
got the interest of the producers of Whose line is
it any Way? And when they were holding the auditions,
we auditioned, and when the smoke cleared, I had the
job and changed my life forever. I know that you
and Mandy also, do you also have some content production going?
Tell tell us about what you're working on in that space.
I'm so excited about it. It's it's uh the move
(27:28):
I think that you make when your desire is to
not just be the guy they pay, but the person
who one day becomes the one who pays others. And
and to create jobs, to create opportunities, to create a space.
So Mandy and I our company a Wayne and Mandy Creative.
Our mission is to create product and entertainment that not
(27:53):
just makes you laugh or makes you feel something, but
moves the needle and I feel. And I can't speak
for anyone else because I can only speak for Wayne.
And now we are heading into a world where entertainment
(28:13):
is more important than ever. And I'm not overvaluing it
because Lord knows, there are people doing jobs that are
so important. But I mean entertainment because so much of
what happens in the culture, in the zeitgeist, is pushed
from entertainment. We get our our escapism from entertainment. He
(28:38):
sometimes get our news from entertainment, like Stephen Colbert and
Trevor Noah. You get intelligent news from comedic sources because
the jesters, since since the days of the Kings, were
the ones that brain bring the bad news and sometimes
talk the king down from from chopping someone's head off job.
So instead of put hang out negative things into a
(29:02):
world that is already filled to the brim with negativity,
we wanted to be able to help and move the needle,
whether it's with race, whether it's with talking the gender
space and sexuality, UM to be able to have have
those thoughts. So we have a few shows. We have
a show with Jerry Bruckheimer that's in development for CBS
(29:24):
All Access now Paramount plus UM called UM called Barstow,
a f about a young gay Polynesian kid who leaves
leaves Hawaii and comes to Barstow, California, and then to
Barstow it is. It is that would be quite a
culture shock from Hawaii. Get it, and he has to
(29:45):
change everything about himself. He has to completely take that
light and put it under a bushel and become a
different dude during the day. But then in his mind
we get to see how fabulous he is. And there's
a bunch of story story connected with it. But but
that's something that we am sold sold with je Bruckheimer UM.
(30:05):
We also have a novel that is in development right
now with a producer called Tommy Lynch by an author
named April Daniels um called called Dreadnot, which is about
a trans superhero. So not only does this young hero
have to navigate this change within themselves, but then it's
(30:30):
for the world to see as they're trying to protect
us from all these uh world crushing um you know,
the same things that Superman Man would deal with, except
this person is dealing with with a great change within
them them themselves and how a super identity plays with
the idea of the Clark Kent nature, uh identity? Who
(30:54):
am I? Who? Who do I want you to see
me as? And how does the world accept that person?
And we and and what I love about April in
the book is it is it's a great superhero book,
which I'm a superhero geek um um, I love it.
But it also is a commentary on how we treat
and how the world has treated those that they look
at as other, whether it be black, white, trans, gay, lesbian,
(31:18):
anything that doesn't fit the status quo. So that's in
development right now. Um and uh. We have a sitcom
based on our life at c at CBS right now
about a blended family of myself, my ex wife who
is Asian and Caucasian, and me being black, our daughter
(31:39):
being mixed race, and Mandy's boyfriend being mixed race, and
all of us being one family, and what are the
conversations that happened with that? So everything that we're doing
has an agenda. What you're gonna have fun? While we
pushed the agenda forward and nobody would. We would all
forgive you if you call, if you gave it the
working title the Brady Bunch, which thank you for the forgiveness.
(32:03):
But just know that I shall never commit that crime.
Those of Sherwood Schwartz will come. I'm sorry, Mr Schlwretz. No, no, no,
I promise it will happen, will be Brady. But my goodness,
well it sounds like quite a bit going on under
the under the Brady umbrella these days. Thank you so
much for taking the time to talk with us. I
(32:25):
will absolutely look for your book because I can tell you,
in my line of work, I'm still working on being
a better listener. In my line of work, as the
as a mother, as a partner to there, there is
no greater skill than being able to truly listen and
have that empathy. And I think you really talked us
through really really important reasons why the improv form is
(32:50):
so great for that. I I can't wait to see
what what becomes of your two books and your UM
and all your other endeavors. Wayne, thank you so much
for your time. Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you, I really appreciate you. Thanks for doing some
(33:11):
active listening with Strictly Business today. Be sure to leave
us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear
from listeners, and be sure to tune in next week
for another episode of Strictly Business
Welcome to Strictly Business, Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Wayne Brady. You know him as the affable
host of Let's Make a Deal and the versatile cast
member of the improv competition series whose Line Is It Anyway?
