Wayne Brady, currently the host of CBS’ Let’s Make a Deal, is a true multitalented Hollywood entertainer. And he’s no less busy during a global pandemic, appearing everywhere from TV to TikTok and everything in between, including Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical. He joins us as part of our ongoing coverage of CES 2021 to talk tech, making content from home, and that TikTok musical.
“It’s absolutely crazy to see a crowdsourced, momentum-fueled musical actually come to life,” Brady says about Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical. “Because in the real world, musicals — just like movies or TV shows — just don’t come together like that.”
He’s referring to the fact that at one moment he’s flicking through TikTok with his daughter, and the next he’s getting a call from his agent telling him he’s wanted for Ratatouille.
“It was so cool!” he says. “It [gave] people the chance to use social media for what I think it should be used for,” mentioning that social media gives everyone an opportunity to be in front of the camera. People “can be in their homes and show you how talented they are,” he added.
What does is say about entertainment today that star-studded projects like these can be done entirely on social media? Brady has an answer. “I think it means we’re in for a paradigm shift,” he says. “You can’t be stuck in the old ways. You have to be ready to move,” and not wait around for all the stars (so to speak) to align and maybe come together at some point in the future. “You have to be ready to move on it, and that’s what social media is showing us — that there’s a faster, better way of doing [things].”
Turning to technology, Brady recognizes the power it has had in his own career. Because his schedule is so full, and because he’s involved with so many shows and projects at once, he is constantly using social media to not only to let his fans know when and where they can see him next, but to just entertain. “You have to keep a presence,” he says. “You have to keep working at it. You’re never too old, or inexperienced, or been around [too long] to not change with the times — and I’m trying to get in on it,” he says.
“I’m a techie,” Brady continues. “I’m always scouring the internet for whatever’s the newest gaming computer, what’s the newest back scratcher, the newest Bluetooth device. And because I travel a lot, I have my laptop, I have an assortment of USB mics, and monitors,” he says, describing his relationship to tech. But it’s his daughter that points him to the newest apps. “It’s the younger generation teaching the older generation,” he says.
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