Respect Your Kids’ Choices with Damon and Marlon Wayans

I wear this baseball hat and suit because of my dad.

I used to laugh at him.

We used to laugh at him because he would wear a suit with a baseball hat, like a Mommy hat.

Right?

He had all the hats from our shows, and he would like wear them because he was proud of us.

And so that's why I wear this in honor of my dad.

And I wear my mother's underwear because

You had me there.

I just fell right into that.

This episode is brought to you by Pinesal and Chase Home Lindy.

Hello.

Hey, Smoothie Smooth.

How you doing?

I just want to touch this.

You like that?

It's like, ooh, is that butter?

Is that pleather?

No, it's leather.

Did Kelly pick that out?

Kelly did pick this up.

It goes with my nails.

She always finds a way to, you know make it work i know yeah

yeah so so what's happening what's happening not much not much we're back out here in law i'm staying at at an airbnb as you know i like to do that now yeah yeah you're a regular i am i am i'm really enjoying this one this is another guest favorite what what's a guest favorite a guest favorite is the is a is a

house or property that the

people who visit market as a guest favorite.

They favorite it after they, when they do their survey.

It's rated.

It's rated.

Okay.

It's rated a guest favorite.

I get it.

So it's their rating.

So it's high on the list.

It's high on the list.

And I only stay in guest favorites no matter where I go.

But the best part about it, the two things that I like about this one.

Laundry.

I can do my laundry.

So I

got to wash your socks.

I got to wash out my good lucky socks.

And then the kitchen,

kitchen, I can, you know, I can do my workout in the morning and fix myself breakfast.

Don't have to go in there.

No, I'm making yourself breakfast.

I am making breakfast.

What did you have for breakfast today?

Where's Paris?

Paris saw my breakfast.

I had

fruit.

That's not making anything.

Eggs.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Bacon.

You made bacon.

I made, well, I made bacon Sunday.

I did.

Why would I make bacon?

What do you mean you made bacon Sunday?

What do you mean?

What?

I made bacon on Sunday for the whole week.

That's what I did.

You carry

old bacon around?

I don't care.

It's in the refrigerator.

I'm at an Airbnb.

It's in the refrigerator.

But it's pre-cooked.

What do you think?

I pre-cooked it.

It's bacon.

Okay.

Like you get from the store.

I'm just confused.

She can't.

You know why she can't?

You can't believe it is because you don't have to cook any bacon in it.

No, I don't.

And I'm not.

And I'm not ashamed.

Bacon.

How do you cook?

How do you have bacon?

You carry bacon.

I cooked bacon on Sunday, but anyway.

I cooked it on Sunday.

All right.

So I had bacon,

everything bagel, toasted

two soft-boiled eggs.

Okay.

And fruit.

All right.

And I would have had

a banana, but we were running a little bit late this morning.

And you just couldn't squeeze the banana.

You couldn't squeeze it in.

So I just brought it with me.

Well, that's good.

I'm glad.

I'm glad you had a balanced breakfast and you're ready to go.

I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to go.

Thank you, Airbnb, for giving my brother a guest favored with a kitchen.

Well, I'm so so excited today because we have

some favorites of ours that

we are getting to meet for the first time.

I can't believe that in all these years, we haven't met any of the Wayans.

There's so many of them.

I would have thought at some point, you just run into somebody on the street,

run into somebody in the motorcade.

Exactly.

It's like, was that a Wayans that got hit by the motorcycle?

I think that was one of the Wayans.

Because there's so many of them.

There's so many of them.

But, you know, given all the White House parties you've had, I'm surprised that they didn't just show up at one or two.

Well, that would be hard to do, you know, yeah, because they're West Coast guys, you got to make up for that, yeah.

Well, for that, but let me let me let me do my intros here.

So, we we have Damon and Marlon Wayans joining us, folks.

I'm so excited to talk to him, and I'm almost giggling already and

I haven't even heard heard him say anything yet.

But Damon Wayans Sr., because there is a Damon Wayans Jr., yes, we we all know that.

Is a legendary comedian, actor, writer, and producer with decades in the entertainment industry.

Decades.

That makes him sound as old as I am.

I know, I know.

He rose to fame on In Living Color, which was one of our favorite shows.

We used to watch that and crack up.

And he later starred in and co-created.

My wife and kids.

Now, our kids love that show.

You know, Malia and they are back up on that.

Like it just happened, you know, like they discovered the son.

I know, I know, and you can watch him now on Papa's House airing on CBS.

And along with Damon, is his younger brother, Marlon Wayans,

actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director.

He's currently on the road for his wild child tour,

which will culminate in his fifth stand-up special.

After 20 years, Marlon is reuniting with his brothers Keenan and Sean Wayans to write and produce a scary movie reboot,

which is set for release June 12th, 2026.

So I have so much more to say, but why don't we bring them out so we can say it to them?

Come on out, guys.

So good to see you there.

And everybody is color coordinated.

We appreciate you.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me.

You're welcome, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome to IMO.

IMO.

Where I get to work with my brother, which is also why this is kind of

really,

there we go.

Any advice as I embark on an endeavor with a sibling?

Just enjoy the ride.

Yeah.

And the siblings.

Says the older sibling.

You know what I'm saying?

Says the bully.

Yeah.

Well, you know, somebody got to put you a check.

And that's my job.

But,

you know,

it's a privilege to work with family.

Yeah.

You know, and especially when you get along.

You know what I mean?

You guys, this chemistry is palpable.

Well, you know, you could just tell that y'all love each other, and then what's the problem?

And you spend so much time at work that sometimes, you know, life can pass you by.

So if you're working with family, you're actually living and doing your work at the same time.

So it's actually, you're doing a two-for-one, and it's really a blessing to do what you love with who you love.

True dad, oh, wow, wow.

That comes across.

I mean,

it really does.