(00:29):
Behind the scenes, Brady has big ambition. He wants to
use his improv training to help build a consulting business
with Mandy Takeda, his former wife who remains his business partner.
Brady sees the tenants of improv, active listening and an
openness to collaboration as a natural framework for coaching the
best out of executives and other leaders. He also has
(00:51):
a vision of improv centers that can help youth develop
self confidence and critical thinking skills. In our conversation, he
speaks from the heart about why he's driven to spread
the wisdom that comes from improv training. It's all coming
up in this Strictly Business conversation. Welcome back to Strictly Business.
(01:17):
Wayne Brady a multi hyphenit, if ever there was one
in the entertainment business. Thank you so much for joining
us today. Thank you so much for having me. I
was looking forward to this conversation. The thing I wanted
to start by talking with you today was I understand,
of course, you are a master of improv and have
been doing improv in various forms I know for decades.
(01:38):
Tell me, as I understand, of late, you have really
been putting some thought and putting some things down in
a more formal structure about how the tools, the skills
of improv, the creativity that it takes to be good
at improv, how those skills and tools might be applied
in other sectors for fun and profit. Tell us what,
(02:00):
tell us what you and Mandy are working on in
this area. Well, let me start off by saying that
that the use of improv and the corporate sector. I'm
not coming up with some you know, uh Um. I
didn't just hit this great motherload of gold and I'm
in the hills going look what I did. I founded Eureka.
It's been there. In fact, people were doing that when
(02:21):
I first started doing improv. In fact, I joined a
company called Sack Theater in the I want to say,
in the early nineties, and it was through sacked. UM,
I started to learn improv or or the formalized version
of what I think I've already been doing, and part
of what I learned from them at that point, they
were already doing corporate work for for Disney, doing t
(02:45):
building and showing how the the the principles of yes,
and you know that we can come into your business
and we can show you X, Y and Z that
will help your team work together baby better. And groups
like Second City and Io and and the Groundlings, They've
all had their various versions of it. So when I
(03:05):
say I feel that I have a methodology that will work,
it's really based on the methodology that I have put
into play for myself, the way that I have been
able to maneuver on stage using those tools, then to
work off stage using those same tools in a pitch meeting,
(03:27):
using those tools once I already have the job, using
those tools to help run a show, UM, going to
other businesses and saying okay, just like on stage, I
have a relationship with whomever I'm on stage with in
order to make make a successful improvisational scene work, and
(03:48):
if not even a scene like my one of my
specialties is being being able to make an improvisational music
piece work, which is basically jazz with your body, jazz
with your body and jazz with your mind, and and
being able to have the give and take to ebb
and flow, the the listening skills to be able to
(04:10):
take in everything that the person is saying as they're
taking it in process it not jumping the gun to
come to my own conclusions immediately and going this is
what the song is about, listening to what they say,
taking the pieces of it, going okay, I see what
you're going with, and and then we put the rules
into play up yes and yes. I like this line
(04:32):
of of of of you know, Boba Fett. It should
should stay out of the cantina because it's a Star
Wars scene. So that's great. Now I'm gonna take that yes,
but let's add this so on top of it in
order to do the yes. And I did listen to you.
I didn't come in with any preconceived notions. I didn't
(04:53):
block you by going no, no, no, this is better
Han Solo's mom. I walked into the no no, no,
I didn't do it. I took in everything that you said.
I'm going to take it, and I'm going to add
on to what you just gave me, and if we
keep doing this back and forth, by the time we
are finished, we should have an end product that sounds good,
(05:14):
that is incredibly funny, and that has kept the audience guessing,
but it satisfies them at the end of the day.
