Humor & Life Quote by Keenen Ivory Wayans

Wayans is describing a craft ethic that sneaks up on you because it’s framed in such plain, almost casual language. A comedian talking about “process” and “building and creating characters” signals a quiet rebuttal to the old assumption that comedy is just instinct and riffing. He’s insisting it’s engineered. The joke may look spontaneous, but the spontaneity is manufactured upstream.

The telling phrase is “encourage them to sort of live in that character.” The “sort of” is classic performer-speak: a softener that makes an intense demand feel collaborative rather than tyrannical. He’s gesturing toward method acting without claiming the brand name, which fits Wayans’s cultural position: a populist entertainer who nonetheless runs a tight set. The subtext is control with empathy. He’s not just casting funny people; he’s directing behavior, rhythms, even the off-camera mindset so that the on-camera moments land cleanly.

Context matters: Wayans came up in a comedy ecosystem (stand-up, sketch, then film/TV) where speed, budget limits, and ensemble chemistry can make or break a project. Building characters “first” is a way to create a shared language for an ensemble, so performers aren’t merely delivering lines but playing relationships. “When they’re in the screen” is also a revealing slip; he’s thinking like an editor and a director, not just a comedian. Comedy, for him, isn’t just punchlines. It’s a controlled reality that actors temporarily inhabit so the audience can believe in the absurd long enough to laugh.