You Know What It Is

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.