John Leguizamo Shows His Under Rated Brilliance In Ghetto Klown

If there’s two things that I am pretty keen on when it comes to entertainment factors, it has to be movies, and hockey….or hockey, and movies…either way those two things are awesome, though I gotta say aspects of both of those things are faltering nowadays, but that’s for another blog post. If I could analogize hockey and movies, it could be that I could compare an actor to a hockey player. John Leguizamo to me, is the Steve Yzerman of actors. You know he’s damn good, but the cache is always given to Gretzky and Lemieux, and in Leguizamo’s case, cache is given to Pacino and DeNiro.

I first came across John Leguizamo in the movie Carlito’s Way, being the Pacino fan that I am it was a must for me to see, especially since he was just coming off an Oscar win for Scent Of A Woman. Leguizamo played the brash antagonist character of Benny Blanco from the Bronx. He was supposed to be a younger version of the Pacino character Carlito Brigante who was infamously known for being a heroine dealer, and was trying to go straight, Leguizamo’s character however, was the up and comer. I probably saw Leguizamo before, as he was embedded in bit parts like Die Hard 2, Executive Decision, and Regarding Henry. However I have to say after Carlito’s Way Leguizamo was more than identifiable to me. I very much enjoyed his performances in movies such as Romeo & Juliet. Summer Of Sam, and Moulin Rouge. It wasn’t until I was up late one night and on the tv guide channel saw a listing that read “John Leguizamo’s: Freak,” and it had me curious enough to check it out. There was Leguizamo in some New York theater doing a one man show, being as funny and energetic as I am used to seeing him, but also being very honest. He was talking about his parents growing up in New York, and how he became estranged from his Dad when he had it in his mind that he was going to become an actor, and the conflict it created between wanting a relationship with his father and wanting a career in acting. I saw this and thought to myself, that as far as I was concerned, I was sold on Leguizamo’s talent….on a side note, if you have the means to watch Freak, please do check it out…also I learned that Freak was his third one man show, he wrote two more before hand.

So when I was brainstorming ideas as to what to do for me and my girlfriend’s two year anniversary, I came across an ad for another one man show by John Leguizamo running for ten nights right here in Toronto at the Canadian Stage company entitled “Ghetto Klown.” I obviously was a fan, and Angela loved his performance as Toulousse Latrec in Moulin Rouge, we’d never been to a play before as a couple, so I thought a nice dinner before hand and this show would hit the spot. I can’t say I was that far off.

The show was in the downstairs theater of the Canadian Stage company. It was a very intimate theater, that much more intimate for Angela and I as were were only three rows away from the stage which was on the same level we were as it was a studio theater, and the set was simplistic, stage left was a lamp post with a table and chairs, centre stage was a stool, and stage right was a little movie screen with a projector in front of it. I didn’t know how much I was going to enjoy it because I had some asshole sitting next to me, that was going to town smacking his Big League Chew like a cow.

I was in the end able to tune that out, Leguizamo’s show opened with energy and intensity, and pretty much set the tone for the show’s entirety. He came out in comfortable clothes, addidas track pants, a loose shirt, and running shows. Before he appeared on stage his silhouette was masked behind the projection screen, he was doing some pretty funky dancing to James Brown’s Sex Machine, when he came out from behind the screen he was met with enthusiastic audience applause, and continued dancing, and saying hello to the crowd. His one man show format is an unconventional one, where he often times breaks character to in this case give us an intro as to where this is going, other times, responding to a heckler, and a guy that was coming back from a bathroom break. Leguizamo was pretty casual about how he delivered his piece, when he got tired he would sit himself on the stool, and sip on a bottle of Steamwhistle that was there on the floor for him for when he got thirsty. I do prefer the one man shows where someone is completely in character throughout it’s entirety, but at the same time, the show was based on him giving us a personal piece of himself, and him breaking character could have been in conjunction with that

Ghetto Klown pretty much picks up where Freak left off. John has accepted that his parents are not accepting his decision to become an actor, and instead the show focuses on how hard it was to become an actor, and his journey into love, relationships and marriage while becoming even more estranged from his parents. He accentuates how hard it was for his famous Latino peers such as Esai Morales and Benicio Del Toro, and knew how hard a road he had ahead of him. He goes through a list of friends and mentors that got him to where he was. I have to say Leguizamo has a quick witty humour, and got the room adrenaline going with some serious laughs. He would use the projection screen to show pictures of people and places from his past as he was describing them, there was always some snide comment inserted as to a place of birth, or a script that was given to him. He made fantastic use of the stage as he was all over it, and was using different levels at all times. He has some really hilarious lines like “We definitely lived in a ghetto, we were so poor that when thieves broke into our house, they would leave us things.”