That's how I feel a business should run. Now, that's
in its most simplistic way, of course, when we know
there's so many things that goes in that that go
into making a successful business. But I think the one
(05:35):
thing that can be spoken of in a universal sense
is a boss, employees, product or services rendered. Those things
have to be done successfully in order for this business
to continue to operate. One of the things about a
business is when someone hears, oh you're you're a boss,
(05:55):
So all these people work for me, I pay them,
they should just do what the hell I said. That's
one way to do it. That's one way to have
a bunch of unhappy people rousing about you, you know,
next to the water cooler and and potentially not having
your workflow be as smooth as it could be. You
could lord over them and be a draconian boss, or
(06:16):
you could take the cue from improvisation and you recognize
that you have a team. You can take in various ideas.
You can say yes and to them. You don't have
to say yes, these are all the best ideas and
and this is what our company is going to do.
But you can make people feel that they've been listened to.
You can acknowledge that they've been listened to. And the
(06:39):
best thing about improvisation, unless you're doing a scene by yourself,
I'm very capable of walking on stage and doing an
hour and a half by myself. That's great, that's fun,
and it's a great parlor trick. But but you know,
when I have the most fun and when I think
I shine the most, it's just like on whose line
is in any way? Or when I'm on tour with
my best friend Nathan Mangum, when I'm playing, when I
(07:04):
when I can just play, when I take in your ideas,
I'm better in that show because my buddy Jonathan has
set me up. I'm better in that show than when
I'm spinning by myself and just just uh the the
center of attention and generating all of those ideas. There
(07:25):
are no checks and balances. So in a business sense,
what I'm what I would like to set is set
up is is well because there's so many things I
want to do with this. But in the first place,
be able to show showing a business setting, whether it's
your coworker or whether it's boss, to get to employee,
the yes and aspect, the listening aspect. That's a great
(07:46):
way to to up your productivity simply by listening. It
costs you nothing to just listen and make someone feel
like they've been heard. You take the same skill and
you give it to someone who may feel unimport like
their voice doesn't matter in that company. That's the that's
the weak link in your company chain, because that's the
(08:08):
person sending back at the machine going all I do
all damn day is pull this lever. They don't care
if a paper from one box, whatever, they don't care.
If that person thinks that I don't care, then they
don't care, and at some point mistakes will be made.
No one is invested in your scene or or in
(08:29):
your company, right, everyone of the team feel that they're
pulling the same way that that they're invested, that they
want to to work towards the same common goal of
finishing that scene or delivering a product or having having
uh aid and an effort made. How do you learn
how to be a good listener. It's a muscle. It
(08:52):
is an active muscle. I will say that. And if
you're not used to using that muscle, it's just like I,
I consider myself to be a socially awkward person, or
like you know, an interviewer will go, Wayne, you must
be a hoot at home, or they'll talk to my daughter.
(09:12):
Your dad must make you laugh all day long. She goes, No, absolutely,
because the person that I am when I'm not on stage,
the narrative that I've told myself since I was a
young child is I'm awkward when I'm dealing with more
than one person, and I don't UH on stage. I
(09:32):
have no problem taking in information, sitting on it for
a millisecond, and putting something out that uses the information
that comes in. I have no problem being open. I
think to be an active listener, the thing that we
need to do is to be open. So the narrative
that I tell myself in real life when I'm here
is I can't really talk to these people right now.
(09:55):
But no, I don't know, I don't don't I don't
want to go to this this event is because I'm
closing myself off, so I haven't any space to listen,
and I haven't any space to take anything in. So
that's even something in my personal life that I had
to learn to change that and to activate that. That's
why I say it's an active muscle. Wayne at home
(10:17):
has to actively practice let me hear you Okay, as
it's coming in, Wayne, I really need to talk about
the da da da da. Yes, I have to cogitate
and form something. But if if I take the extra
second to just take everything in before I'm ready to answer,
(10:38):
before I'm defensive, before I have to explain myself, before
I have to make my point, right, I have to
actively It's almost like the way that I pick picture
it is is I have to actually just keep my
hands down and and go okay mm hmm and really
(10:59):
hear you yeah and I and I cannot allow myself
to move into that relaxed space until I take it
in and I really and And that's the that's the
way that we can learn it. How do you learn
to be an active listener? You really have to listen.