And all these true dad,

there's some wisdom right there wisdom right there you had a little special sauce but it's but you but you were surprised from it coming from the young fella

hey hey like really

oh he the old brother yeah yeah no i although

that did she no because here's the thing it's different when you're a little brother A little sister really is, they're always going to be the big sister.

Yes.

Because women have this thing where they just, you got to respect and put they put you in their place.

There you go.

Creech, brother.

You know who the bully in the family is?

I am not.

I don't give a vibe.

They both look at the bottom.

She ain't gonna be pinching me on the new piece of table.

No, but I think also allow yourself the space to be individuals.

And just

we're all different.

I always tell my brothers, they you got to do this this way.

No, you got to do it.

And I'm just like, no, I don't want to do it that way.

I want to do it my way.

The dumb way.

You want to do it the dumb way.

But that's smaller way.

Dumb way.

He said later, I just keep failing until I figure it out.

Yeah, that's so stupid.

Why don't you listen and have success?

Because I would be doing my success.

I got to find my success.

There you go.

There you go.

See, that's spoken like a little

sibling.

Yeah.

You know, it's like

you can't show us the way.

We got to run into the wall on our own.

Well, you talk about,

let's talk about your sisters.

Yes.

right?

Because everybody knows the brothers, but right, tell me about well, we know Kim.

I mean, I think that's the only sister I have seen out in the world, but you got a bunch of them because it's a lot of y'all, yeah.

There's uh, we have five sisters, um, they're all so talented, so like brother,

really, yeah, you hang around, and then all they do is crack jokes of Vyron, Devon, and you know, and and they're funny, but

you know, to do what you do on us in some ways, because they could just say they can't get canceled.

So they just

unfiltered.

So they tell them that

they're not in the business, though, right?

They're just funny people.

I don't think they can handle the rejection that comes with, you know,

like going on stage.

The thing about doing stand-up is you're not funny until you're funny.

And it takes, you got to put in 10,000 hours to figure out what's not funny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you got to, you got to want fame, you know, like you, that's a 24-hour job.

I don't get the clock out.

I think being a mother is hard enough, and especially a lot of times being a single mother.

Yeah.

So, you know, the fact that they were young and they raised their kids and, you know, we as uncles assisted.

But, you know, I'm proud of my sisters for the, you know, being great mothers and really loving their children and they're in the industry.

You guys had a lot of strong women.

You had your mother, you had your sisters.

How do you think that's made you better people, better men?

I had an aunt.

She just passed in uh february and she

wasn't my favorite you know you're supposed to have favorites but she told all my brothers and sisters damon's my favorite yeah and like was not ashamed to say it and you know being born with a club foot it's like god gave me somebody

And it's powerful to have somebody that loves you unconditionally.

And I would get in trouble and school and, you know, with the law.

And my aunt never said said nothing to me and i recently asked her marriage why you never like check me because i seen you check your own kids she said well

it's your mama's job to beat you

my job is to love you yeah

and i think it's so powerful to have that person in your life and that's who she's it helps well now that i know that you was her favorite i want to take back that song that she and i bought

well

don't worry marlon he was my mother's favorite

being the favorite.

Yeah, it's rough.

It's my mom's favorite.

Oh, but my mama lied to all of us.

She was like, you my favorite.

You my favorite.

Keenan, you my favorites.

We were all her favorites, and we all felt at some point we were all her baby.

But I know

I was her favorite.

I was born on my mama's birthday.

So we had a special bond.

We would fight.

Me and my mom, we'd argue with each other.

But that's sometimes, you know, we fight, but we always make up.

Yeah.

He never had a birthday.

Like, it was always about my mother.

Oh, yeah.

And so when she finally died, then he had a birthday and it was the saddest birthday.

You know?

Dang.

A lonely couple.

You got what you wanted.

You wanted a birthday.

And here you go.

Here you go.

Well, tell us more about

your upbringing because having so many siblings be so talented is, I mean, it's just the two of us.

So

this is all who we could play with

the two of us the greatest things

that we have is each other and like i don't have a lot of friends marlin has a lot of friends kim has a lot of friends what's the matter with you damon um

i don't know

what i mean he calls me crazy

it's like what really touch people

and ridiculed and you know so friends have kind of turned on me so i have his friends yeah they're my friends and you know i'm friends with them because they're vetted.

You know what I mean?

And as long as he loves them, I love them.

Yeah.

When he stopped loving them, I don't have to feel nothing.

It's like, we're done with her.

Like, let me go on and get my coffee.

But I think we all get along.

My mother made sure that we all played together.

You know, made sure that when we argue, she'll go kiss in the mouth.

When we argue, my mother go, gone, kiss him in the mouth.

And Sean's breath was weird.

So I decided to just get along along with him no matter what.

You know, Kelly did that with our kids, my wife, made your youngest two, our youngest, and you're gonna have to be familiar with me.

You never told me that story, but that's because they don't ever fight because they don't want to kiss each other on the mouth.

I saw the funniest thing online: uh, there were two kids that was fighting, and their mother made the two boys hug, and they sang they had to sing the Wayans Brothers theme song.

It's like, we're brothers, we're happy, and we're singing, and we're colored.

I thought that was was so cute.

That's so sweet.

They're so sweet.

Do you guys have fist fights?

Not with each other.

No, I mean, my brother would cave my chest then, but that wasn't a fight.

Just one punch.

That one was the one.

I used to do that in his back, you know, because I was little.

Just one of these hard kinds of you could hear the echo in his back.

Just like,

you know, yeah,

yeah, we couldn't fist fight because then you had to fight my father.

And yeah, yeah, he didn't.

My father just didn't.

He was like a guy who would, you know, send a message to all of you and you don't want to be the example.

Yeah.

You know, you don't.

So, yeah, we didn't, it was not.

We didn't fight each other, but

we jumped people.

My mother always said, you know, four fists beat two any day.

