Shawn Wayans brings his stand- up act back to Improv in Schaumburg
Considering that Shawn Wayans is spending this year’s long Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago ( appearing at The Improv in Schaumburg, Friday through Sunday), the comedian and actor understandably thinks about food.
“Of course, since Chicago is such a great food town, I knew I’d be very well fed over this Thanksgiving period. But when it comes to that holiday, I always immediately flash back to when we were kids in New York,” said Wayans.
“Since we grew up in the projects, our fridge was not all that full — most of the year,” Wayans continued. “But right before Thanksgiving, that always changed. It was the one time of the year when that fridge was full! My little brother and me would always keep peeking in the fridge, looking at all the pies and egg nog and stuff, just because we couldn’t believe how much food my Mom crammed in there,” said Wayans, with a laugh.
“… While Thanksgiving was great, for the next three weeks we’d be eating nothing but leftovers. My Mom would come up with some crazy recipes for how to use everything up. We’d start with normal stuff like turkey Tetrazzini or sliced turkey sandwiches, but then it would go on and on. There’d be some kind of strange turkey stew, weird turkey mac and cheese, sweet potatoes repurposed into very unusual kinds of casseroles, too. ”
The entertainer noted that his experiences growing up without a great deal of advantages, “did teach me something important I carry with me to today: Absolutely never to waste food, especially since you know there are lots of people who don’t have much — and there’s many people going hungry in our world today.”
As for his stand- up act, Wayans said he finds a lot of “funny, funny, funny things that happen in my life and the world to comment on in my show. It doesn’t take much to look out in the world in general to find funny stuff — and there’s lots more beyond Donald Trump! The world is so crazy today, so that gives us comedians a lot to work with.”
Wayans noted that the secret behind why he and his brothers work so well together, “really dates back to our Mom. She never let us fight, or at least tried to keep that from happening. She always immediately made us make up when we did fight as kids. Sometimes, if she thought we were about to go at it — telling us that if we did fight, she’d force us to make up by kissing each other on the mouth! Since none of us EVER wanted to kiss our brothers on the mouth, it was a great barrier to fighting amongst us kids!”
One of the more successful joint projects created by the Wayans brothers — Keenan Ivory and Marlon — were the two “Scary Movie” projects. Asked if a third is in the offing, Shawn said, “I doubt it. … That doesn’t mean the end of our parody [ films] run. It’s just I think we’re done with that particular franchise.”
Wayans also noted his fondness for performing stand- up in Chicago. “Thanks to Second City and all the other great comedy venues — which existed here long before they did in many places outside of New York City — Chicago audiences have a very sharp comedy sense. Chicago audiences get it. They are pretty sophisticated about comedy. They have it together, big time. In your town, its sports and comedy — and Chicago people get both things really well.”