Wisdom from Madea

Author of the week

Tyler Perry
Born 1969

Growing up in New Orleans, American playwright, actor, director and now author Tyler Perry started writing plays at 18. A decade later he created a successful touring theatre company selling DVDs of his performances and grossing over $75 million (Dh275 million) in ticket and DVD sales.

In 1992 Perry created and tried to stage the musical play I Know I've Been Changed. The play flopped for the next six years. Working odd jobs, Perry finally struck home when the play had its first successful run in 1998. His next play based on Bishop T.D. Jakes' book Woman Thou Art Loosed was an immediate hit.

Then Perry's alter ego Madea came into being, with Perry playing the old grandma himself. His first video movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman became 2002's unexpected hit. In the same year, the video version Madea's Family Reunion was released and was an instant success.

In 2005, Perry took Hollywood by storm, releasing the movie version of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, a film he wrote, produced and starred in. It opened at number one at the box office and earned more than $50 million (Dh183 million). Simultaneously, Perry was starring in his sold-out stage show Madea Goes to Jail, which he'd written, produced, scored.Another one of his productions Meet the Browns was also touring the country at this time, with 35,000 people seeing a Tyler Perry production every week in 2005.

Now this multi-talented man has decided to release his first book, Don't Make a Black Woman Take Her Earrings Off: Madea's Commentaries on Love and Life, featuring the lovable if irreverent Madea. The book hit stores this April and sold more than 25,000 copies in its first five days.

We Recommend: Non-Fiction

Don't Make A Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings
By Tyler Perry

In this book we meet 68-year-old Madea (Southern African American - speak for "mother dear"), who just happens to be the rough around the edges alter ego of author Tyler Perry.

This seemingly harmless old lady is a comic figure, with unbelievably crude behaviour and a pistol where her walking stick should be.

Perry's inner grandma provides a refreshingly new take on matriarchs who rule the community, and as such, compiles some good old' motherly advice (which you should take "at your own risk").

Madea's in-your-face words of wisdom and memories is currently on The New York Times best-seller list for non-fiction.

- The writer is an International Student Correspondent for NOTES, studying at the University of Sydney, Australia.