If you get in a fight, that means you getting in a fight.

Nobody fight alone.

So

we got in a fight.

You know, I mean, maybe he would be kicking people.

That reminds me of a time.

I don't know if you knew this because we, you know, close in age, went to the grammar school around the corner.

And, you know, this is how close we were.

You know,

Craig was always a popular kid because he was a sports kid, did all the stuff.

But at Bryn Mawr, I was coming out of school at the end of the day.

And for some reason, people came up and said, your brother's in a fight.

Your brother's in a fight.

They're geeking his ass.

They're beating his ass.

And I was always that tough girl.

But the thought, like the image of you being beat up, I broke down, you know, because I'm, I was just envisioning you getting hit by some guys.

And I, I don't know if I told you that, but I was like hysterical.

And then you found out on the playground that I was hysterical and you came over and you said, it was just a joke.

Nothing really happened.

Yes.

But I always thought I would be able to just, you know, thug up.

But just the thought of him being hurt, I was like, I was surprised at myself, even though as a little girl, I was like, get it together, get it together.

But I couldn't.

I remember that.

I remember that.

And it was one of those things where your friends are like joking around.

So

everybody was the victim at some point where all of us kind of jumped them, but we weren't, they're not real punches.

And she was so upset.

And

I do remember that.

And then I became upset because you were upset.

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You know, it's funny is we didn't, I didn't go get my brothers when I got defense.

I would get my sisters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My sisters was vicious.

Devon, yeah.

Devon, one time, this kid, Baldy Joe, was beating me up, and he was like a 16-year-old kid.

And my sister had corn rolls.

She was about 250 pounds.

She said, Come here.

And she grabbed him by his arms like this.

And she said, Marlon, punch him in the face.

I was like, Devon, he's going to beat me.

She said, if you don't punch him, I'm going to punch you.

I was like, bow.

And, you know, my sisters always, always have my back in that.

I didn't get my brother because that's lucky Keenan get beat up

like badly like so Keenan used to walk around in kung fu slippers like he he watch he was just the

Jim Kelly

and he loved he had noon chucks he would have like he and he was really good he would kick the ceiling and then one day he got into a fight with this dude Bobby Boyd in the in the building, in the lobby of the building.

And Keenan, you know, everybody's like, Oh, snap!

Yeah, yeah, and Keenan went to take off his shirt,

oh man, and the dude snatched him

on his hands and just pummeled him.

And, like, Keenan was on the floor, oh no, and there was like blood seeping through his shirt.

And I'm like, get up, Keenan, use your noob just

untangle your knees from your shirt.

Oh, no, This guy's fucked up.

If you do, make sure you take your shirt off.

It's like, oh, man, that Bruce Lee didn't warn you about that.

Don't lock yourself up in your shirt.

You know?

Oh, man.

Bruce Lee didn't wear pullovers.

When I think of you guys, you know, when I hear about your background, all of y'all living

in two rooms, you know, it reminds

me of how we grew up.

I mean, it was just the two of us.

That's the only reason, you know, there wasn't that we felt like we had more space.

But we grew up sharing a room until he went to high school.

And then our parents turned the back porch into a bedroom so he could have his own room because they thought, well, you know, this grown Negro needs to have his own room.

But, you know, our childhood was like yours.

No money, a lot of love, good values.

Yes.

Humor.

Yes.

A lot of laughter.

Government cheese.

Yeah.

You know, never government cheese because my father had a good city job.

Right.

And I think that was the only reason.

And there were two of us.

Probably if there had been 10 of us, government cheese would have been involved, you know.

But there isn't a day that goes by that I don't

think about the values our parents instilled.

And, you know, we just lost our mother last year.

Wow.

You know, and it's like,

you know, you never stop grieving that.

I mean, I still can't even talk about her or my dad without, you know, losing it, which is a tough thing to do when you're speaking in front of a thousand people.

And it's like,

I know.

But there are just a lot of phrases and words that go through my mind

every day that they instilled.

And I'm just wondering, you must have some of those.

I live my parents.

Yeah.

I live them like with my everyday effort.

I try to honor my parents

when it comes to loving my siblings.

As they're all so different and it's a lot.

But I make sure because I know my mother would want that.

I know my father would want that.

And so I try to honor them with my actions.

I try to honor them as a good father, as a good uncle, with my nephews and my nieces.

And it's always an open door and to honor them with love and to be an example.

You know, that's why I don't go to parties and things like I used to, you know, because I know I have grown kids.

My grown kids are looking looking at me to be an example.

So, and then I have to, I'm the linchpin between

our generation and their generation.

So, as the baby, I'm the oldest of these, this next generation.

So, I have to instill all that my parents governed us and instill that into them.

And I think one of the greatest things my father ever did was: besides the fear of him, he gave us the fear of God.

And

I think that helped us a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I

wear this baseball hat and suit because of my dad.

I used to laugh at him.

We used to laugh at him because he would wear a suit with a baseball hat, like a Momently hat.

Right?

He had all the hats from our shows, and he would like wear them because he was proud of us.

And so that's why I wear this in honor of my dad.

And I wear my mother's underwear because, no,

you had me there.

I was just going right into that.

When you guys first started out, did you have real jobs or did you, because your older brothers were already in the business, you went straight there?

I'm sure you had to have a mine.

I've been working since I was seven years old.

So that makes me wonder where, you know,

a lot of black families would be like, entertainment, you know, you know,

you got to go get a job.

What was it about your parents that they were so encouraging?

Those are my parents.

Okay,

they were black parents.

What you mean entertainment?

You ain't never been entertaining and I know you my whole life.

Keenan

was like, I'm going to pursue my dreams.

I'm not going to pursue your dreams.

Yeah.

I'm going to pursue my dream.

And, and, and that took a lot of courage.

And I remember when he did it.

And I remember the impact it had on me as a kid.

And it's funny,

as a man, Keenan still wants me to now do his dream.

