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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Promotional art for You Know What It Is
Cover image credit: via TMDB

You Know What It Is

Marlon Wayans

HBO Max · 2021 · 58 min

An outdoor, high-energy hour of physical comedy from Miami.

Marlon Wayans spends the first ten minutes of this 2021 performance explaining how his childhood was terrorized by a four-year-old with a chipped tooth and an outie belly button. It is a highly animated, physical premise that sets the tone for a show where self-reflection is continuously hijacked by theatrical impressions and hyper-expressive goofiness. Rather than leaning entirely into the high-concept setups of his film career, he brings his trademark elastic body language to a somewhat chaotic outdoor stage, working through mid-life anxieties and family relationships.

The special, taped outdoors in a makeshift amphitheater in Miami during the pandemic, was the first release under his multi-project deal with HBO Max. Released in August 2021, it arrived during a period of professional transition for Wayans, who was simultaneously appearing in more dramatic film roles like Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. On stage, however, he remains firmly committed to his loud brand of physical comedy. He jumps from criticizing his daughter’s prom dates to comparing the January 6 Capitol rioters to his childhood neighborhood enemies, always checking back with the audience to see if they “know what it is”.

While his impressions of his older brothers and his hyper-physical storytelling remain strong, the writing sometimes wears thin. The show frequently shifts from charmingly weird anxieties to cruder, more repetitive jokes about his children’s sex lives that do not always find their mark.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Outie belly buttons

    Rants about his disdain for outie belly buttons, connecting them to rappers and tagging the routine with a jab at the January 6 Capitol rioters.

  2. Childhood bully

    Physically enacts his bow-legged bully by walking on the sides of his feet with a stool on his head, dragging his microphone, and pantomiming wearing a sagging diaper while smoking.

  3. Prom night and his children's sex lives

    Explores hypothetical scenarios and anxieties concerning his teenage daughter and son having sex and bringing home prospective partners.

  4. Getting caught cheating

    Impersonates his older brothers Keenen, Damon, and Shawn relentlessly mocking him after his infidelity was exposed following a celebration trip to St. Barts.

  5. Parenting and spanking

    Examines cultural and generational differences in disciplining children, questioning his own parenting decisions.

How it plays

Tone
Crude, confessional, anxious, and irreverent.
On stage
High-energy, intensely physical, confessional, and animated with expressive mugging and frequent comedic disclaimers.
Pace
Sweat-inducing, high-tempo physical performance with extended act-outs.
About
irrational fears, outie belly buttons, parenting and teen sexuality, infidelity and divorce, family dynamics

What the critics said

Largely unfavorable; critics and viewers criticized the material as regressive, stale, and uncomfortably fixated on his children's sex lives, though some acknowledged his physical comedy and impressions of his brothers.

In the room: Mixed, with notable moments of audience applause when referencing past work like 'White Chicks' or expressing parental love.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, hbomax.com, allmovie.com, decider.com, letterboxd.com, reviewsanddunn.net, rottentomatoes.com, en.wikipedia.org, deadline.com.

Backstory

Filmed outdoors during spring 2021, addressing his personal fears, his past infidelity that disrupted his family, his children coming of age, and topical events like the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

Details

Released
Runtime
58 min
Where
HBO Max
Director
Troy Miller
Topics
Before
Woke-ish (2018)
After
God Loves Me (2023)

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