Marlon Wayans Nearly Cut Out Heartbreaking Moment of Him Crying Over Late Parents in His Comedy Special “Good Grief”

The comedian previously told PEOPLE the deaths of his mother in 2020 and father in 2023 "broke" him

Marlon Wayans' most recent standup special, Good Grief, saw him get surprisingly raw with the audience about his parents' death — but the vulnerable moment nearly didn't make the final cut.

On Lewis Howes' School of Greatness podcast on Sept. 3, Wayans, 52, recalled being overcome with grief in the middle of his performance after he'd made a series of jokes about changing his elderly parents' diapers.

"I was running from my own pain. And I was talking about my mother and I just started [crying]. I broke down. On stage," he recalled. "Cause the reality of my parents being gone hit me."

Wayans' mother Elvira Alethia died at 81 in July 2020, while his father Howell Stouten died at 86 in April 2023.

Related: Marlon Wayans Opens Up About Losing Nearly 60 Loved Ones and His ‘Real-Life Pain’: ‘I Live Differently’

He clarified that his parents' deaths had hit him previously, but their loss "wasn't supposed to hit me in a show when I'm filming a special."

"And it did. And I was like, alright cool. And I was gonna cut that out, but I was like, 'No. Keep it in. Because I need people to understand that I — like you — I'm hurting.' But life goes on," he added.

Wayans said he gets "so many messages" about Good Grief and how it "helped" people grieve and they "cried with" him as they watched.

"They thanked me because they were in a place of depression and I helped them see their way out. Because I showed myself my way out."

Related: Marlon Wayans Shares His Reaction to Learning His Child Was Trans: 'I Grew the Most That I Ever Did' (Exclusive)

In May, Wayans told PEOPLE that his parents' deaths "broke" him, and he fell into a "deep pain and depression," and the experience ultimately inspired Good Grief, as he said his mother "taught me to take my broken heart and turn it into art and so that's what I did."

"After my mom's death I gained 25 lbs. I was shrinking, I was heavy, and I wasn't myself. And then I was just hurt. So when my dad passed, I was like, 'All right, let me put these pieces of my broken self back together," he said.

Now, Wayans said, "I'm not carrying it anymore."

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Good Grief is now streaming on Prime Video.

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