I'm like, no, I want to do my dream like you did your dream.

But that was very powerful and impactful for our family.

Was Keenan kind of as the eldest, as really kind of father-like because of the age

difference?

It was that, and he was, he just had it together.

Keenan had vision.

I had an old, older brother, Dwayne, who was paranoid, schizophrenic.

So you couldn't take any direction from him.

I know he's trying to teach me to drive.

Turn the wheel, turn the wheel.

We're on the freeway.

I'm eight.

Wait,

first of all, you were eight.

No seatbelts.

We had to stand up in the car.

If you turn, you slide on it like that.

Pete, turn the wheel, turn the wheel.

And I just thought that happened.

Say, so that brother was out.

It's like, so we know not to follow his.

It's like, don't follow Dwayne.

Yeah, Keenan was always like, you know, he was an A student.

You know, he was, it's interesting how life will take you on this journey.

Bruce Lee said, stay liquid so you always end up where you're supposed to be.

Yeah.

And so with Keenan,

he told me he went to Tuskegee.

And

he went there to learn that the improvisation club was two miles away from where we lived.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Because he used to like stand, they had a totem pole, and he would stand out there and tell jokes like every day.

And someone came up to him and said, Man, you're funny.

You should do stand-up comedy.

And it's like right down the block from where we grew up.

That's what he says he learned from college.

Yeah, it's like what was Bruce Lee is not liquid, but not to take your shirt off if it's a pole.

It's like,

they're different, different kind of liquid.

Yeah.

And for me, my journey, I started out wanting to be a singer.

Can you sing?

No, when I was young.

No, when I was young.

It was like an obvious question.

I went to a gerbil and

a drawber's display.

I hate the way you sing.

Now I can't.

Because

when I went through puberty, I told my mother, I said, my,

could I take some lessons?

She said, boy, I can't even feed you.

You don't get no lessons.

You don't get no lessons.

Find something else to do.

That's what she told me.

Next.

And so I started DJing.

And that was my dream.

I wanted to be a DJ.

Craig was a DJ.

He's still at turntables and

with STEMs and all the stuff you can do now.

His DJ name was Craigie Craig.

Craigie Craig.

Craigie Craig.

Craig D, right here.

Craigie Craig.

My man.

My man.

And so I went to,

we used to throw parties up in when I was, I moved out of my house, up my parents' house at 16.

I lived with my cousin up in Marble Hill, the projects.

And we used to throw parties and all the girls be out there.

It was like, it was fun.

And then when Keenan moved to California, he gave me his apartment in

Washington Heights.

And I was like, okay, cool.

So I told my cousin I'm moving.

And he's like,

all right, well, you got to do what you got to do.

And I had all this equipment.

I had like speakers the size of washing machines.

And because that's how big speakers were back in the day.

I made them myself, like went to downtown, bought tweeters and the subwoopers and all that.

And my cousin, I came back to get my stuff and it was all gone.

Oh, no.

And I was like, yo, Reading, you need to give me my stuff back.

He was actually 250 pounds at 14 years old.

So I knew he could beat me,

you know.

Yes.

But I, you know, because I was like 125 pounds.

And so I just had to take that on the chin and find something else to do.

I told his mom, I said, oh, he took my stuff.

She said, you ain't expecting to live here for free.

I was like, you were in on this?

What?

He took all my stuff and he brought it up to a barbershop.

I taught him how to cut hair, took it to this barbershop, and I was just like, what am I going to do?

And then I found stand-up.

So it's interesting how

where the journey will take you.

I wouldn't have done standing if I was going to be, if I was really committed to being the DJ.

Yeah, where's your cousin now?

He died.

Oh, okay.

But we won't talk about him then.

Just because he stole his equipment, he didn't cry at the funeral.

They made sure they put him in a real love casket.

I'll show him.

Well, that's speaking of family.

I'm going to go to the bathroom like this.

We had to tuck him in the casket.

It was a circle.

It's like, here you go.

Pay back.

Pay back.

Well, you know, with such a big family, because it's not just your brothers and sisters, but extended family.

I mean,

I talk to a lot of black folks, you know, make it big.

And it's just the pressure to take care of everybody

can be overwhelming.

And I'm, have you guys been in that position because of your fame?

Because of your, where folks are like, yo, yo.

I just refuse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think of it like this.

I think the more I give, the more God provides.

Yeah.

He's never let me down.

So it doesn't matter what people want, no matter what I have to do, I just give.

And God is taking care of me every day.

I've not, my kids are healthy.

My kids are eating.

They're thriving.

I can't ask them.

I'm healthy.

If I can do anything, if I need to fly home to go do something and not just money, I try to be present.

I try to show up.

And that's my assignment from God and my parents to love my siblings like and my family like my mother and my father would you know want me to and that's that's just what i do that's beautiful well we've we've got a listener who's a mom who um

is trying she's got younger kids and trying to raise her kids to not be so competitive with each other and be more collegial with each other and get along make them kiss in the mouth there you go

i think i think competition is good you know if it's um

a healthy competition like we compete like comedically right so the joke is thrown on the table and then we all you know give our different takes on it but whoever threw it on the table that's their joke and i think in the spirit of

the

of the competition it's I just want to, like when I do a scene with Damon, the only thing I'm thinking is I don't want to be funnier than Damon.

Yeah, I want to make my brother laugh.

Yeah, I want to break him and break his son because then I know what I'm doing is funny.

Yeah, if he stutters or he's holding back a laugh, I know I'm doing something right, and that's going to inspire him to go, okay?

Next take, I got something for you.

You know, Marlon is a scene still.

You know what I mean?

Like, he's in there for himself, but Marlon is what makes us laugh.

Does Marlon do the best impressions of everybody in the family?

No, Sean, Sean, Sean's matchup.

Sean is the Jay Farrell of the Wayans family.

That man's impression.