I felt that much more of a kinship with Leguizamo as he was describing the schools that he went to, and the people that he was inspired by, namely, Eric Bogosian, who wrote a one man show called Drinking In America, that as a theater student I had the courage to undertake, and the pleasure of performing. He also talked about how he met his first wife at the NuYorican Poet Cafe. I don’t know if his disdain was with regards to slam poets, or to his ex wife but his depiction of his ex-wife doing a poem, was one that was beyond satirical, but I have to say I laughed pretty hard considering I see that depiction at times on the stage at the Drake Hotel underground during the Toronto Poetry Slam.

I have to say though my favourite part of his show as a film buff was going through his cinematic career and hearing him share stories that happened to him while filming certain movies like Casualties Of War, Regarding Henry, Executive Decision, Carlito’s Way, and Romeo & Juliet. Now, I am pretty sure that Leguizamo laid on the artistic license pretty thick during this, but there was some factual information as a film buff that never occurred to me which he was more than happy to bring up. He told us how he was the only actor in America to have successfully shot Harrison Ford, and how he was the only actor in America to have shot Al Pacino dead. He had some extremely funny anecdotes about his working relationship with A-List actors on set, but I have to say, and this is where the artistic license may have come in, with the exception of Harrison Ford, I wasn’t sure if John Leguizamo was difficult to work with, or if every actor he came across was a genuine asshole. He shared a hilarious story about sharing a joint with Harrison Ford while on the set of Regarding Henry, and I didn’t think Ford could get any cooler but that story certainly put him up a couple of notches for sure. However, outside of that it was nothing but altercations and embarrassing moments from getting into a shoving match with Kurt Russell for ad-libing a scene from Executive Decision, to throwing up on Bob Hoskins while filming a driving scene in Super Mario Bros. , to pissing off Al Pacino during a scene in Carlito’s Way , you were truly amused to hear these stories and see them depicted that much more by Leguizamo’s stage antics.

So things in his career progressed, but anything good always ends, and of course he goes through the telling of the divorce from his first wife, his long time friendship with his manager falling apart, his parents being that much more estranged from him to the point where his Dad would sue him for material in one of his one man shows, and ultimately his eventual breaking ties with his agent, and explaining why he has been out of film loop for awhile.

But the nice thing about this is that it was headed in the direction of a happy ending. Leguizamo reflected on marrying the right woman, having two kids, falling back in love with theater again, and being his own boss when it comes to projects. At the end of the show, as unconventionally as it was delivered you were grateful for him being so honest, and for having this gracious birds eye view into his life and him sharing it with you. I felt inspired for watching it as I am writing personal spoken word material when it comes to my family and culture, and seeing him do it with such energy, honesty, and intensity just motivated me that much more.

As it was the last night of the show, Leguizamo was signing books in the lobby after the show. I picked up one of his books containing all of his one man shows, and lined up to meet him with Angela. The line moved at a bit of a snail’s pace as everyone in front of us brought a camera, a guy in front of us had Angela take his picture with him, and he actually went one further having the audacity to pitch a documentary to Leguizamo. When I finally got to him, I did not have my picture taken with him, I simply shook his hand, and told him how much I appreciated his work and how inspired by him I was. I told him I was a Theater Grad turned Spoken Word Artist, told him how much I related with Eric Bogosian and the mention of the NuYorican and how much of a pleasure it was to attend the National Poetry Slam and see their slam team do their thing. Leguizamo said “You got a poets name man, Valentino, you must be good if you went there.” I said I was okay, and he said “Good to be humble man but not too humble.” I told him thanks shook his hand again and walked away.

I have to say the show still does resonate with me, I went back and looked at some old clips of him in movies, a lot of which I own, and looked up his page on imdb seeing that he is nowhere near out of work when it comes to film, as there are a number of projects lined up for him. Angela and I felt privileged that we got to see such an honest piece of material, and really it could have made one form an opinion of Leguizamo, to say that he might not have went about things like you or I, but he was inspired enough to share his interpretation with us, and pass on that inspiration to us….and for that I am grateful.