Damon Wayans, Sr. and Jr. chat about their new comedy – and how it’s even more of a family affair than you might think
Damon Wayans and his son/fellow funnyman Damon Wayans, Jr. have had sitcoms before, both individually and together, but now they’re sharing the screen as equals for the first time.
The dynamic comedic duo star in Poppa’s House, which began its first season on Monday, October 21. The elder Wayans plays Poppa, a veteran radio personality who launches a podcast from home, joined by a new co-host who challenges him (played by Essence Atkins, former co-star of another Wayans in NBC’s Marlon) — as does his grown son (Wayans Jr.), whose own family life is complicated by his aspirational but uncertain professional hopes. Tetona Jackson, recently of ABC Spark’s Good Trouble, also stars as the younger Wayans’ wife, Nina.
Though the radio station employing Poppa was originally meant to be a separate set and a bigger part of Poppa’s House, showrunner Dean Lorey — who worked with both Wayanses on ABC’s My Wife and Kids — notes: “The core of the show is getting to see these two guys together, and then the whole family together, and we felt like the radio station was maybe siloing them a little bit. We really wanted to make it a comedy about family dynamics. It’s called Poppa’s House; we figure we may as well centre it on Poppa’s house.”
The senior Damon says he appreciates and enjoys “the selfish thing of working with my family. This dude [Wayans Jr.], we’re like brothers, really. That same relationship that I have with [my siblings] Shawn and Marlon and Keenen, I have with my son. And then, to see the next generation . . . there’s something in the water. They all have that talent. My granddaughter is in the writing room, and my daughters are in there. And they’ll be pitching stuff and you’ll just go, ‘Who are you? Where did you get the confidence to just speak out like that, and it’s good?’ It’s just weird.”
While much of his family was memorably involved in the Fox sketch-comedy series In Living Color in the 1990s, Wayans Jr. reflects, “I had my own journey, I went off and I did my own thing. I did several TV shows, so I went and I learned a lot of things. When I came back, I came back with a lot more knowledge. I know how to write. I grew in confidence, essentially, and I sort of brought that back to Daddy. I was like, ‘Look what I found!’ And he was like, ‘OK.’”
And indeed, the old man has watched that growth up close, having had Junior recur on My Wife and Kids and then years later guest-starring on his son’s cultishly adored sitcom Happy Endings. “I’ve seen the hard work he’s put in. I know that he can do it, and he’s proven that he can. I don’t know how many more shows I have in me, or the desire to do more . . . but if this was the last one I did, I would be very happy, because I know it’s going to be great with him.”
Poppa’s House airs Monday, November 4, on Global & CBS