(11:19):
You have to take in everything that person says, that
that other piece of the machinery that as they're saying, look,
I want to talk to you about something some now. Well,
and you know what if you're mad at me, well
I'm mad at you too. I mean, as soon as
you're doing this, this isn't happening. So just like on stage,
(11:41):
I have to do both. I have to take it
in and as it's in, I'm I'm taking it and
adding to it. That's the difference. Most people want to
take it in or not and just give You have
to take in, add give back. That's the one step
that that most of us miss. What do you want
(12:01):
to do with the kind of improv for business idea? Well,
there are a few things. I'm going to be writing
a book called called you know, making Ship Up, which
is which has been my brand for years. It was
the title of my Vegas show and and my other
production companies that um, because we really just that's all
(12:21):
that we ever do, you know, in business and in life,
we're all just making it up as we go along
and hoping that it's not a spectacular failure by the
time that our show is over. So so in terms
of writing, writing a book and laying out of course
and it and and it being a course where I
feel that it overlaps business, but it also at the
(12:44):
root of it, it overlaps our interpersonal relationships. Because in business,
just like in life and family, family and leisure, it's
our relationships that can propel you to success or that
can sink you. It's how you deal with the people
around you. It's how it's how you talk to people,
(13:08):
it's how you listen to people. It's how you make
the people around you feel. Talent in this business just
is not enough. It has to be talent mixed with
your relationships. And when I say relationships, I don't mean
what's the I'm trying to think of the proper term.
I don't mean mean me personally. I'm not a super network.
(13:32):
There are people that are amazing at that, and they
know everybody's phone numbers, and that's great. I'm not necessarily
talking about that. I'm talking about how do you make
the people around you feel so that when you leave
the impression that you've left behind that's out of your control.
But what is in your control is when you're in
(13:52):
the room. And I truly believe that the skills that
improv give you give you an upper hand when you're
in the room, and if someone doesn't like you at
the end of the day, they don't like you, you
keep it moving. But on the average, if you're able
to practice these skills, whether at home or or in business.
So so the first part of that is going to
be be the book, and the second piece, which I'm
(14:15):
very proud of, is I'm going to be starting my
own theater company slash school along the lines of an
io or a second city here in Los Angeles and
later one in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. And and
the basis of that. Recently, Mandy and I had a
show on a network called b y U t V
called Wayne Brady's Comedy I Q and and it was
(14:37):
kind of the pilot program for what I want to
work out in the real world, where where we took
teenagers from all over the US and we had them compete.
And we took these kids who were actors, singers. Some
of them had in prompt training, some of them had
sketch training, but most of them were at at the
very basic level for that. And I said, I'm gonna
(15:00):
teach you these rules. Not not only are these my
rules for on stage, but these are my performance rules
for in life. And I'm going to teach you these
rules and whatever you do with them, let's see if
they enhance your skills. I can't teach you be funny,
but I can teach you the rules. Improv only works
in in a grid or in a framework to it
(15:22):
to hang it on the shows a success and using that. Now,
I'm going to start doing the schools where I'm going
to be teaching adult classes, um teaching sketch, improv, the
these rules, putting, putting together a corporate sector that that
will go into businesses and and consult I'll also have
(15:43):
an advertising wing. Some of the best ideas come from
the people who are fast on their feet and being
able to go into these companies and come up with
with ads for for them, showing them how to think
less critically sometimes times and more creatively. And then the
third piece of that is it will also be a
(16:04):
school for teenagers to to be able to help them
take the skill into adulthood and go into certain neighborhoods
like a South Central, like a Watts, places where people
that look like me, where these kids that look like
me haven't haven't been taught the skills that I was
(16:24):
able to take in terms of improvisation and character building.
