(Todd A. Smith/Photo Credit: Kevin Bussey for Bussey One Photography)
Although the beef between comedian/actor Marlon Wayans and YouTube journalist D.J. Vlad is still a hot topic, I try to stay away from Internet and social media controversy.
However, sometimes that is hard to do because social media beefs have become pop culture news into today’s media landscape.
Wayans and D.J. Vlad of Vlad TV had a dust-up online when DJ Vlad took issue with Wayans asking for $40,000 to sit down for an interview on his YouTube channel.
DJ Vlad took offense to that amount because he said that Wayans does not generate enough web traffic to justify spending that amount of money on an interview.
As a result, Wayans took his story to Shannon Sharpe’s podcast “Club Shay Shay.”
Everything works out for a reason because “Club Shay Shay” viewers got a chance to get to know one of the realest and nicest cats that I have ever met during my career as a journalist.
Not only is Wayans one of the humblest cats in Hollywood, he and his family are some of the most inspirational.
During the interview with Sharpe, Wayans talked about how when someone comes at one Wayans, they come at them all.
Furthermore, he talked about how he stayed loyal to comedy royalty John Witherspoon when NBC executives wanted him and his brother Shawn Wayans to replace him as “Pops” on “The Wayans Brothers” because they believed the comedic veteran was too “ghetto.”
Instead of replacing Witherspoon, the youngest Wayans brothers took their sitcom to the WB network and the rest is history.
The loyalty and humility that Wayans showed in the “Club Shay Shay” interview is not an act.
He is that real all the time.
As a journalist and movie critic, I interview celebrities all the time.
As one might expect, celebrities do so many interviews that they probably forget the journalists that they have talked to.
Not Wayans.
At the start of my second interview with him, he immediately recognized me from the first interview.
And when I crossed paths with him at a premiere party for Kevin Hart’s movie “The Wedding Ringer,” in Los Angeles, he also remembered me.
On top of that, I had seen him at other events as well and he displayed humility to everyone he encountered, even movie theater employees.
His humility is inspiring.
But his words are even more inspiring.
During the second interview, he gave me some of the best advice that I have received from anyone in the entertainment industry.
That advice was to work with the people that cared about me the most and believed in me most.
And that is often always family.
My media company consists of this online magazine and my talk show “Regal Roundtable,” which streams on the CGM-TV app.
Although my plans were to always work with family and friends, I began having some hesitancy about it when I heard horror stories about families that mix business together.
People often see family members who do business together beefing in public and I never want that to become the case with my family.
I have a cousin who now does all the music for “Regal Roundtable.”
I have a cousin that’s an accountant and will become my CPA.
I have a cousin that is my hairstylist.
I have a sister that writes for RegalMag.com and does the voiceover for “Regal Roundtable.”
And although I do not have family members that handle the legal work for Regal Media Group, I do have some fraternity brothers that handle that aspect of my growing business.
When Wayans saw my apprehension about continuing my working relationship with one of my cousins, his exact words were, “You better work with your cousin.”
I replied, “But we’re going to eventually bump heads.”
To which Wayans said, “Of course y’all will bump heads. But who has your back more than family?”
The answer to that question is obvious.
And to this day, I am always going to work with family unless they decide that they do not want to work with me anymore.
The closeness that the Wayans family always showed to each other has always inspired me because I grew up on his family and shows like “In Living Color.”
But what is most inspiring about his family is not just the loyalty.
It is the fact that their family loyalty exists without it really being nepotism.
Keenen Ivory Wayans made his brothers and sister earn their spots in his productions.
He made his youngest brothers rewrite a movie (“Don’t Be a Menace”) 26 times because it was not ready for the big screen the first 25 times.
What people might not know is that there 10 Wayans siblings.
However, only half of them work in Hollywood.
Therefore, nobody just puts a person on because of their last name.
They opened doors for their relatives at the right time when they had shown they were ready for the opportunity.
Most importantly, the Wayans family never let Hollywood dictate the rules to how they ran their team or game.
When Hollywood did not want the legend Jim Carrey, they gave him his big break on “In Living Color.”
They would not budge on their decision to cast Witherspoon for “The Wayans Brothers.”
As a result, the legend who once wrote for Richard Pryor finally got his mainstream props and the big paychecks that he always deserved.
And although Hollywood can be fickle and downright treacherous, the youngest Wayans brother has never shown that the evil has gotten to him even when Harvey Weinstein stole movie ideas from him and his brothers.
Instead, he kept his positive spirit and kept grinding, in the process building on the family empire that his older siblings had begun.
That empire now includes the second generation of Wayans, creating generational wealth and opportunities for years to come.
Like it did with Witherspoon, Hollywood executives may have tried to get the family to steer away from hiring relatives for movies and television shows.
But by remaining loyal, they have been able to change the lives for many people for decades.
And their impact will be felt in Hollywood long after they are gone.
That is something I want to replicate for my family and close friends via Regal Media Group, LLC.
And Wayans clan gave me the perfect example of how to accomplish that.
