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John Leguizamo: Mambo Mouth
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From All Movie Guide: Colombian-born actor and comedian John Leguizamo has made a career proving that it is possible to be taken seriously both as a raunchy comic performer and a serious dramatic actor. Since 1991, when he won over audiences and critics with his one-man show, the off-Broadway Mambo Mouth, Leguizamo has been working steadily in film, television, and theater. Whether playing lowlife criminals, conflicted womanizers, or flamboyant drag queens, he has impressed viewers with his often sharply satirical characterizations of Latinos, making fun of stereotypes even as he blows them to smithereens.
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The first role Leguizamo landed was on Miami Vice. Then he played a soldier in the movie Casualties of War. After he met comedian Carolyn McDermott in 1986, he began touring the clubs with her until he tried his own, solo show Mambo Mouth. It started off-Broadway and eventually aired on HBO in 1991. Mambo Mouth won an Obie Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award that same year. Leguizamo was inspired to write such a show because of the lack of roles for Hispanic actors, but many in the Hispanic community found his characters Latino stereotypes.
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A talented actor and monologist, John Leguizamo has won critical acclaim for his one-man shows and diverse body of film work. A student at The Actors Studio, Leguizamo first received widespread attention for his one-man show Mambo Mouth, later filmed for television as Spic-O-Rama. He's since taken on a slew of prominent roles in films, including 1993's Carlito's Way, 1997's The Pest, 1999's Summer Of Sam, and this summer's Moulin Rouge, all of which showcase his manic energy and flair for improvisation. Leguizamo ... created and starred in the short-lived Fox sketch-comedy series House Of Buggin', and wrote and starred in Freak, the Spike Lee-directed, Emmy-winning television adaptation of his 1998 one-man show. He's currently touring the country with his show Live. The Onion A.V.
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Leguizamo started out as a stand-up comic doing the New York nightclub circuit. In 1984, he made his T.V. debut with a small part in Miami Vice. His other early roles include: an extra in Madonna's Borderline video (1984), as a friend of Madonna's boyfriend; Mixed Blood (1985); Casualties of War (1989); Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991); the robber in Regarding Henry (1991) and Night Owl (a.k.a. Nite Owl) (1993), which was filmed from 1991-1992. In 1991, he ... wrote and took part in the Off-Broadway production Mambo Mouth, where he played seven different characters.
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Leguizamo returned to NYC's P.S. 122, where both his previous one-man productions had their genesis, for "Freak: A Semi-Demi-Quasi-Autobiographical Comedy" (1997). Featuring 39 separate characters, "Freak" opened on Broadway in February of 1998 to much critical praise and earned him two Tony nominations. Claiming to have hidden behind his costumes in "Mambo Mouth" and "Spic-o-Rama,†Leguizamo presented his most personal portrait to date, what he called his "emancipation proclamation." At its center, the violent, frustrating and real relationship with his father gave "Freak" a depth the downtown shows had lacked, but in the end, it was the warm portrait of his mother as a woman who finds her inner strength without a man that gave the material its heart. "Freak" followed the path blazed by his previous one-man shows, becoming a 1998 HBO comedy special, this time with Spike Lee at the helm, weaving the finished product together from tapes of two live performances.
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