And someone might might look at it from a distance
and go, well, why do they need that? Well, I
tell you why. If someone can stand in front of
a crowd and have a conversation and feel confident in
who they are using the skills of uh if I
(16:45):
can listen to you and I can tell you clearly
and exactly who I am, and not only can I
think critically, but I can think creatively and fast. You're
you are prepping them for a life on stage, You're
prepping them for a life that Those are life skills,
and I wish that I would have had someone to
(17:05):
help me with those when I was younger. I I
think everything worked out well for me, but the but,
the but, the crushing self doubt, the the lack of
sense of self that I had growing up until I
found these skills. I want to impart them earlier. And
(17:29):
so that's the dream, that's the rollout, and all of
this is we are starting now. We have hit the
ground running, and I'm hoping to have the first first
company up in in less than a year. We'll take
a pause here and be back with more from Wayne
Brady and we're back with Wayne Brady. As you're talking.
(17:57):
What's also great about this is that improved this kind
of creativity. It's the same with writing, you know, with
that rudimentary it's a it's a great leveler. You don't
have to have an arm like a cannon, you don't
have to be built like a linebacker to All you
need is just to spark that spark, that creative, creative gene.
(18:18):
And I've also heard other actors say that that kind
of this kind of work also helps with rejection, because
there is a lot of rejection in the entertainment business.
And when you realize that, you know you're looking at
one of you could go any direction in any split
second decision, and you go this way, and you know,
you kind of come to know that you know there
(18:40):
were many paths, and maybe maybe one path might have
been more successful, but it was your choice, and it
was your choice in the moment in a way that
in a way that I think that can help people,
and I can, I can, I can really see an
application here for teenagers for all the reasons you said,
to be able to stand up and speak articulately. And
(19:00):
although this sounds like a cliche. Truly find your voice
in a in a setting of where people come together
and agree. You know, there's not gonna be any stupid choices.
There's not going to be there's such an ethos of
all the actors that have been involved in this, there's
there's also it seems like a very healthy ethos around
the around the improv community. Absolutely, and and I think
(19:24):
some something that it also helps teach is accountability m
because when you're on stage and you have to make
a choice. One of the things that was drilled into
me when when I was learning was in theater sports,
which is another improv type thing that I was involved in.
(19:45):
UM it's an improv competition and I and I got
involved in Orlando, but also did it out here in
Los Angeles. UM is one of the rule rules is
no waffling. And the waffling was you've got to make
a decision. It's especially in that split second. You've got
to make a decision, and you know what, sometimes it
(20:05):
will not be the best decision, but you've got to
pick a course and go with it as opposed to well,
I mean, I guess I can do that. And oh
and in the world of business, just like in real world,
you have to make decisions sometimes. And the reason that
it teaches accountability is because if if I'm on stage
and and I decide, guys, I'm taking the scene in
(20:28):
this in this direction, Let's say the scene tanks. Okay, fine,
when we get off stage, I'm not gonna turn around
and go why didn't you guys back me up? You
guys sucked? Why did you do Why did you know?
I made that choice. You guys made the choice to
yes and me and go with me. But I made
(20:50):
the choice to do this thing. I stick by that,
and I had no chance in the moment to back
off from it. I had to commit to that choice
and go and And there are so many situations in
business where instead of just passing the buck, instead of
just going, oh, well, I don't want to do it,
I'll give it to Johnson teaching that if you can
(21:12):
make a choice knowing that someone's got your back, that
the rest of your team has yes handed you, and
they have had your back you, you can make a
clear and decisive choice, and you can be accountable to
that choice whether it pans out or whether it does not.
And if it doesn't, what are you gonna do when
it doesn't no time to sit, because when we're on stage,
(21:34):
we have to go, oh, you didn't get a laugh
with that thing, Okay, I've got something else. Or from
an on in an audition and they tell me to pivot, okay, cool. Um,
I can do this voice, or I can make this choice,
or I can give you an eighty seven year old man.
What I can be a little blonde girl from from Malibu.
Whatever you need right now, Wayne Brady can do that
(21:56):
for you right now before I leave this room. That's
the type of thing that that you have to have.
And all of those come from that grid of improv
and there's a there's a sense of you gotta be game,
and that is for sure, it's business. You gotta be
game to be on that you know, to get out
there on the stage. Tell me how young Wayne Brady,
(22:18):
growing up in Orlando, Florida, got interested in improv and performing.
