The Blackening Of Wayne Brady

It used to be that whenever you thought of Wayne Brady, you thought of white people. It was a running gag that white people loved them some Wayne Brady. He was the only dark face (and the standout) on Whose Line Is It Anyway. They loved his talk show, The Wayne Brady Show. You'd see him smiling, singing, and shilling for any company he could.

Then, with the cancellation of his show and the disappearance of Whose Line Is It Anyway, something happened. I don't know how, why, or exactly when, but suddenly, Wayne Brady suddenly became black.

I guess you could say it started with his hilarious and unforgettable guest appearance on Chappelle's Show. He happily (and viciously) sent up his own white-friendly persona. At the same time, it looks like he used that appearance to get rid of that persona.

If you look at his recent work, you will find a large amount of urban-themed works. He appeared briefly in the film Roll Bounce. He lent his voice to the direct-to-video animated feature The Adventures Of Brer Rabbit, a feature that also included the voices of Danny Glover, Nick Cannon, D.L. Hughley, and Wanda Sykes. He had a recurring role on the UPN (and soon-to-be CW) comedy Girlfriends. He is also in the upcoming film Crossover, a film about streetball.

The change in Wayne Brady's persona could be considered a case of being “black when it's convenient.” However, I wonder if he had a falling out with Drew Carey. As far as I know, he never appeared on Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, even though most of the people who appeared on Whose Line Is It Anyway did. Well, whatever the case, I'm not mad at him. Truthfully, I never thought he was that bad. There was a point where I really enjoyed watching Whose Line Is It Anyway and I always felt that he was the best thing on the show. To see him doing more black stuff isn't a bad thing. As him and Dave Chappelle said on the episode he appeared on...Black Actors.