Boxing Champion Mike Tyson is just over one month away from starring in a one-man show about himself set to premiere with a six-night run next at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth – Live on Stage” will run April 13-18, with Tyson sharing what it’s like to have been feared, celebrated and pitied during his career.
The director and co-writer (with Tyson’s wife, Kiki), is L.A. playwright Randy Johnson.
Tyson has already won acclaim for telling his own story on screen in “Tyson,” the 2009 documentary by James Toback.
Johnson said Friday that he avoided seeing “Tyson,” choosing instead to spend countless hours talking with his subject, then created a script that he said will allow for “a written question or two from the audience,” according to Culture Monster.
Video and live music will be added to complete the evening. “It’s a theater piece, not a lecture, but a real one-man show,” Johnson explained.
Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion at age 20 in 1986 and spent the next three years as one of the most feared and insurmountable forces ever to step in the ring. Tyson was knocked out in early 1990 by Buster Douglas, a 40-1 underdog. Next came a 1991-92 arrest and conviction for rape, followed by three years in prison.
Tyson’s post-release comeback attempt turned into a joke of sorts in 1997. While losing a match to Evander Holyfield, he bit off a sizeable chunk of his opponent’s ear.
Lately he’s been making celebrity rounds in a Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen and an Animal Planet show based on one of his childhood passions, raising pigeons.