He does my father so good.

You would think my father, he does my father better than my father did.

Sean Brayant.

Sean Brayer.

He is.

Well, let's hear the question,

and it's from Gina in Orange County.

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Hi, Mosha and Craig.

My name is Gina, and my question is, what was it that your parents said or did that helped you grow to love and support one another throughout the years as siblings?

As a full-time working mom of four kids, ages 9, 7, 5, and 5, one of the most difficult challenges of parenting has been trying to raise my kids to support each other.

There seems to be a lot of competition between them, especially between my twin boys.

As one of five siblings myself, growing up in a challenging immigrant environment, we just knew not to fight over any frivolous things.

There was and still is a lot of love between myself and my siblings.

Yet, seeing my kids who are so fortunate and privileged bicker and fight over the simplest things has been baffling.

Any words of wisdom for this, mama?

Thank you for creating this platform.

Gina from Orange County.

I think my parents taught us to respect their elders.

So my respect has the baby, all my siblings, my sisters.

I don't care how much money they got.

I still got to listen to them.

And, you know, I respect them.

Damon, Keenan, my big brother Dwayne, you know, the older sibling sets the example for the young sibling.

My older brother, Dwayne, was a great big brother to Keenan.

And Damon.

He was very protective

when he wasn't hitting you in the head with a wolfing ball bat.

See, Damon was Damon's like, don't quite remember it that way.

Damon's all grudges.

I love Dwayne.

But Dwayne taught, you know, he was very protective of Keenan and he was kind of like the

offensive line to a great quarterback.

You know, sometimes it's just that extra block and he just gave him that space.

And Keenan respected Dwayne and Damon respected Keenan.

I respect all of my siblings.

So I think somebody has to set the example and then you have to, and you have to teach them respect and honor and love, and that we're all doing this together.

Yeah.

It's funny.

It was like, even now, this is how my family is.

Like, I'm 65 years old, and Keenan goes, go get me a soda.

And I got to go get it.

And you do.

Yeah, I got to go get it.

And it's just like, that doesn't work that way in

my family.

She's like, go get me a soda.

Yeah.

If Keenan, if Marlin walks in the room

and

no, if I walk in a room and there's no seats,

Marlin gets up.

Yeah.

Sean and Keenan will sit.

Yeah.

And Marlin will get up.

You sit here.

And my son will have to.

That's why I will say that they have children.

Yeah.

Because I just use that.

I go to my theater sometime and little Damon's there and Mikey's there.

And as soon as I walk in the room, the youngest one gets up and lets me sit down without question.

And I love that.

Did your parents instill that or did you all do that sort of just a code?

Yeah, it's just a code.

Informally.

Quiet code.

We didn't teach them that.

They just watch how we do with each other.

Yeah.

And it's just a quiet code.

Some things you don't have to teach.

It's just,

but it starts at the top.

I mean, the way you talk about your father, I mean, there was, you know, there was sometimes a level of fear because you didn't know what he was going to do.

But what was always there was a level of respect.

You know, and so whether you felt like that was happening just as your code, it started because that's how you thought of your father.

Yeah, and I'm sure that had a little bit to do with how your parents interacted.

But I also know that as siblings, sometimes we read the parental relationship differently or the situation.

I'm wondering if you guys have different takes on.

Yeah, I was scared to death of my father.

Yeah, scared.

Like this, he would pants my father.

Like my father would be talking, he'd just snatch his pants off.

Okay.

And for me, that was like a suspicious thing.

That's why you're so crazy.

Yes.

He would pants.

And my father

those were my friends yeah my mother my father my friends they were their parents i was i came along my dad they had money my brothers had gotten houses they were tired and they by the time you came around

who you gonna

was all soggy man if you don't sit your ass down let's talk about this all right i'll come home at 130 instead of two but You know, beyond the fear of my father, I respected my father.

And it was the man that he was that he showed up every day.

That man made sure that he never left us, never left us.

And there was a time when him and my mother was breaking up.

And all the kids was out the house except me and Sean.

And my dad moved to Harlem.

And my mother was at that time, she had her little schizophrenia going on.

So she was cursing him out, calling him all kinds of names.

My father left.

And then he...

came back like a month later because he was like i'm not done yet my two boys need me I didn't come this far to abandon it.

And he could me and Sean started acting bad.

And he was like, No, I'm not.

I'm gonna finish this assignment from God.

And he showed up, and he, and that example for me, I didn't fear my father, I just respect my father, and I love that man.

I feared him.

Like, we used to go and we used to like rob houses for stereo for music equipment, DJ stuff.

So that's

all your little boys.

That's what I'm saying.

That's karma.

Okay, okay.

Now it all comes.

See, we all caught that.

No, but the stuff my cousin took was stuff that I bought.

Oh, unlike the stuff that I bought.

They bought.

But listen, I wouldn't go with my friend.

But it's like, that's not the point.

That's not the point.

We digress.

We digress.

I couldn't bring it home.

Yeah.

So my dad was like the security guy at Best Buy.

You need a receipt.

Where'd you get it from?

Yeah.

And

where'd you make the money?

You couldn't just bring stolen anything

into the house.

I had a friend, Seymour.

His mother would be shouting out requests.

Seymour, play by Molly.

I'm not stolen stuff.

Boy, get it out of my house.

And you don't put up my money.

But it was just a different kind of upbringing, you know, and that fear kept me out of a lot of trouble.

Stuff that I would think about doing, I wouldn't do because I thought about my dad.

If I got arrested,

you know what?

Keep me here, officer.

Yep.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I don't want my father picking me up.

I wouldn't even tell him my name.

I'm serious.

I was arrested.

What?

Today just let me go because I wouldn't tell them my name.

Ingenious.

Fear.

Yes.

But when I think about

you know, what our parents did or didn't do,

and maybe it's a little bit different because we're brother-sister, because that same, that same gender dynamic may make it a little bit hard.

