An Interview With Jacquie Wayans

Jacquie Wayans was an only child, raised by a single mom. She found out very early on that she had a great imagination, which as an only child, that’s not uncommon. She loved, right away, being in front of a camera, she loved singing, she created skits in her mind, she was able to see movies in her head and things of that nature, from the time she was really young, but because of the dynamic between Jacquie and her mom and because her mom was a single parent, there really wasn’t a lot of play time. “Because my mom was a very strict authoritarian, I realized very quickly that it was important to please her,” Jacquie explained. [Laughing]

In my interview with Jacquie, she reminisced about a moment at a Sunday school presentation. “I think it was probably my first monolog and I stood up there and someone had given me the advice of picking out a person in a crowd with a friendly face to look at and distinctively, the first person to look at was my mom, of course, but she suddenly had that face of “Ok don’t mess it up.” I looked around and found a face to lock into and I believe it was my Sunday school teacher who I adored. I had a great time with the presentation and when I was done, that first set of applause that you ever receive and to see everyone’s responses and the hugs and kisses, I realized afterwards it was at that moment, at a very early age, that I realized ok, this is what I want to do,” she cited.

Jacquie was raised going to church and sincerely believed that she had a relationship with God. She grew up attending the Methodist Church, but explained that she had never heard the gospel until she met a friend in middle school who shared the gospel with her and even then Jacquie said it was hard for her to wrap her faith around it, because she thought all you had to do is love God. But her salvation didn’t come in until much later on when she was nineteen and in college. At the time, her whole pursuit was to get into the entertainment industry. She would have her moments wanting God in her life, but she also wanted the entertainment industry. “I felt if I gave up one, I couldn’t have the other. So I kept Him on hold until I figured that I just couldn’t do it on my own,” said Jacquie. Once she accepted that, the whole vision of how she delivered was with the same passion, but with a different focus.

I asked Jacquie who has been the biggest inspiration in your life and her response was, “I’ve actually pondered that a lot. I don’t think it has been one particular person, actually. I’ve been fortunate enough to have people come in at two points because there were definitely some suicidal moments before I got nineteen, a couple. There was definitely intervention by people. The young lady who became my very best friend and my sister in many ways, definitely played a key role in my life,” explained Jacquie.

Jacquie started taking writing seriously in middle school, in eighth grade. She attended a very good middle school and joined the drama club, in which they talked about an outlet for your emotions. She then started with scripts. “I actually called Kim Wayans some years later after I finished. I had written a script for my favorite show and I called her and said, “I have a script and I’d like to pitch it’” and she said, “It doesn’t work that way.” “She really encouraged me to go to school, learn the class and learn about the industry,” said Jacquie.

Jacquie has also written a book called Ambrose, which is inspiring and a very good read for kids. I purchased a copy and I recommend it to everyone to purchase for their kids. I asked the Author what inspired her to write Ambrose and why she choose that particular title. “I went back to school to get my BA, as an adult with three kids, with a job. It was not easy. One of our assignments in school was to do a piece that was fiction and I am more of a non-fiction writer, so it was a challenge for me. I was brainstorming on my way home. My son, at the time, was very young and he loved dragons; dragon movies, dragon toys. I just started to look at that. It’s never been a reverse story. Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, everyone has had their reverse stories, but we’ve never heard the reverse story of what happened in the Garden of Eden. If everything that God created in the beginning was good, how did this even come to be? If the serpent in the garden was good and everything was good, then what happened? There are some verses that indicate that Lucifer was in the garden beforehand. Ambrose is the first series of four and will help kids to make wiser decisions and not easily be decieved.

The multi-talented artist is also a radio show host on Don't Give Up radio, which airs weekly, Fridays from 10 pm to 11 pm on www.blogtalkradio and re-airs on Sela Media Network. The show is very motivating and I encourage all to listen in. You can also visit: http://jaywayproductions.wix.com/dontgiveupradio