DIARY OF A 'MADEA' MAN TYLER PERRY STRAPS ON FAT SUIT AGAIN TO PLAY THE TAKE-NO-PRISONERS GRANNY.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer Outside of the half million fans who subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; his e-mail newsletter, few people knew the identity of Tyler Perry when his first movie, ``Diary of a Mad Black Woman,'' opened this time last year. That changed after ``Diary'' took in $21.9 million on its first weekend. Perry's name recognition in Hollywood skyrocketed, particularly at the studios that passed on Perry's project (Paramount and Fox Searchlight searchlight, device, usually swiveled, using a lens and reflecting surface to direct a powerful beam of light of nearly parallel rays. In 1892 such apparatus was used along the English Channel in coastal defense and later, in the South African War, as an aid to ) without ever having seen one of his plays in person or on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. . ``They were telling me, 'Change this, change that,' '' Perry remembers. ``Those things are really difficult for me because here I am in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people a week, performing my work, and I feel like I have a sense of what works and what doesn't.'' No kidding. Perry estimates that his nine self-financed plays have made between $80 million and $100 million over the past eight years. The man has broadened what he calls his ``brand'' to DVDs, a Christmas special on TBN TBN Trinity Broadcasting Network TBN Trombone TBN Total Base Number (oil sampling) TBN To Be Named TBN To Be Nominated TBN Taekwondo Bond Nederland (Netherlands Taekwondo Association) TBN To Be Negotiated and an upcoming humorous advice book. Most everything features Madea, the gun-toting grandmother who tells it like it is whether you want to hear it or not. When Perry's latest show, ``Madea Goes to Jail Madea Goes To Jail is a play written and directed by Tyler Perry. The story is about an African-American grandmother named Mabel Simmons (Madea) who must deal with a succession of trying events after she ends up in jail for the night. ,'' played at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre The Kodak Theatre is a live theatre in the Hollywood and Highland retail, dining, and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard and North Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. last month, the sold-out house didn't act like your typical theater crowd. Perry, donning an old-lady wig, glasses and a fat suit, played Madea with manic glee, admonishing ad·mon·ish tr.v. ad·mon·ished, ad·mon·ish·ing, ad·mon·ish·es 1. To reprove gently but earnestly. 2. To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution. 3. the audience, kicking down the fourth wall and spinning in a lesson or two amid the insanity insanity, mental disorder of such severity as to render its victim incapable of managing his affairs or of conforming to social standards. Today, the term insanity is used chiefly in criminal law, to denote mental aberrations or defects that may relieve a person from . ``It's a revival show that has the Bible, gunplay, sins of the past and redemption to move ahead to the future,'' says actor Blair Underwood. Or as poet Maya Angelou  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until (UTC) due to vandalism. puts it: ``He knows something I don't think anyone told him, which is how to help black people laugh at ourselves without ridiculing ourselves.'' Perry's new movie, ``Madea's Family Reunion'' (opening today), attempts to broaden his audience beyond the 500,000 e-mail subscribers. (Churchgoing church·go·er n. One who attends church. church  go ing adj. black women are his core supporters.) Perry again plays the straight-shooting Madea and the film, like ``Diary,'' hits on issues of abuse, forgiveness and faith. Conventional wisdom would say its appeal might be limited. ``But Tyler Perry has built an empire going against conventional wisdom,'' says Reuben Cannon, producer of both ``Diary'' and ``Family Reunion Often an annual event, a family reunion takes place on a specified day each year for the purpose of keeping an extended family closer together. Some reunions may be held less often. .'' We caught up with Perry, 36, a self-confident, soft-spoken man, to ask him about that ever-expanding empire, faith and forgiveness and whether he might be holding a funeral for Madea in the near future. Q: Everyone was surprised when ``Diary'' opened big and went on to gross more than $50 million. Were you? A: It didn't surprise me. It made me grateful. I showed the trailer for a year while I was on tour and people told me, ``I'm going to support this movie.'' Q: It seems like you're on a never-ending tour. A: Since 1998, I've done 150 to 300 shows a year. It's pretty difficult. It has put my entire life on hold. I have no life outside work. But it's OK because once I slow down, I feel like I'll be able to have a great life. Q: You've been quoted as saying you'd like four or five kids. You'd better get busy. A: (Laughs) Not at this point. One day I would like to get to the point where I have a family, but things have to be in order for me, and they're not. Q: I read you even had a room in your Atlanta home turned into a nursery. A: What happened was that I had a girlfriend who had a daughter, and we had that for her daughter. But, of course, work interfered with that relationship. Like I said, it's difficult. This is the last tour I'm doing. I'm going to stop on Mother's Day. Q: Appropriate. You staged