But I know we got along for some of the same reasons.

It was the, you know, it was,

we didn't want to, our parents worked hard enough without us fighting and causing havoc.

We knew our parents were working as hard as they could.

We knew that they were giving us as much as they could.

I guess we grew up grateful.

And perhaps sometimes in this generation where kids have, I think, too much, you know, parents are giving kids a lot of stuff and they're not giving them some guidance.

That what we had was a lot of gratitude for the little bit that we did have.

So it was sort of like, well,

what was there left for us to be fighting about?

I don't know about you, but my parents never asked me once whether I was happy.

Nope.

There was never even a question.

My mom said, get out of here with that stupid look on your face.

And I think we, you know,

to the to the questioner,

I think, you know, how do you get your kids to get along?

I think, I think parents have to sort of look at the foundation they're setting because kids don't just out of the blue fight all the time.

You know, that's not in their nature.

So the question has to be, what tone are you setting in the house?

Well, it's funny.

My parents, they argue like cats and dogs.

And I guess we was like, we don't want to be like that.

Right.

Right.

But I'm not talking about arguing or not.

It's, are you establishing the foundations of respect?

Right.

Right.

Like, do they respect you or, or do they think you want to lil friends?

Right.

Right.

Um, because what I do with Malia did with Malia and Sasha, you know, I didn't mediate in between them, you know, because I was like, I love you both.

And if I don't know who was wrong, you know, don't ask me to to get in it.

But what I would say is that if I have to get in it, everybody's in trouble.

You know, that's all I can do because I don't want to play favorites.

I'm not sure who's telling the truth.

And so if I'm involved, I don't care what happened.

Everybody, play is shut down, doors closed, computers off.

It's over.

And it was interesting that, you know, They wouldn't want me involved as a result.

So they'd wind up, you'd hear them in the White House because their doors faced each other.

There was a hall door into their rooms, and their two bedrooms faced each other.

And I'd say, you know, go, I don't care what you do, but figure it out.

So you'd hear this, that quiet fighting, like, Sasha, if you don't, and I'll tell you, and I wait, man, you're gonna hear it.

Slam and a slam.

But eventually they'd figure it out

because they wanted to keep playing.

The other thing we had to do was

dinner time altogether.

Oh, yeah, we did that.

We did that.

I know that if we had a phone, if we had dinner,

well, even either

when we didn't have dinner,

no, even when we didn't have dinner, we had to get sit around so he could tell us they ain't no food.

But and then we'd have a discussion about it.

But you know,

dinner was something that you didn't have an option.

There was no, can I go in?

Yeah, that was the same way.

You can go butt now in your seat and eat.

And then we had to clean up.

Like I would have to wash dishes or I would have to, you know, take out the garbage to clean.

You know, each one had an assignment.

Yeah.

So those kind of things you realize we can't watch TV until we all do this,

until the kitchen is clean.

Yeah.

Right.

So it's simple things like that that

teach your kids to work together.

And also, my mother buddied us up, right?

So it's always like Sean, everywhere I went, that's your baby.

He had to take his baby with him.

What's the age difference?

Me and Sean, a year and a half.

So me and Keenan were like that.

Year and a half.

That's your baby.

And you, you just, me and Sean, we dream together.

Like, we used to watch TV together.

We used to watch Abbott and Costello.

We watch honeymooners.

Cause in our little minds at four and five years old, we was going to create our own TV show.

Really?

You knew that early?

Yeah, because I I seen them on TV.

And I was just like, wait, do you actually do this?

That's right.

So from the young age of like seven, eight years old, me and Sean, we was like, we're going to write our own show.

So we just studied and we had this buddy thing we always did.

And my mother made us go, we were freaking fracked.

And Sean was there.

It was, my father used to call us Maul and Sean.

Mom and Sean.

Mom and Sean.

We had to go to the

go get that coffee.

We have to go to the grocery store together.

They buddied us up.

And so that makes you take care of your younger sibling and makes you be responsible as an older sibling yeah and it's weird how that's is in the next generation i was just thinking about how you're doing with your and anaya

you know um you got onaya and berlin that paired up you got kaden and maverick you know they all each one has their buttons or their buddy cousin like my son and sean's daughter iilea they're 23 years old.

They at my house writing together.

They're directing together.

They're shooting music videos together.

And then Layla, who's Sean's other daughter, is a DJ and a singer and a producer.

And so the three of them all work together and

they never really argue.

They have so much fun.

You would think they were siblings.

We have a very tight-knit family.

Yeah.

Very awesome.

What are some of the strategies that you guys, other than buddying up?

that you learned from your parents that you're using on your own children?

Because I think Gina would be able to hopefully take something away from that.

Well, the interesting thing is I go,

you know, and some things I should have done just like my parents,

but I was so like traumatized growing up that like I, like with my kids, my sons, I didn't like spanking them.

I hated when I had these spankings.

Like it hurt me.

I hit my kids one time.

Yeah, I was

cried like a baby because I was like,

can't do that to them.

It made me think about it.

I felt silly for the for now.

It took a couple of spankings for me to be like, Yeah, you know what?

After this, this is a little one.

I was like, you know, but you, you, I felt like you know, I, this is a little kid, and the fact that I can't think of any better way to get my point across than to smack somebody on the butt, I felt embarrassed.

Let's see, boys are different, though.

Like, boys are

actively seeking destruction.

That's like that.

That's the other thing.

I thought you were going to say discipline.

They just do the stupidest thing.

They jump off the roof.

My son would jump off the roof into the pool.

Yeah.

Watch this, dad.

What?

And he's in the pool.

And you just go, do you know how many different ways you could hurt yourself?

But that was their thing, riding the bike down the hill backwards.

It's like, what are you guys doing?

But that's just something in, I think, boys' DNA that just makes them just a little aggressive and stupid.

