Well renowned actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer Marlon Wayans of cult classics “White Chicks” and “Scary Movie” fame will be visiting the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on Friday night to kick off the Iowa State WinterFest.

Wayans is also known for his non-comedic performances in “Requiem for a Dream” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” His most recent work is as the titular title of the sitcom “Marlon,” loosely based on his own life.

Wayans will be making a stop in Ames as part of his tour, supporting his Netflix stand up comedy special “Woke-ish” released in February. The special draws on controversial material and contains an overarching narrative about him trying to become a more aware, “woke” person. His tour started only a few days earlier and will extend into the coming year.

Wayans originally hails from New York City and is the youngest of 10 siblings, all of whom are involved with show business in one way or another. There are many instances in which the Wayans family have worked together on projects. A prominent example are the many movies in which Marlon and his older brother, Shawn Wayans, have co-starred in. Their collaborations include the “Scary Movie” franchise, “Little Man” and of course, “White Chicks.”

Wayans explained that growing up in a family like his was a great learning experience and talked about how they build each other up.

“For me, it was great,” Wayans said. “I love them, they love me, and we make each other better. They challenge me often and what’s funny is that we all have our different personalities and we all accept each other for who we are. I guess I’m just the crazy one though.” 

With the celebration of Thanksgiving, Wayans stated what he was grateful for this season, mentioning how he and his family have worked hard and come up in the world.

“I am always thankful for my family and I’m thankful that we’ve got money nowadays to actually have Thanksgiving because when we were younger, we didn’t,” Wayans said. “So, I’m very happy about that.” 

His rise to the top started in 1988 with a role in the action parody film “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” and continued with appearances on the comedy sketch series “In Living Color,” created by his older brother, Keenan Ivory Wayans. He soon began to star in more movies and series, primarily comedies like ones mentioned earlier. Others include “Marmaduke”, “The Heat”, “Naked”, “A Haunted House” and its sequel, “The Lady Killers”.

Wayans very recently wrapped the filming of his newest Netflix movie “Sextuplets” in where he plays six different characters.

“[The project] has been impossible,” Wayans said. “I don’t know how I did it. Doing six characters really was hard. It was six hours I make up every day for three to four days a week. But we got it done and I’m telling you right now that it’s going to be special. This one is going to be really, really funny.”

According to him, the movie is set to come out sometime in December 2019.

Wayans described his style of comedy as silly, funny, stupid and just fun.

“I like to make people laugh as hard as I could and as long as I can,” Wayans said. “Sometimes that’s good, but sometimes it’s not as good. So for me, I just want to make people laugh and have a good time but at the same time, I want to keep what my thoughts are and how I want to execute commentary.”

An experienced comedian, Wayans has been performing stand up for a long time. However, this visit to Ames will be a first for him. He expressed his expectations for his upcoming show at Iowa State and said what he loves about performing in smaller cities.

“I think I have been in Iowa [once] before. I played a coffee shop in Iowa before, good people,” Wayans said. “I like going places where people like to laugh, and I find that the smaller the place, the more they like to laugh. I can’t wait to go have a good time. I want to see people’s face laughing that’s all. I want to leave my mark on that stage and make sure everybody in there has a great time, has a load of drinks, gets home safely and that they don’t do damage to each other.”

Tickets are $29 for the public and $15 for Iowa State students and are available online at Midwestix.com. The show, co-sponsored by WinterFest 2018, will start at 8 p.m. and doors will open at 7 p.m.