COMEDY : WAYANS AND MEANS : The Former Regular of ‘In Living Color’ Has Methods and Resources for a Return to Stand-Up

Damon Wayans hasn’t done stand-up comedy in nearly four years--not since he was a regular on “In Living Color,” the Fox network’s hip, half-hour comedy revue that featured an ensemble of mostly black actors.

Wayans, creator of such “In Living Color” staples as the surly Homey the Clown, Anton (the hopelessly disheveled street person) and Blaine Edwards (an outrageously flamboyant gay arts critic), has been too busy making movies since his departure from the show in 1992, though most of his films--”The Last Boy Scout,” “Mo’ Money” and “Blankman”--have fared poorly at the box office. His latest, “Major Payne,” opens March 24.

But for the past two months, Wayans has been playing comedy clubs throughout the L.A. area, and on Friday he’ll check into the Brea Improv for a three-night run. So why the return to stand-up?

“I’m about to host ‘Saturday Night Live’; I’m getting my chops together,” the Harlem-born Wayans explained last week, speaking by car phone on his way from the gym to his home in Beverly Hills.

Wayans’ first time as host of “SNL,” scheduled to air April 8, has special significance: He spent a year as a regular on the show before being fired in 1986. His offense?

“I switched characters during a live show, from a cop to a gay cop,” he said. It sounds like it might have been funny.

“Unfortunately, it was inappropriate for the sketch,” he said, adding that his tenure on the show was a frustrating experience: “Eddie Murphy had just left, so his smell was still in the air. A lot of stuff I did on ‘In Living Color’ I wanted do on ‘Saturday Night Live’ ” but wasn’t given the opportunity.

Wayans said he and “SNL” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels “made up long ago, even before I left the show. So there is no animosity. He’s been very supportive of me from afar. But I think I proved on ‘In Living Color’ that, hey, I knew what I was talking about in terms of being funny with my characters and things I wanted to do.”

Wayans views his two years on “In Living Color,” which was created by his older brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, as “the greatest thing I’ve done so far.”

But while it was a show he had “the most fun” doing, he said, “it was a challenge and very frustrating creatively. At times (it was) oppressing. At one point, Fox was like our cheerleaders and (said) ‘go break the rules and have fun and be irreverent,’ and then they became a (more established) network and their posture changed. They became corporate and started worrying about sponsors.”

Some of his old “In Living Color” characters, including Anton and Handi-Man (his physically challenged super-hero parody) will be part of his Brea Improv routine. But Wayans describes his stand-up act as “all new--new and improved.”

“For the most part I’m really just trying to find where I’m at in life--my point of view after four years of silence.”

And where does he think that is?

“I think I’m just being honest,” he said. “It’s definitely not politically correct.” Of course, he never was. “No, and it’s refreshing to know I’m still not,” joked Wayans, who is 34 but says, “I have four kids, so you can double that.”

Wayans, who says he prefers doing stand-up comedy to acting, said that he has matured since becoming a husband and father, but “I’m still passionate, and I guess you can interpret it as rage. It’s really passion about where we are as people, also where we are as black people, where I am as a black man in society. I’m dealing with O.J., the knee theory: Him showing his crusty knee to the court room. I didn’t get that.”

Wayans says he won’t be discussing the O.J. Simpson trial in his act. He said he avoids topical and political material, but he does zero in on social aspects of contemporary life. Such as the homeless situation:

“I gave this lady $500 because she was outside with some kids and it was raining,” he said. “I drove around the block and she was still there. I guess she didn’t look at it as a gift; she saw it as a raise.”

Wayans co-wrote “Major Payne,” which finds him playing a gung-ho and emotionally dysfunctional Marine unexpectedly assigned to a junior ROTC unit at a military academy.

“I’d say he’s Homey the Clown with a G.I. Bill,” joked Wayans, adding that Payne is actually “a totally different character, but he’s got that stubborn way, like Homey. He doesn’t bend.”

If the movie is a hit, he said, he’ll probably add the Major Payne character to his stand-up act.

“He’s very infectious,” he said. “He calls everybody ‘Turd.’ ”

* Who: Damon Wayans.

* When: Friday, March 10, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 11, at 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, March 12, at 8:30 p.m.

* Where: The Brea Improv, 945 E. Birch St., Brea.

* Whereabouts: Take the Lambert Road exit off the Orange (57) Freeway and go west. Turn left on State College Boulevard and right on Birch Street. The Improv is in the Brea Marketplace, across from the Brea Mall.

* Wherewithal: $25.

* Where to call: (714) 529-7878.