Young Wayne Brady started performing when he was sixteen. Um
sixty fifteen ish Um. I was a junior in high
school and I had a moment like fame. I'd always
(22:38):
fantasized in my head about being a performer, but in
my household, I was raised by my by my grandmother
and grandfather who are from the Virgin Islands, very strict
island upbringing. It was all about school and manners and
how you present yourself topped off on top of my
father was in the military, so I was rayed with
(23:00):
a military work ethos. So it was all about you
keep you keep your head down and you do what
you're told, and you don't talk out, you don't disrespect people.
You keep your mouth shut unless you're spoken to when
you go. So none of that is very conducive towards
the arts. So I harbored any love that I had
(23:23):
for any of that stuff. I kept it to myself.
Home from school, I would go in my room, I
would close close the door, and I had a little
black and white TV. And I watched a lot of
PBS because one of the only channels that that I got,
and PVS. I watched a lot of old specials. I
watched Sammy Davis Jr. In the rat Pack. I always
wanted to be like Sammy. I was old sketch shows.
(23:43):
I'm talking old old um like uh Ernie Kovacs, the show,
the Show of Shows, Sids Caesar. I would see British
sketch shows, uh, Benny Hill, Monty Python, the Goodies. I
would see old black and white movies with Sydney Poitier,
the old MGM musicals. Um. So I grew up having
(24:07):
this foundation of if only I can do any of
those things, or or I could sing and dance like
in West Side Story or in Black and Blue and
and um. But I kept that to myself until my
junior year, where as an elective, I was able to
take theater and I got a part in the school
play because one of my r OTC brothers he dropped
(24:31):
out of the school play and I had to play
it off. He's like, hey, guys, um, I'm gonna drop
out of this play because I've got a crew tournament. Uh.
It shows you what kind of school I was in,
because we had a crew team. He said, we've got
a crew tournament. Does somebody want to take over? I've
got like two lines or something, and everyone's like no, man,
players are stupid. And then I say, yeah, um, you
(24:55):
know what, I'll do it. It'll be so funny because
I'll be making fun of him super the theater geeks, right, yeah,
all right, Like oh my god, I did to be
on stage. So I walked in and it was like
fame and so these kids laughing, talking, dancing on top
(25:15):
of the piano. Everyone's doing voices, and it was the
happiest that I'd been in all of my years up
to that point in school. And I met my tribe,
I met my people, and I fell in love, and
I dropped RTC after two years in Of course, we
have to have a family talk about that, because we
(25:36):
all thought that I was going to be in the
military and go in as an officer. It happened the
only time that I want to hold a gun in
marches if you're paying me to do it on TV. UM.
So that's how I got started. And about two years later,
uh after I graduated, I met a woman named Claire
(25:57):
Sarah who now was a successful screenwriter and runs a
program called Right Girl. Sure. Yeah, So Claire Claire was
my mentor. Got me started an improv and she said,
you're really funny, because I did and I did a
did a did an industrial film with her, and of
course I was a young whipper snapper and and she said, oh,
(26:19):
that's so cute, and pad me on my head and said, hey,
I'm married. And be you're you're you're funny. You want
to come and take class from my husband and I.
We do a proversations. I said, a provisation. What's that?
She goes, it's it's theater that that we make up
right then on the spot when oh, like when I'm
playing make Believe in my room, which is weird for
a for a twenty year old to say, but then, uh,
(26:42):
my life has changed forever. And I got involved with
Zack Theater and then seven of us moved out to
Los Angeles a couple of years later, and we formed
a group called the House Full of Punkys and we
played shows all around town and we started doing a
regular show with the ACME over on the Bray or
the Old act Me first of course, and we got
best best improv comedy group in l A. And we
(27:05):
got the interest of the producers of Whose line is
it any Way? And when they were holding the auditions,
we auditioned, and when the smoke cleared, I had the
job and changed my life forever. I know that you
and Mandy also, do you also have some content production going?
Tell tell us about what you're working on in that space.
