Mike Tyson’s Undisputed Truth

Wow.
I’ve always been fascinated with the wild antics of Mike Tyson. From the oddest of odd press conferences to his hobby of farming pigeons, the man is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in a puzzle (or however that saying goes). Of course he’s a gifted athlete and household name because of his accomplishments in the boxing ring, but really, the reason he continues to make headlines is because he’s insane. But you would be too if you made ½ billion dollars geting hit in the head repeatedly by the biggest meatheads orbiting the sun.
When I heard that Spike Lee was directing a one-​man show featuring Mike Tyson on the Today Show recently, my wallet was out before the segment even ended, and I was sitting pretty with a mezzanine ticket to his kick-​off performance on July 31^st (only runs through August 12^th… get on it!) by the time Hoda Kotb was throwing the segment to commercial break. Knowing only that he would be on stage revealing his life in theater form, I had no idea what to expect… but I walked away a fan of Mike Tyson the boxer, Mike Tyson the crazy drug addict, and Mike Tyson the gentle, tortured soul.
I sound like one of those infomercials you hear in the back of any Yellow Cab when I say that I laughed, I cried, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. He basically tells his life story beginning as a young man growing up in BedStuy, then covers everything from the death of his mother (whom they never had the chance to tell each other «I love you»), to being the youngest male to ever be heavyweight champion, to being locked up for rape… to the most personal of family matters, the untimely death of his 4 year old daughter, Exodus. There were as many funny, zany moments you’d expect from seeing Mike Tyson anywhere in the public eye as there were heart wrenching tales of trouble and strife that’d yank the tears out of the stoniest of emotional beings. I feel such a deep, personal connection to this man whom I’ve only known through the eyes of media professionals and naysayers… and his bizarre, sordid past left quite the impact on one Ruggeford H. Joesten III.
If you have a chance to catch this before it leaves Broadway, please do. Even if you swoop a single seat in the top row of the balcony, it’s worth every penny.