Following from Wednesdays adventure of meeting Benny Blanco aka the Latin from Manhattan aka John Leguizamo, I was honoured to be invited to the press night for Johns show Ghetto Klown.
The show is in town for a limited number of nights at the Charing Cross Theatre.
What are the odds, you meet a guy in a lift and the next your invited to his show (someone up there must love me)
So myself and fellow writer Ethem gratefully accepted and off we went.
We had a couple of beers prior to loosen up after a hard day at work before taking our seats for the show.
I can only describe the show in 1 word…….AMAZING!
The only time I could recall laughing that much was the first time I saw The Hangover.
I’ve been trying to find a way to review the night without giving away any of the jokes. In fact when I got home I attempted to do my impression of John Leguizamo…doing an impression of Al Pacino. (needless to say my wife was not impressed).
The show is full of stories, sketches, impressions, and music from all the decades. At one point John even breaks out dancing to Reggaeton music.
Rarely you come across a show like this where someone can find a way to touch that emotional string buried deep inside that makes you feel like you can be anything you want to be. And tonight John Leguizamo hit that cord. It was like you saw his life evolving through his words and it made me feel like if you want something in life….just take it and go for it, so for that, thank you Jonh. I owe you a cigar.
He had me laughing so loud I needed multiple toilet breaks to make sure I didn’t piss myself.
What John had the ability to do was pick you up and have you laughing, and then within a second have you feeling the so sorry for him as he talks about his relationship with his dad, and then he’s back to making you laugh.
The absence of his fathers love growing up reminded me of mine (although mine wasn’t even there physically) but you felt as he felt through his stories.
This will be one of those shows that when I’m old sitting with my friends in an old folks home talking about the glory days I’m proud to say that I will be able to turn to the rest of the oldies and say (with no teeth) “you remember that John Leguizamo? I saw him live in London….Bitches!”
Post the show we were invited to the interval bar to meet John and he was such a gentlemen.
He remembered me from the lift and we chatted for a while. I told him about Cut The Cap and cigars. We shared our love of Reggaeton and discussed our favourite artists from Daddy Yankee to Tego Calderon to Don Omar.
I also told him about Reggaeton Artist Plan B (Not the British singer or Brad Pitt’s production company – a popular name)
John – if you are reading this – here’s Plan B (the Reggaeton variety)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adyZO3E63Gg]
If you do one thing in the next 2 weeks, get your tickets as I have a feeling it will be a long time before he brings his show back to London.
Ghetto Klown is at the Charing Cross Theatre for 18 performances only from Monday 24th October – Saturday 12th November.