In Ghetto Klown, John Leguizamo lays bare his early years, discovering acting and his career trajectory. He shares his childhood memories and the tribulations of balancing life with old friends from his lower-income neighborhood in Queens while trying to maintain a professional persona. He brings us onto the sets of TV series and major motion pictures opposite some of Hollywood's biggest stars, such as Al Pacino, Patrick Swayze and Steven Seagal and with directors like Baz Lurhrman and Brian DePalma. And Leguizamo opens up about his loves and marriages, while addressing his recurring feelings of self-doubt and melancholy in a way that enlightens and still entertains. Originally staged on Broadway in 2011, Ghetto Klown won Leguizamo the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Outstanding Solo Performance. The show was later adapted into a highly rated HBO special in March 2014.
Now, teaming up with Brooklyn-based artist and illustrator Christa Cassano, Leguizamo is sharing his life story as a vibrant, funny graphic novel memoir that is sure to reach a whole new audience.
Ghetto Klown
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Author Description
John Leguizamo was most recently seen in John Favreau's acclaimed motion picture Chef (May 2014) with Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr., and he recently appeared in the #1 feature film Ride Along, starring alongside Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. He also recently completed production on Cymbeline, a modern-day take on Shakespeare's play and Stealing Cars, starring with William H. Macy. Leguizamo's other film credits include Walking with Dinosaurs, The Counselor, Kick-Ass 2, Love in the Vanishing on 7th Street, The Lincoln Lawyer, the Ice Age franchise, The Happening, Summer of Sam, King of the Jungle, Spawn, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Dr. Dolittle, Carlito's Way and Casualties of War. As writer and performer, Leguizamo created the Off-Broadway sensation Mambo Mouth, (Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Vanguardia Awards), Spic-O-Rama (Dramatists' Guild Hull-Warriner Award for Best American Play, Lucille Lortel Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Broadway Performance, Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance), and a third solo show, Freak, which completed a successful run on Broadway in 1998. A special presentation of Freak, directed by Spike Lee, aired on HBO, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Music Program. In Autumn 2001 Leguizamo returned to Broadway with Sexaholix...a Love Story (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for "Outstanding Solo Performance" and Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Performance). Sexaholix also aired as an HBO Special in Spring 2002 and toured widely.Christa Cassano is a Brooklyn-based artist and member of Hang Dai Studios in Gowanus. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country and in Italy. Since attending the 2012 Graphic Novel residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Cassano has been self-publishing her own stories, as well as collaborations with Dean Haspiel, and Seth Kushner's comix neurotica Schmuck.