Diary of a Successful Black Playwright

June 17, 2005 — -- Madea Simmons, a pistol-packing, in-your-face grandmother, is entertaining audiences across the country -- and has made actor, playwright and producer Tyler Perry a very rich man.

"I disappear. The man you see in front of you -- I disappear and she takes over," Perry, who portrays Simmons onstage, told "20/20's" Deborah Roberts.

The handsome, 6-foot-5 body that the feisty Madea inhabits belongs to the 35-year-old Perry, whose stage show "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" has hit a nerve with black audiences everywhere.

Perry says Madea's appeal is her no-holds-barred attitude. "Madea can talk about anything -- from abstaining from sex to what to do when your kids are working on your nerves," he said.

Perry describes the show as a blend of theater, stand-up comedy, a gospel concert and a church service.

For the past seven years, Perry's plays have been packing them in, especially the black, churchgoing community, an audience that Hollywood has largely ignored.

Perry said his Hollywood executives balked at his idea. "I went to a big studio, and the guy tells me black people who go to church don't go to movies. That's what the guy said to me," he recalled.

That executive would soon learn he was dead wrong. Perry's film, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," shot to No. 1 on its opening weekend in February. Perry shot the film for $5 million dollars, part of it with his own money, and it's already earned 10 times that and will reel in even more when the DVD comes out later this month.

The film features the beloved Madea, in her usual role as the matriarch of a dysfunctional family. But the real surprise is that the talented Perry also shows up in two other roles. Loyal fans loved it, but movie reviewers did not -- calling it a "remarkable mess" or describing Madea as cartoonish.

Perry takes the criticism in stride, and says his work depicts a life he knows. "That's how life is. That's how life is for, for me and for a lot of people. It's one minute you're in a very serious, dramatic situation, the next minute you're laughin' your head off," he said.