Wayne Brady is best known for making people laugh, first on Whose Line is it Anyway? and
then on Let's Make a Deal.
He's the guy you'd love to invite over for dinner, and one of the few comedians you'd
feel completely comfortable introducing to your grandparents.
That's all just a performance, though.
Here's a look at the double life of Wayne Brady.
He's struggled with depression
“I was there by myself in my bedroom and had a complete breakdown.”
Anyone who has struggled with depression can relate to the surprise revelation that the
seemingly upbeat and cheerful Brady also has his dark moments, which came to a head on
his 42nd birthday.
“Just go ahead and imagine for yourself, just a brother in his underwear, in his room,
crying, you got snot, and on that birthday was the beginning of, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta
make a change.’”
He was also deeply impacted by the suicide of friend and fellow comedian Robin Williams
in 2014, and just a year later, filmed a public service announcement to help break down the
stigma about discussing mental illness.
“There’s nothing like being able to shine a light on those secrets.
Those secrets kill.”
Social anxiety gave him a stuttering problem
Being a comedian means a lot of the time you're expected to depend on a quick wit, and Brady
took that to all new heights on the improv show Whose Line is it Anyway?.
Known not just for delivering spur-of-the-moment lines, he was a show favorite for his seemingly
effortless ability to come up with song lyrics about anything and everything, in any style
imaginable.
“Oh yeah mami’s chocolate, what you want a bite.
Get down!"
But when he was a child, he developed such strong social anxiety due to bullying that
he developed a stuttering problem that stilled his quick tongue.
“I had a stutter for a year or so because of social anxiety.
And I was bullied as a kid.
You know like a lot of kids are bullied.
And I felt I couldn’t speak, it was that feeling of, well nothing I say will be met
with open ears.
Everyone’s gonna laugh at every word that comes out of my mouth.”
He's not a fan of his squeaky-clean image
Brady has something of a squeaky-clean reputation, usually keeping his professional work somewhere
between PG and PG-13 at the worst.
“Kind of like, ‘Oh, that’s the clean black guy.’
And that pisses me off to no end because, because when you generalize or when you...it’s
just easy sometimes for folks to go ‘Oh, that’s what you are.’
You don’t know me.”
But he's not a fan of that image at all.
In the spirit of debunking just how squeaky-clean he can be, Brady made a legendary appearance
on Chappelle's Show in 2004:
“Oh, Racquel?
What’s this?
Mr. Franklin’s lonely.
This…he’s...there’s only...”
“Sorry daddy.”
“What...what do you mean, what do you mean ‘Sorry daddy?’
What..wh...what’n the hell you...is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?”
Mission accomplished, Wayne!
He's not afraid to call someone out
Brady might have a clean reputation, but he's absolutely not afraid to call someone out
for an injustice.
Take his feud with Bill Maher, for example.
Over the years, Maher has repeatedly and negatively compared President Barack Obama to Wayne Brady,
saying at one point,
"I thought when we elected the first black president, as a comedian, I thought that two
years in that I'd be making jokes what a 'gangsta' he was.
You know.
And not that he's President Wayne Brady, you know, I thought we were getting Suge Knight."
Brady responded that if Maher thought violence was the sum total of the black experience,
he'd be happy to deliver on Maher's stereotype.
“The black dude in his mind is the stereotypical, you know, ‘Yeah, what?’
Yeah, you know, that, that dude.”
“Right.”
“That guy exists.
But that’s not the range of the black experience, but let’s say that that’s the black dude...so
then when I meet you, when I talk to you again, I’ll give you that black dude, and I will
beat your ass in public.”
Or, in other words…
“Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?”
Honestly, he seems kind of awesome
Like Brady himself says, it's easy to condense someone into a compartmentalized version of
themselves, and to assume that the persona you see them adopting on their television
shows is who they are.
But it's clear that Brady is a lot more than the characters he plays or the jokes he makes.
He's a thoughtful, brave man who isn't afraid to publicly speak his mind when he thinks
something needs to be said, whether it's about depression, bullying, or racism.
And heck, he was even nominated for a Grammy for his R&B album.
Bet you didn't know that either!
So keep on doing your thing, Wayne Brady!
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