There’s no containing him. From the minute he stepped on stage at the Gesu last night, John Leguizamo was dancing, pacing, singing, reminiscing, doing non-stop spot-on imitations (many of them in Spanish) and taking us all to a bad place. We willingly let him take us there.
Leguizamo has long been a familiar face to millions of movie lovers, thanks to his portrayals of some truly memorable characters on, among many other films, Carlito’s Way, Romeo and Juliet, To Wong Foo with Love, and Moulin Rouge, but after catching his almost 2.5-hour one-man show, I suspect the big screen hasn’t been treated to even a smidgeon of what the man can do.
Sure he’s at a Comedy Festival and he’s there to make us laugh, but this little Latin ball of energy does more than that. Self-depracating and possessing the kind of humour that hurts, he delves into his past, his issues, his mishaps, his triumphs, his emotional baggage and everything that makes a one-man show compelling and riveting to watch. After all, his numerous award-winning Broadway and off Broadway shows (Mambo Man, Spic-O-Rama, Freak) provide ample proof of his superb writing abilities and talent for wicked one-liners like “Marijuana and coke are gateway drugs to Christianity."
Self-depracating and possessing the kind of humour that hurts, he delves into his past, his issues, his mishaps, his triumphs, his emotional baggage and everything that makes a one-man show compelling and riveting to watch -
There’s no denying the man is funny. But what had the audience on its feet by the end of the night is his willingness to bare all and to lay it there for us to recognize as something we know as all too familiar.
Klass Klown plays at the Gesu (1200 rue de Bleury) every night this week at 7 p.m. until Saturday, July 15. If you can get tickets to the show, by all means see him. This Klass Klown is definitely worth Katching.
For tickets and additional information, log on to www.hahaha.com
