Damon Wayans Reflects on Discovering Jim Carrey, Jokes ‘He’s Our Eminem’ to Their Dr. Dre | Video

Damon Wayans reflected on discovering Jim Carrey, sharing how he always knew the now-iconic comedian and actor, whose Hollywood career jumpstarted on the Wayans family’s sketch comedy series “In Living Color,” was always destined for fame.

“I truly knew he was special, special, and it didn’t take Keenen [Ivory Wayans] long to go, ‘He’s the guy’, ’cause they saw every white boy in Hollywood for that role,” Wayans told Shannon Sharpe on the former NFL star’s podcast series “Club Shay Shay” this week, mentioning he’s the one who introduced Carrey to his eldest brother and “In Living Color” creator Keenen Ivory Wayans. “He’s our Eminem.”

At the time, Sharpe named all of the Hollywood mega stars that got their big break on the ’90s Fox series, including David Alan Grier, Jamie Foxx, Marlon Wayans, Jennifer Lopez and more. When Sharpe asked Wayans if he knew Carrey would one day blow up in fame, Wayans said he spotted his talent during their early days as young comedians.

“Me and Jim used to be in the comedy clubs. Jim Carrey is a master impressionist. Like, he does like Sean Penn, like weird, like Michael Landon,” the “Poppa’s House” star explained. “He would get standing ovations in the comedy club, doing a 20-minute. Now, any comedian will tell you that’s damn near impossible. There’s few and far between that can do that; that’s how good he was. But he hated doing the impressions ’cause people thought that’s all he did.”

Wayans went on to explain that in an effort to expand their range as comedians they made an agreement to refrain from what they were most comfortable with in their stand-ups, encouraging each other by pitching ideas while the other was on stage.

“Me and [Carrey], after Sam Kinison made it, we made a pact that we were going to push each other,” Wayans said. “So [Carrey] would go on stage, he could not do his impressions and we’d just yell out stuff to him, and he would do the same thing for me. And we would just challenge each other on stage. We had nothing to lose.”

To this day, Wayans said he and Carrey are still just as close as they were years ago.

“When I see Jim, it’s all love. It’s like, that’s how you know you’re family,” Wayans said. “Like when you see your old teammates, you just pick up like it was yesterday … Instant connection, and we’re just talking about anything without resentment without— just love. David Alan Grier, Tommy [Davidson], it’s all love — Jamie. Because we fought a fine fight and we won.”

“In Living Color” premiered on Fox on April 15, 1990 and ran for five seasons, ending on May 19, 1994. Carrey was a regular cast member on the series for the entirety of its run.

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