IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR WAYANS BROTHERS BIG ON FUNNY STUFF IN `LITTLE MAN'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

With their new comedy, ``Little Man,'' the Wayans brothers have dispensed with their any-gross-out-gag for-a-laugh approach to filmmaking and come up with a tender, believable family tale that adults and children of all ages and intellectual sensibilities are sure to enjoy.

Don't kid yourself.

This is the brotherly trio (writer-stars Marlon and Shawn, with co-writer Keenen Ivory directing) responsible for ``White Chicks'' and the first two quite R-rated ``Scary Movies.'' The former ``In Living Color'' cast members -- whose acting family also include sister Kim and brother Damon -- haven't become the most commercially successful African-American filmmakers in cinema history by emulating Ingmar Bergman.

That said, Shawn and Marlon insist that the PG-13 rating for ``Little Man'' should be an enticement for audience members who couldn't legally score a ticket for the first two ``Scary Movie'' films.

``We wanted to make a family film,'' insists Shawn, who plays a man who desperately wants to be a father.

A family film? About a sex-starved, midget ex-convict who impersonates a baby in the house of a childless couple in order to pull off a diamond theft?

Affirmative, says Marlon, whose face was transposed onto 9-year-old actor Linden Porco's body to play ``Baby'' Calvin Sims.

``I took my 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, and they loved this movie,'' Marlon says. ``It's a new generation. It's no longer just TV. It's cable TV. These kids see anything. I know kids who have seen `Scary Movie.' ''

Comedy, as brothers Marlon and Shawn tell us, is indeed serious business.

The family that laughs together

Q: OK, so how exactly did you explain to your children how dad's face got on the body of a baby?

MARLON WAYANS: We just go, ``It's the make-believe of moviemaking.'' To them, it's like a cartoon.

SHAWN WAYANS: At this point if we explained it, they wouldn't understand it anyway.

MW: My kids came down to the set and saw me perform in the chair ...

SW: And it still don't make no sense.

MW: Then I showed them how it was done. I showed them the computer.

SW: And it still don't make no sense.

Q: At least you're training the next generation of Wayanses for a career in the business.

MW: You want a legacy. It's like the Disneys.

Q: Another year or so and they'll probably be able to explain green screens on the playground.

MW: My little daughter is creating shows. It's crazy for me to be sitting there and having her go, ``You know what, Dad? This would be a funny show.'' (Shawn's) daughter gave us a memo. We're working on this ``Thugaboo'' show (for Nickelodeon) and she typed up a memo. The girl's 7 years old.

SW: I was laughing.

MW: We both were, because it was good.

Q: Give us some of the finer points of body-less acting.

MW: You do a lot of face stretching. It's not so much the acting with the face part that's hard. The hard part is choreographing the moves in the chair. It wasn't like I could move like Linden (Porco, the 9-year-old who acts as Marlon's on-screen ``body'') moves. When he turned I'd have to swivel in the chair and swivel back around and when he got picked up, I had to slowly turn in the chair. It was like learning an instrument.

After you get that layer down, now you've got to match your face and match the dialogue. After you match the dialogue you go, ``OK, now I've got to be funny doing all this.''

Q: Can you use your arms at all?

MW: They get in the way. I can gesture as long as it's not in the green part. It was very weird, but it wound up coming out good. The audience will never know what you went through. Nor should they. It's the beauty of what we do.

Q: You two have been working together for how long now?

SW: 33 years. 34?

MW: Unless we was writing jokes as sperm. ``Hey man, what do you think of this?'' Ever since we was kids.

MW: It's funny. We've been writing since we were little boys. We used to write jokes and hide them from each other and accuse each other of stealing each other's jokes. We used to write funny stuff for Keenen and Damon. When they came home, we always had something funny to show them. It's cool that now we are still working together 30 years later.

Q: Do you two -- or three -- ever need a creative break from each other?

MW: Not a break, but you have to find your space. Over the years you learn that as you grow up, he has to have his space to create and make decisions, and you have to have your place to create and make decisions, but you still have to find the space in between to come together and have conversations and dialogue so you can make better decisions for each other.

Q: Since you're brothers and co-writers, can you also tell each other ``that sucks!''?

MW: Bone-crushingly so. Some of us are really sensitive, and some of us are not. What you have to learn is how to tell each individual. Shawn might be able to tell me something one way. He might just be able to go ``that sucks.'' ``Why?'' ``Because A, B, C and D.'' But if you say, ``Hey Damon, that sucks,'' Damon's going to go, ``I ain't telling you (expletive) no more.'' You have to find a way to say, Damon, this is good, but what you can do to fix this is A, B, C and D.''

SW: Constructive criticism.

MW: It's like with my kids. I can tell my son things I can't tell my daughter. If I told her the same thing, she'd start crying. To my son, I can say ...

SW: Don't pee on the toilet seat. If I tell my daughter that, she's going to start crying. Of course, she shouldn't be peeing on the toilet seat.

MW: I might be the one to start crying.

Q: OK, so what's the sensitive, constructive way to give that instruction?

SW: Hey baby, it would be nice if you was to maybe urinate inside of the bowl, not on the toilet seat because Mommy and Daddy got to clean all that up. OK? Thank you.

Q: ``The Wayans Brothers' Guide to Child Psychology,'' coming soon to a bookstore near you?

MW: We could do that. For real. The stories of how we grew up, it's our point of view, and everything is jokes to us. With my kids, it's all humor-based. If my kids make me laugh, I let them get away with a lot of things. They're little rascals, but I nurture that. They'll always be able to look at anything bad in their lives and find the funny.

SW: We never shut down their being funny.

Q: Do they know that everything they do could end up in a Wayans brothers movie?

MW: We signed them to a deal as soon as they got out of the womb.

SW: 3 million years. We've got them under contract.

MW: We pay them nothing but cereal and milk.

Q: Did you just say that some of the people in your family are sensitive?

MW: Yeah. We're people.

SW: Sensitive if (the criticism) is coming from us. Because we are the people who are like really in the comedic grind, we really respect one another. Certain people are a little bit more sensitive, so you have to find a different approach and then they'll listen to what you have to say.

Q: Do you read reviews?

MW: I actually like reading reviews, and I don't care when they're bad. I listen to the audience. I sit in back of the theater every opening night. I go watch them laugh and watch them rock back and forth like this. For me, those are the people that we make movies for.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) OH, BROTHER!

No joke is too small for Wayans clan in `Little Man'

(2) Shawn Wayans, left, and Marlon Wayans with ``Little Man'' ``body'' star Linden Porco.

Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images