In college, students change their majors as often as they change their underwear, reconsidering their options and interests on a daily basis. But comedian Wayne Brady made his decision at an early age and never looked back.
“Sometimes kids make choices based on what their parents want them to do, and that’s fine,” Brady says. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what gets you out of bed for the next 50 years.”
Brady, known best for his stint on the improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, will appear on the campus as the headliner for the Homecoming Comedy Show Thursday night. Since the age of 16 – after ditching plans of a military career – Brady has been performing in front of an audience, beginning with school plays in his hometown of Orlando.
“The first play I did in school, I fell in love and knew there was nothing else I was going to do,” Brady says.
Audiences’ enthusiastic reactions gave Brady the confidence to pursue his dream. After signing with a professional acting company, Brady says he began to realize how much he loved his newfound profession.
“This may sound trite, but you really need to do what makes you happy,” he says. “As soon as I knew that acting was what I wanted to do, that’s it. I think everyone has a calling. If there is something you can absolutely not live without, it’s what you should end up doing.”
Once signed with the acting company, Brady began performing in more plays around Florida, such as A Chorus Line, Fences, Jesus Christ Superstar, A Raisin in the Sun and I’m Not a Rappaport.
After a while, though, Brady wanted to take his ambitions to the next level. Once he moved to Los Angeles, he soon found roles in TV and performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Blade to the Heat.
Brady took advantage of every opportunity he could get, he says, whether it was on stage, in front of a camera or even at a corporate event.
“The hardest part of anything is finding a way in,” Brady says. “I’ve been incredibly lucky, determined [and] talented enough. I would knock at anyone’s door because I felt I had something to offer.”
Eventually, Brady’s hard work paid off – at one of his gigs, an executive from VH1 happened to be in the audience and liked what he saw, landing Brady a job on the show Vinyl Justice.
“You have to be ready for it,” Brady says. “It all paid off. The biggest thing is, you’ve got to be ready, because you don’t know who is watching.”
Once Brady signed on to the U.S. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, he skyrocketed into the public eye with musical parodies that left the audience in peels of laughter. Brady’s ability to create improvised songs and skits on the spot won him rave reviews and even earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2003 for his performance on the show.
“The secret to being good at improv is knowing yourself,” he says. “It’s nothing you can teach. It’s just the way some people are wired.”
Aside from Whose Line, Brady performed solo at the 52nd Annual Emmy Awards in 2000 and made history in 2002 by being the first black person to ever host the Miss America pageant. He has also toured the country with his own improv show, Wayne Brady and Friends, and and opened a four-week run production of the stage show, The Only Game in Town, in Los Angeles.
Brady’s star continued to rise as he headlined his own talk show for ABC, The Wayne Brady Show, which earned four Daytime Emmy awards.
As Brady looks at his career so far, he says he is lucky to have found success in his chosen profession – and to have escaped life in a cubicle.
“I don’t work in an office,” Brady says. “I meet millions of people. What isn’t to like?”
This improv giant will perform Thursday night at the Cole Field House as part of the Homecoming Week celebration. Expect to witness plenty of Brady’s trademark musical parodies covering “show tunes to 50 Cent and everything in between.”