I'm so excited about it. It's it's uh the move
(27:28):
I think that you make when your desire is to
not just be the guy they pay, but the person
who one day becomes the one who pays others. And
and to create jobs, to create opportunities, to create a space.
So Mandy and I our company a Wayne and Mandy Creative.
Our mission is to create product and entertainment that not
(27:53):
just makes you laugh or makes you feel something, but
moves the needle and I feel. And I can't speak
for anyone else because I can only speak for Wayne.
And now we are heading into a world where entertainment
(28:13):
is more important than ever. And I'm not overvaluing it
because Lord knows, there are people doing jobs that are
so important. But I mean entertainment because so much of
what happens in the culture, in the zeitgeist, is pushed
from entertainment. We get our our escapism from entertainment. He
(28:38):
sometimes get our news from entertainment, like Stephen Colbert and
Trevor Noah. You get intelligent news from comedic sources because
the jesters, since since the days of the Kings, were
the ones that brain bring the bad news and sometimes
talk the king down from from chopping someone's head off job.
So instead of put hang out negative things into a
(29:02):
world that is already filled to the brim with negativity,
we wanted to be able to help and move the needle,
whether it's with race, whether it's with talking the gender
space and sexuality, UM to be able to have have
those thoughts. So we have a few shows. We have
a show with Jerry Bruckheimer that's in development for CBS
(29:24):
All Access now Paramount plus UM called UM called Barstow,
a f about a young gay Polynesian kid who leaves
leaves Hawaii and comes to Barstow, California, and then to
Barstow it is. It is that would be quite a
culture shock from Hawaii. Get it, and he has to
(29:45):
change everything about himself. He has to completely take that
light and put it under a bushel and become a
different dude during the day. But then in his mind
we get to see how fabulous he is. And there's
a bunch of story story connected with it. But but
that's something that we am sold sold with je Bruckheimer UM.
(30:05):
We also have a novel that is in development right
now with a producer called Tommy Lynch by an author
named April Daniels um called called Dreadnot, which is about
a trans superhero. So not only does this young hero
have to navigate this change within themselves, but then it's
(30:30):
for the world to see as they're trying to protect
us from all these uh world crushing um you know,
the same things that Superman Man would deal with, except
this person is dealing with with a great change within
them them themselves and how a super identity plays with
the idea of the Clark Kent nature, uh identity? Who
(30:54):
am I? Who? Who do I want you to see
me as? And how does the world accept that person?
And we and and what I love about April in
the book is it is it's a great superhero book,
which I'm a superhero geek um um, I love it.
But it also is a commentary on how we treat
and how the world has treated those that they look
at as other, whether it be black, white, trans, gay, lesbian,
(31:18):
anything that doesn't fit the status quo. So that's in
development right now. Um and uh. We have a sitcom
based on our life at c at CBS right now
about a blended family of myself, my ex wife who
is Asian and Caucasian, and me being black, our daughter
(31:39):
being mixed race, and Mandy's boyfriend being mixed race, and
all of us being one family, and what are the
conversations that happened with that? So everything that we're doing
has an agenda. What you're gonna have fun? While we
pushed the agenda forward and nobody would. We would all
forgive you if you call, if you gave it the
working title the Brady Bunch, which thank you for the forgiveness.
(32:03):
But just know that I shall never commit that crime.
Those of Sherwood Schwartz will come. I'm sorry, Mr Schlwretz. No, no, no,
I promise it will happen, will be Brady. But my goodness,
well it sounds like quite a bit going on under
the under the Brady umbrella these days. Thank you so
much for taking the time to talk with us. I
(32:25):
will absolutely look for your book because I can tell you,
in my line of work, I'm still working on being
a better listener. In my line of work, as the
as a mother, as a partner to there, there is
no greater skill than being able to truly listen and
have that empathy. And I think you really talked us
through really really important reasons why the improv form is
(32:50):
so great for that. I I can't wait to see
what what becomes of your two books and your UM
and all your other endeavors. Wayne, thank you so much
for your time. Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you, I really appreciate you. Thanks for doing some
(33:11):
active listening with Strictly Business today. Be sure to leave
us a review at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear
from listeners, and be sure to tune in next week
for another episode of Strictly Business
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