your first play, ``I Know I've Been Changed I Know I've Been Changed was the first major successful play from famed playwright Tyler Perry. Tyler was homeless and decided to give the theater scene one more chance. The play focuses on critical issues including child abuse and rape. ,'' in 1992. Like everything you write, it's about forgiveness. The play failed in 1992 but succeeded in 1998, and I get the impression you credit its success with your own ability to forgive your father. A: You never master forgiveness. It's a process. But in 1998, I had this catharsis catharsis Purging or purification of emotions through art. The term is derived from the Greek katharsis (“purgation,” “cleansing”), a medical term used by Aristotle as a metaphor to describe the effects of dramatic tragedy on the spectator: by . I hadn't forgiven my father for abuse from my childhood. My own words came back to haunt me because these characters in this play hadn't forgiven the parent that abused them, and I thought, ``Man, this is so amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. that I had written this years before and I was doing the exact same thing the characters were doing.'' I thank God for the lesson and the understanding of finally getting it. Q: You keep coming back to that lesson. It's central again to several characters in ``Family Reunion.'' A: I write about what I know. Forgiveness liberated me. It was my biggest obstacle. One day, I'll write about it, the experience of it, what it does when you finally let go of something and how you're used to this negativity driving you and all of a sudden it's gone and you have to find a new source for fuel. Q: When you say your father abused you, was it physical or mental or both? A: Both. Part of it was watching my mother go through it as well. I had two older sisters who didn't suffer any of this. I was a child he wasn't sure was his son. That's where the issues came from between us. I found out about that four or five years ago. Q: That reminds me That Reminds Me is a series of programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 where someone (usually) connected with comedy talks about their life for thirty minutes in front of a live audience. of a similar discovery in ``Family Reunion.'' It seems a bit dramatic in the movie, but I guess a lot of families harbor those kinds of secrets. A: There are those kinds of secrets, and I know a lot of those people. Victoria, the mother ... I know her. I know her relentless pursuit of all things Victoria at the expense of her children and everything else, just to hold on to her lifestyle. Q: Did you grow up going to church? A: Church was another way for me to release whatever happened. My father was a functioning alcoholic, so on Fridays he would drink until he passed out. Saturday was complete hell and then Sunday was the day of the lord, the redemption day when my mother and I would go to church. Q: I ask because Christianity is central to your movies. There's a scene of a woman reading a Bible for solace. You have another character saying, ``I'm a Christian. I try to do the right thing.'' A: Those kinds of things aren't said in film - ever. But why? There are people who live that way. When Frankie says, ``I'm a Christian. I try to do the right thing,'' it doesn't mean he always makes it. He does all kinds of things that he may not be pleased with, but his greater goal is to try to do the right thing, which is what Christianity is - a part of it, anyway. And it should be said, and I'm not afraid of saying it. Q: And yet, both your movies feature horrific acts of vengeance Acts of Vengeance is a Marvel Comics 1989-1990 crossover event. Although almost every Marvel Universe series published during that time was involved, the main plot ran through the Avengers comics and was only occasionally referenced elsewhere. . A: Every character has his own journey. For some, it's ``vengeance is MINE.'' Q: I was a little surprised to learn Madea had a pot-smoking past. A: That was early on when I was finding her voice. She calls it ``glaucoma glaucoma (glôkō`mə), ocular disorder characterized by pressure within the eyeball caused by an excessive amount of aqueous humor (the fluid substance filling the eyeball). medicine.'' She has a prescription for it. Of course, she didn't get her prescription from a doctor. She got it from a man on the corner. Q: Well, health care being what it is ... A: (Laughs) Hey, you Hey, You is the debut EP of Japanese band Mono. Track listing
get it where you can. Q: Not long ago, you said that Madea is ``close to her funeral.'' C'mon. You can't kill her, can you? A: No. People would kill me. But I'm tired of the makeup and the fat suit and the sweating and the wig and the shoes and all that stuff. Q: So Madea might retire - temporarily. A: The more I look out at the faces in the audience, the more I know I can't abandon the character. I'll take a break. But she'll probably be with me when my own hair turns gray. Who knows? Maybe by then I won't need the fat suit. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 4 photos Photo: (1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) THE WORLD ACCORDING World Accord is an international charity based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 1980 as the Canadian arm of Outreach International, a charity loosely affiliated with Community of Christ. TO MADEA Tyler Perry tells it like it is in new `Family Reunion' (3) no caption (Tyler Perry) Getty Images (4) no caption (Madea) |
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