You know, whereas my daughters, I talk to them.

I frustrate them, you know, because like with my daughters, I realize, you know, a certain age, they don't want to hear what you got to say.

That's, and it comes pretty early.

So, yeah.

And so what I do is go, well,

you're right where you want to be, baby.

And when you get tired of being there, you'll change.

Yeah.

That doesn't help me right now.

But I know that I can't tell you.

You You don't want to hear what I have to say about your boyfriend.

You know, you don't, you don't, you don't want to, you don't want to.

I'm not going to allow you to deflect.

I'm just going, I'm on your team.

I'm not going to be the obstacle in your way that you're, I don't want to be the fighter.

I'm here to support you, love you, whatever you want to do.

It's your life.

I'll pick up the pieces afterwards.

Because you realize if you, you know, if you try to,

you know,

let's stay with the boyfriend, say something about that someone's boyfriend, then you're attacking their

ability to

pick someone for themselves.

So they defend them.

They hold on in their fight.

But if you just step back, then they're going to see that.

They'll see what I see.

And they'll see it quicker.

Oh, this dude ain't nothing.

Well, I talk about that is like you, you guys are handing your children their lives.

And you're doing it early so that they can learn from their own mistakes.

And I think nowadays, a lot of parents are trying to live their kids' lives for them so that they don't make any mistakes and don't feel any sense of failure, which keeps them from learning.

I tend to agree with that in my parenting principles too.

It's like, you know what?

I, you know, I raise y'all to be, to have some sense, to have some judgment.

And at some point, you've got to practice that, which means that I've got to let go.

So even in the White House, you know, my motto before these kids went to college, I gave them more rope because I was like, here, have more freedom.

That's because you had the Secret Service budget.

Well, that was also,

that was also true.

You know, Barack will say his real reason for wanting to be a president

was that having teenage girls running around with men with guns.

But yeah, he would say that all the time.

He's like, okay, I think I can do this another four years because look at them.

They're growing up.

But knowing that they wouldn't live with that kind of security for their entire lives, it was like, one day

you will be out there.

And I think that the reverse happens now is that everybody's trying to hold on to their kids.

But one day they're going to get out there.

And the only thing that is for certain for kids getting out in the world is they're going to get hit with some failure.

That's the only thing that's guaranteed.

So we've got to start preparing them early for that, letting them practice making their own decisions and, you know, choosing the knucklehead boyfriend and holding your tongue and, you know, and showing them that you trust them so that when they do fail, they'll come back.

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Hey, everyone.

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It's funny, I hold my tongue, but I say what I'm going to say.

I have to give my honest opinion, but what I'm not going to do is give you like a real emotion that's tethered to that.

I'm just going to say what I got to say as an adult.

And then whatever you choose to do, that's on you.

But I had to tell you what you asked my opinion.

I'm going to give it to you straight.

Now, after that, I love you.

Well, if you ask my opinion, I'm going to tell you.

But if you don't, Keenan always says, unworthy inquiry.

If you don't,

you got to let life talk.

Yeah.

You all, the way you all impersonate your brothers and

we're all doing an impression of Sean.

You're doing

an impression of Keenan.

Well, speaking of parenting, I wanted to talk, Marlon, a bit about,

you know, just so proud of how

you are being a role model for dealing with a child that's transgender.

Absolutely.

And that's, you know, that warms my heart, particularly as a black man.

You know,

would you care to share that journey of well, I learned like,

and

their transition

really taught me what real unconditional love was.

When they went through the transition,

I actually went through the transition.

I went from denial to complete acceptance.

And it took me a week to get there.

You know, and what I've learned as a parent is for you to stop loving your child because of their choice and their life, that's a poor reflection on you.

You know what I mean?

When there's people that go, I'm not going to associate with you because because you do that, or this is against God.

And this, it's like, listen, I am not here to judge.

I am not God.

Only God can judge.

And I say this, you know, and if that's a mistake and we get to heaven and God don't let my child in, I'm going to shave a beard and sneak him in through the back.

But I'm going to love my baby.

And I'm never going to, I'm a father and I'm always going to defend them.

I'm always going to protect them.

I'm always going to respect them.

And there's nothing anybody could ever tell me.

I could lose fans.

Good.

I lost people that are small-minded, small-hearted, and um, and self-loathing.

So, goodbye.

And I gained for everyone I lose, yeah, I gain 150 more.

Yeah, you know.

So, for me, as the uncle,

you know, it's I love you, period, right?

But somebody got to write a rule book and how I need to treat you

because I don't know.

Can I treat you like my

other nephews?

I don't know, You know, and I don't want you to ever feel that I'm judging you.

That's right, because you just don't know.

I used to say it's like going to your grandmother and

expecting them to learn a new language overnight.

You know, it's like they've been speaking this language, using pronouns in this way for their entire life.

And to get it wrong,

it's a mutual patience with the process.

And they've been very patient with me and their mother because, you know, when they changed their name, I'm like, I called you a mai for 23 years.

What you mean, Kai?

Kai.

I know you as a my.

Yeah.

What do you mean them?

I know you as her.

And it was a process.

And at the end of the day, it's respect.

Yeah.

That's what they want.

And that's their wishes.

So respect their wishes.

And I know.

that the same child is in there.

They're brilliant, right?

And that's all I really care about is they're kind-hearted.

They're really funny, have a great sense of humor, and extremely intelligent.

And, you know, those are the things I'm proud of.

Are you a good person?

I don't care about your sexualities and, you know, all these other things, your genders or associations.

I care that you are a good-hearted person.

You take care of your siblings, your mother, you're respectful.

They have been

wonderful their whole lives.

I've never had any problem with them at all.

So, you know.

And

I like to be putting that out there for the world.

I mean, because, you know, we just, especially in our community,

you know,

we've sacrificed a lot over this issue.

And it's all about realizing that we got to love people how they come to us, period.

Not just our kids, but all kids.

And the notion that, you know, we would,

you know, put people in unfair advantages, put them, their lives at risk over some nonsense.

Because those are bad people.

End of the day, when you are being divisive like that, you are a bad person.

Your core is bad.

No matter what you do, you're not going to make your way in heaven.

My job is to be here to give laughter and to give love and everything.

That got to be my intention and will always be.

And like I said, I'm a father.

That's my baby.

And,

you know, I fight with them to the end, period.

I love that.

You guys should, I mean, that's just absolutely wonderful.

And your parents did such a great job with you.

I sound like an old man.

I know, right?

This is how people talk to us.

It's like, you know, you know, it's just, and, and, and you, it's just, you love to hear when people tell you unsolicited things about your kids.

You know, I know I do.

When people come up and say, you know, your son was doing such and such, and he's just such a wonderful kid.

And I think for Gina,

she's just got to have have the confidence to

raise them now.

Don't be friends with them now.

Raise them now,

and they'll be great human beings that you can be friends with when they're in their 30s.

You know, our parents were not our friends.

They were people who loved us and taught us respect and boundaries and hard work.

And I'm not saying this for us, but I'm saying this for people listening because I think we get this wrong about what our kids need and want.

And our kids need and want guidance, respect, love, discipline.

You know, none of that, we all got disciplined, you know, but none of that stopped us from loving our parents and revering them, you know.

So I want people out there.

Five minutes after the ass was like, I was like, that's right.

There was always that.

I have cursed out my mother underneath my breath on several occasions, you know, but you never did it to their face.

No, you know, this notion that I hate my mom.

It's like, you better say that in your head, in your room.

You don't say that out loud, you know.

Parents are too afraid to set those kind of boundaries.

And I think that's also part of the challenge that we're facing in this generation.

We're replacing love and respect with stuff.

And I just, you know, I just, I want to be a proponent for reinstating some of the stuff that we had, some of the, some of the, the, the good old wisdom that our parents had in raising kids.

So we have room in the parenting proposition to be a little more like,

get up, you know, get yourself together, you know, to criticize them, to give them strong guidance, to give them our opinions, to direct them and engage with them.

And engage with them.

Yeah.

And she's such a gift.

Yeah.

And when I have her on Mondays, we go to dinner or we

cook for her.

i i it's just me and her it's yeah daddy and axle and we we do every i i make sure and she'll say dad come play with me yeah and so i go to her room and we'll have a tea party and you know those things i think creating those memories for me that's the most she brings out the kid in me yeah and i i think parents need to take more time when you have time to spend with them in that way and that that that that you know play with them yeah that that's a great place to start with sort of parting advice for Gina right

you can't be too busy to parent you can't be too tired to parent

never you can't you know you can't be too

you can't outsource it to a phone and you or to a nanny yeah to your kids yeah my mama didn't have no nanny my mother took kids she was just my mother had black elbows

yeah light-skinned woman black elbow why because we had a black windowsill in the projects and my my mother used to sit on that windowsill and watch us play in the middle.

All of our kids.

Damon, get down from there.

Sean, don't hit him with that back.

My mother sat there on that windowsill watching us to the point where her elbows was black.

My mama watched her children.

Don't be having other people watch your kids.

Keep your eyes on your kids.

That is your responsibility.

You know?

I know, man.

It's like, did I do enough?

Did I do enough?

But no, Damien, any parting advice for Gina?

I think you just have to love them

and

accept everything.

Yeah.

And expect nothing

because you can't put all your hopes and dreams in them.

You have to let them, you know, what is life if you don't learn lessons, you know, and they

will figure it out.

It's four of them.

But right now, they're probably figuring out who's the alpha.

Yeah, that's right.

Right.

Some of it is like trying to figure out what's the higher natural order.

You have to just trust that they're going to figure it out.

And you're there as setting the example of what it ultimately should be.

And I find that your kids are raising you.

in this way.

They're trying to teach you something about yourself.

They're trying to, they're asking you to be more patient, they're asking you to find different ways to communicate.

They, the kids are really teaching you, like, my child taught me unconditional love.

I used to always say unconditional love, and then it was like, Okay, you really want to practice that?

Well,

do it.

Here you go.

And that made me go, Oh, this is what I was asking of people.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, I do.

Yeah, I like that because it's like, what are your, what are your kids telling you in their disputes?

In there, are they asking for attention?

Are they just looking to grow?

You know, it may not be a problem at all that your kids are

figuring out how to get along with each other.

You know,

an argument is not always a bad thing.

You know, a little scuffle may not be a bad thing.

It depends on what's at the foundation of it.

You know, sometimes it's you.

My mother would go, where you get that foul mouth from?

Oh.

showing you yourself

yeah yeah well you guys are um

you know pretty amazing but thank you apples don't amazing to no amazing don't fall far from from the tree i i wish i knew your parents i i did though do um i wish i could look your parents in the eye and tell them wow you know what wisdom, you know, that's, that's what IMO is about.

It's like, there's, we now have wisdom.

We're now at the age where we are them.

And, and we do, we have learned a lot from them.

And, and part of that obligation is to share it with folks who maybe didn't have that.

Absolutely.

Right.

Um, because there are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I be a good parent if I don't have money, if I'm not this or that, you know, and we are all living proof that there's a way to do it, you know, know, there, and there, there's a philosophy to follow.

Um, and people are looking for help out there.

And that, you know, you're willing to bring your wisdom to this table, you know.

I'm just grateful.

Well, thank you for having us.

Thank you for having us.

Great time.

Y'all are good people.

Yeah, yeah, agreed.

But the question is: can we be good entertainers in this podcast?

I think your dad's doing an amazing job.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Oh, he's just looking for a comment.

No, I paid him.

I paid him early.

No, I appreciate you guys being here.

It's great to meet you.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, yeah, good stuff.

Good stuff.